Like most things in design, ideas are born out of necessity and opportunity.
And so, it was with équipe design coaching.
I met Andrew 5 years ago when we were both in former roles at a large medical multinational. Andrew is now CEO at a small biomedical start up.
3 years ago, the opportunity arose to start working alongside David and his team at his new outfit on their new product. We have continued this relationship now in my own new venture; équipe design & consulting.
The project in essence is like many I had worked on previously in the world of MedTech product development, though this one is considerably trickier than many. It has been a delight to be a part of a young, dynamic and flexible team with a vision and a cause to do good in an area of society, that was from a business sense, largely untapped but more importantly, like many start-ups, from a social perspective, unsupported.
But this time my consulting role in this team was different and completely new to me in its very nature. Even though it has always been apart of generally what I do as a consultant; to share everything I know with the team around me. Afterall what is the point of dying with all this stuff in my head and the connections made that I have spent a career accumulating?
This role was to focus on the designer rather than the design, guiding him through the design process of his design with all the twists and turns, challenges and pitfalls, but equally important to celebrate the minor and major wins along the way. Product development can be hard yakka, especially for younger designers, so highlighting the wins helps motivate us all to keep striving.
The designer Sam, is young, kinda shy and reserved but super super bright and with an unsurpassed work ethic. David saw his potential but was also aware of the demands and complexity of MedTech product Design in general, but more specifically the intricacies of this project through the functional challenges experienced early in their development cycle.
Working with Sam has taken me a little by surprise. It has been far more rewarding than if I had done the
myself.
“It’s a buzz to see that light bulb moment!”
When you help someone else achieve something that they were unsure they could. Something that worried them. And Sam, to his credit and detriment, worried about every last detail.
Being able to bring my experiences from both sides of the design | tooling | production wall from years as a designer but also 5 years stint as Operations Manager at PPCMS servicing ResMed and alike, meant I could help guide Sam in his design decisions with some clarity borne through the scars of experience.
Not being up to your neck in the thick of things also brings a third-party clarity for when it came to the fork in the road decision making, both small ones and large.
I was also able explain the pros and cons of each decision, as I saw it, that may occur once we hit high volume manufacture years from now.
Don’t get me wrong, I am no expert and I am no guru divining wisdom from on high. I confess to not knowing all the answers. I find it is more a case of when we are unsure about something knowing where to turn or who to turn to.
The years of experience gives one many contacts that I can call upon for help when I reach the limits of my own experience. And I do, and I will continue to do so in the future.
I am not even an expert in this particular product. That is their team who have the cause in their hearts and the vision in their minds to see it through. When it comes down to it, the products industrial design and mechanical engineering is all Sam. He, despite his young age and experience in high volume manufacture for plastic injection moulding, actually had it in himself from the start.
I am simply delighted to play my part to help realise it in himself and watch the design evolve. But even better, to watch him evolve as a designer along the way.
This is almost more satisfying than producing the design myself.
The product is a mechanically complex device with multiple manufacturing processing steps to achieve its end goal, to achieve a much-needed position in society.
And what of the milestones and little wins?
Well, this is a big one and worth celebrating for Sam, the product is now out there in the real world on patients in a new clinical trial.
(Names have been changed to protect the innocent).
Comments