Questions
What kind of problems do you work on?
I work on problems wherein a hardware product team is stuck on a mechanism that will not work the way it should. Months pass, and a date that money depends on keeps getting closer.
It can be in any industry or domain.
What can you not help with?
Battery, electronics, control-system and certification problems are outside what I do. If the real problem is organisational rather than technical, I cannot help.
Is Building before Learning really that common?
I have seen it first-hand in the companies I have worked with, as an employee as well as a consultant.
Why can hiring more engineers not fix it?
More engineers add capacity, but they follow the same order. Two people, ten or a hundred hit the same wall. It is not about team size. It is about whether the team learns before it builds.
How does this shorten time to market for a hardware product?
Most of the months in a stuck programme go into rebuilding the whole product to test one idea.
But if you build only what touches the problem, like a minimum test piece or rig, you can test various ideas and options to see what actually solves the problem. Then you can take that understanding and refine the complete product, so what works is understood rather than guessed at.
What is a Concept Sprint?
A Concept Sprint is an agreed number of short make-test-learn cycles on your problem, run with your own engineers. Each cycle tests only one thing with the least that has to be built, and ends with a clear decision on what to test next. Your team stops rebuilding the whole product for every test, which is where the months go. Your team keeps the work and also learns the method by running it. A Concept Sprint starts with a free 45-minute diagnostic call.
After the call comes a Sprint Plan: what will be tested, what will not be built, and what counts as a pass.
Who does the work, you or my team?
Your engineers run the cycles. I bring the diagnosis and the test plan, and I decide with you what is worth testing.
What if a test fails?
A failed test that tells you what to do next is a completed cycle.
The learning is what the cycle is for, whether the test succeeds or not. What makes it useful is a record of why it failed, not just that it failed.
What does it cost?
The price depends on the number of cycles, and is settled on the call.
What happens on the free call?
We go through three questions in depth.
- What you are trying to achieve with the current product or prototype.
- What problem you are solving, and why you think it is the right problem to solve.
- What you have done already, and where the time is going.
We discuss why your problem is still unsolved and what should be tested next.
Do you need to be on site?
Remote by default. On-site work is possible but separately chargeable, and is agreed on the call.
Who owns the IP?
The IP from the work belongs to your company. The details are set out in the proposal.
Why do you not name the companies you worked with?
Client and employer details are confidential. What I share is the thought process, the reasoning and the approach.
My full work history is on my LinkedIn profile.