Learning By Doing: Building Product Design Leadership From Home
The ‘new normal’ is working from home. At Propelland, our global team is currently working and collaborating on design, engineering, and strategy projects remotely —a big transition from our usual in-person collaboration at our studios. While this situation is temporary, businesses around the world are now having to cope with remote, virtual work as part of their daily operations.
This type of collaboration comes with potential benefits, if managed well. For example, we may have fewer distractions that allow us to focus better on individual tasks. Or, that hour-long commute is now a commute to the home office, leaving us with extra time. Why not use this opportunity to learn new skills and experiment in the comfort of your home?
As a physical product designer and team lead at Propelland, I’ve learned about the unique challenges associated with physical products that differ from those in interaction design and strategy. This field is constrained by physics and our physical environment, from the cure time of an adhesive to the torque of an electric motor.
Building a physical product (and here I assume it is a connected product, such as a smart lock that recognizes your packages, or a home monitoring device that helps seniors communicate with their loved ones) requires the collaboration of industrial designers, mechanical and electrical engineers, software developers, and oftentimes interaction designers. I have experience in all of these areas, but it didn’t happen by chance! I made an active choice to develop basic skills in each field during my free time at home.
Below is an overview of the method I follow to learn through hands on experience. I will cover these steps in more detail and explain how these can help expand your knowledge and perspective to better understand the team of people you work with.
For those of you taking this opportunity to learn new things, especially those leading product design teams, I encourage you to read on to expand your knowledge and become better leaders!
Learn by doing
Regardless of your industry or background, it is critical that you as a leader understand the tools, processes, and methodologies used by your team. While you may be able to explain how your designers, engineers, and developers bring a product to life, have you gone through all of these processes yourself?
If the answer is no, why not? Tools and materials are more accessible than ever, and you will find that even a little experience in each area greatly expands your perspective, resulting in:
- Greater empathy with team members by relating to their challenges and anticipating their needs on a project
- An appreciation for what each individual is capable of doing and their unique expertise
- More effective communication with each person, between the roles in your team, and with specialists to identify solutions
- An understanding of the constraints that each field faces (which often impact time), and the ways these constraints can and cannot be overcome
- The ability to foresee more challenges, raise flags earlier, and help prepare solutions faster because of improved communication and empathy
In my experience there is no “quick way” to learn something (despite what many bootcamps and language apps may tell you). Nothing beats personal experience, and learning and mastering a skill requires many hours of hands on work. Fortunately, you are not expected to become an expert designer, engineer, and developer — that is why you have a team of skilled individuals!
Side note: Remember that the specialists you work with have thousands upon thousands of hours of experience in their fields, and you must rely on their knowledge and recommendations. It’s easy to feel — after doing a few coding tutorials — that you can find a solution for that software bug that’s been blocking your developers, and maybe you can, but you are best suited to push them in the right direction so they can find a solution. (I admit I’ve done this more than a few times.)
Get the essentials
You’ll want to start by buying some tools. If you’re handy and like DIY projects, you can probably buy everything for under $400. However, if assembling IKEA furniture sounds like your personal nightmare, I suggest you spend a little more and buy plug-and-play tools and kits.
There are a lot of great options online, but be sure to do some research before you buy an unfamiliar tool. Many tools don’t come with instructions, or assume a high level of expertise. Since many online retailers like Amazon are prioritizing critical shipments, you may be able to purchase these from local hobby shops and electronics suppliers that offer pick ups.
Here are a few to consider:
A computer that can run 3D CAD software. Almost any new computer can do this, and some tablets and phones work as well! My recommendation is Fusion 360 from Autodesk. It is similar to Solidworks, Inventor, or AutoCAD, but is free for hobbyists learning the tool (and low-cost for small businesses). You will also need software to convert your models into a format for 3D printing. I recommend Ultimaker Cura, which works with a variety of 3D printers.
An Arduino microcontroller kit that comes with solderless breadboards, hookup wires, and an assortment of LEDs, sensors, motors, speakers, or whatever interests you. There are a lot of great resources for learning how to build electronics with Arduino. Adafruit is an excellent resource for individual components and tutorials, but you can also get a good starter kit from Amazon with the essentials to get started. This will also require the Arduino IDE application for your computer to program your electronics.
A 3D printer and filament. There are some very low-cost hobbyist printers that require assembly, but I would suggest paying more and getting a pre-built 3D printer. We use Ultimaker printers at our studio (they cost thousands of dollars), but there are also smaller, highly rated ones from brands like Prusa, FlashForge and even Dremel that are under $500. I recommend buying a FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) printer that uses spools of filament over a SLA (Stereolithography) or UV-curing printer, as the latter uses liquid resins, requires more cleanup, and typically has a small build volume.
Finally, some other tools and materials I find indispensable for at-home projects are needle-nose pliers, tweezers, a screwdriver set, sheet metal screws and machine screws with nuts (for fastening electronics to 3D printed parts), sandpaper, sturdy paper or cardboard (great for testing mechanics in low fidelity), and a hot glue gun (essential for quick builds and cable management). If you plan to do a lot of 3D printing, a rotary tool is good to have on hand for quick modifications.
