Journey of finding meaning in ambiguous thoughts

The year 2009. Straight out of High school, I followed in my father's footsteps and joined college for a diploma in mechanical engineering. I learned to design from the best—professors who have taught nothing but design for more than half of their lives. It was amazing, it took me down a path of understanding design as a function of engineering, understanding why design mattered, and why engineers should care deeply about design.

I started on small things like Nuts, bolts, and screws. It was easy at first. Designing a screw is not rocket science. But then came manufacturing that screw at scale. To make one is easy. How would you make a million of them? How would you make a million of anything? I thought to myself. How do you ensure quality when you make a million screws? Did the first design support manufacturing in millions? What should have been included in the design process to support efficient manufacturing? How can you make it better so there are fewer redesigns? A lot of questions. Pretty soon I found out these questions are what make teams work with focus and products better. Better for the user, the producer, and the environment.

There is a lot of ambiguity when you tackle a problem. How do you define the problem? What needs to be solved? Is it worth solving? Some companies try to solve problems no one else has solved. Some try to offer a more tidy and seamless solution. Some try to get the first mover advantage. Some wait and see what they can offer more. What succeeds and what fails? Does brilliant design always ensure a product is a success? Why do products fail? All questions are worth asking and discussing.

Back to screws. A modern iPhone has an average of 30 screws. Apple sells around 100 million iPhones every quarter. That’s 3 billion screws! Making one is easy, but how would you make 3 billion of them every 3 months? Just counting to 1 billion might take a year for me! How would you manufacture 1 billion screws in a month? Engineering influences design way more than we think. But is it the best approach? What if design influences engineering? Would there be problems with that approach?

The answers to all these questions are drawn from past experiences of mine. Going forward, you might read thoughts that you do not agree with, some that you may agree with, and some you might want to discuss, Please leave a comment on the post and I will try my best to answer and cultivate some healthy discussion. That is why this blog exists. A space for putting ambiguous thoughts out there. A space for discussing those ambiguous thoughts.