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Quality During Design Podcast Blog

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Quality during Design Mindset for Success

Listen to these episodes to get a sense of the Quality during Design Mindset

Why Yield Quality at the Front-End of Product Development

We can find Quality at the back-end of product creation, where it's used for compliance.  We want to pick up some of it and move it to the front-end, where design decisions are happening. It's there that we can yield it like a tool to work with our cross-functional team, to help us with doing the engineering work that's important for great designs.

Before you start engineering solutions, do this

We're given information about an opportunity for a new product.

We talk about what can happen when we start solution-building just with what we're given. And we talk about an alternative start to a new engineering project.

Don't wish for cross-functional buy-in on product designs - plan to get it!

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

We take these wishes...
"I wish I had the cross functional input that I need for design inputs."
"I wish I could work with my cross functional team."
"I wish my team would accept my design idea."

...and we add a plan to make them a GOAL.

We plan for what it is we want and how we're going to get there using Quality during Design.

How to self-advocate for more customer face time (and why it's important)

When engineers say, "I'd like to talk with a customer about this," we usually get push-back.

We need to tackle objections and remove obstacles between design engineers and their customers.

Listen-in to learn how we can take next steps in the concept space when visiting customers.

A big failure and too many causes? Try this analysis.

Mar 18, 2021
Headphones illustrations by Storyset

We have identified a failure of our design. It’s a complicated failure that has multiple potential root causes, and some that are conditional. Is there a tool that can capture it all and help us prioritize our reactions to get rid of this problem? Yes, there is: Fault Tree Analysis! Learn what it is and…

Why Your Design Inputs Need to Include Quality & Reliability

Mar 16, 2021
Headphones illustrations by Storyset

You’re nearing the end of your project, getting cross-functional approval on your design, when your QE or RE friend comes running with a big, red STOP button! Let’s avoid that! Quality and Reliability are INPUTS into the design process, much earlier than by the time we have a prototype in-hand (even at the black-box, input-output…

My product works. Why don’t they want it?

Mar 6, 2021
Headphones illustrations by Storyset

Have you ever designed a product that works but that customers just don’t want to use? We’ll review some tools and strategies to help prevent that from happening before product launch, or to help as a starting point when you plan for your version 2.0.

How to Choose the Right Improvement Model

Mar 3, 2021
Headphones illustrations by Storyset

Quality folks use and promote some standard problem solving and continuous improvement methods, and you’ll want to reference the right acronym when getting buy-in for your improvement project. You may have heard of PDCA, PDSA, and DMAIC. You vaguely know they’re improvement, but don’t really know what their differences are. When should you use which one, and for what? This installment demystifies the titles and explores the history of each so you can talk about the right tool for your project.