Depending on your interests, you may already have some of these (many of us at Propelland have an Arduino kit, for example). If you have more experience with any of the above, I suggest you take it up a level. Try using Python or Linux based microcontrollers, learn how to use Rhino and Grasshopper instead of Fusion 360 or Solidworks, or buy a small SLA printer and see what new things you can make!
Build your knowledge
After you buy some new toys to experiment with, you need to familiarize yourself with how to use them. As mentioned earlier, the best way to learn is experience and that means investing time, but once you have these on hand, you can pick them up and start learning anytime!
CAD Software
Start with some beginner tutorials for the CAD software you selected. If you use Fusion 360, Autodesk has a ton of self-guided tutorials to get you started, from the basics of the interface and building your first parts up through advanced assemblies and even generative design.
Arduino Kit
For your Arduino kit, try a few tutorials as well, such as those from Adafruit. Many Arduino kits come with a book of beginner projects (some may be digital). Easy ones will have you plugging wires into an Arduino and flashing patterns of lights with LEDs or setting off a buzzer. You’ll also learn some basic programming through this that can lead to more advanced controls and integration with sensors.
3D Printer
Printing your own creations with a 3D printer can take some time, so start by checking out resources like Thingiverse and printing objects made by other people. You will learn how to operate your 3D printer, and develop an instinct for how long it takes to print different types and sizes of objects. This is one of the most important things to understand when prototyping on a tight deadline — 3D printing can take a lot of time.
For preparing models to print, I highly recommend Cura from Ultimaker. It is compatible with a ton of printers, is beginner friendly, and has a lot of settings you can tweak as you build mastery. There are some good, in-depth tutorials like this one from All3DP.
Nail it with a project
As you go through tutorials and practice using these tools, you will experience each aspect of physical product design separately. But it really clicks once you bring them all together, and that’s when you work towards a project. Here is a process that has worked well for me:
When you get a new tool, work through a few introductory tutorials. After a while these can get repetitive so it’s time to find a project and apply what you’ve learned.
Coming up with a project from scratch can be difficult. You can check out other people’s projects on sites like Adafruit, Instructables, hackster.io or Thingiverse — they usually have instructions you can follow or be a source of inspiration. You can also try to find a contest or design challenge focused on a real problem (or identify one yourself). Right now there are tons of challenges around personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical devices, ranging from engineering a new solution to modifying and improving other people’s.
Now it’s time to plan the project. It’s important to establish deadlines and milestones, but keep them small and achievable so you maintain momentum. As you work to complete your project, you can find specific tutorials and guides when you need them, such as wiring LED strips or 3D printing a hinge.
But before you get started, take a moment to simplify that project down as much as you can.
I can’t stress enough that it’s really important for your early projects to be achievable. It’s easy to get carried away when you start out, but when you realize how much work goes into one project, or once something goes wrong (and things will go wrong), you can lose steam quickly.
I prefer to reduce projects down to prototype phases. For example, a toy that lights up with a random color when you shake it can be broken down into:
- Making a motion sensor that lights up when shaken
- Modeling and printing light diffusing parts in different transparent materials
- Designing the circuits and programming the logic, in this case colored light animations that are selected from randomly, and
- Designing, printing, programming, and assembling the whole toy.
In fact, this was an early project of mine when I was first learning Arduino that used parts I designed in Fusion 360 and printed at home.
Finally, a few things to keep in mind:
Focus on learning, not on perfection. You’ll make mistakes, break things, have weird bugs in your code and failed 3D prints, but that’s okay. It’s really not about doing something without making mistakes, but figuring out how to keep going once a mistake has been made.
Share your work with others, whether to get advice, seek feedback, or just show off something you’re proud of. It’s a lot harder to work in isolation, and the encouragement and ideas you receive from others will help you push through the tough spots.
If a project starts to get out of hand and you’re not enjoying it, put it on pause and start something new! It’s okay to change directions every day if that’s what encourages you to keep going and building experience. Sure it’s rewarding to complete something on your own, but this is about the lessons you learn along the way.
Take the time to reflect
Once you’ve completed a project or two, or a few tutorials, take a moment to reflect on what you’ve learned.
See from the perspective of each field
How is the process different for each field? Did you notice yourself thinking differently when you were modeling something in 3D versus wiring a circuit or writing a script for Arduino? What are the mindsets and constraints of each person on your team? How are these different from your mindset as a lead or project manager?
Learn the language
What are the terms being used? How does the language affect the way each person thinks, or the way they might interpret other fields? How can you be a clearer, more effective communicator by speaking in terms that your team members understand?
Understand constraints
What are the challenges you weren’t aware of when you started this exercise? What are things you thought were constraints, but aren’t? Are there constraints you knew about that turned out to be much harder to work around than you thought? How do each of these impact the time required for the project, or the budget? Did you ever feel burnt out dealing with a challenge, and do you think others on your team have felt the same way?
Bring everyone together
As a leader, you are the bridge between your team members, and between your team and your clients. Your job is to balance the client’s needs with the capabilities of your team and the constraints of each field to produce something amazing.
With a breadth of experience, you will be better at identifying challenges and finding solutions for them. You will know when something takes more time, more money, or more people.
You will also understand your team members better, and be able to address their needs, working with them to solve problems that arise so that they push their capabilities further. In the end, this is all about growth and being a better leader than you were the day before.
