Ch2. Unwrapping CMF Design on Balancing Between Matters
Since Club House becomes a hot topic this week, I’ve been obsessed with a room of speakers from different parts of the Chinese-speaking world. Interestingly, because of how they grew up and built independent thinking along the way, speakers born in the same region could have very different perspectives on the definition of democracy. (中文版)
That is perhaps the same with how cross-functional teams work together to develop product definition.
As narrow as a screen cling — that tiny little outliner around the phone screen, can cause back-and-forth discussions.
𝗠𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗰 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝘆: “This is too narrow and fragile. Let’s add glass fiber.”
𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀: “Glass fiber will float on the surface. Let’s add coating on top.”
𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀: “NO MONEY!!!”
𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀: “Let’s at least get the tooling to be polished for better matching with the screen.”
𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: “No time for modifying the tooling.”
CMF is a specific discipline within industrial design that focuses on the development of a product’s color, material, and finish. Unwrap CMF shares bite-sized stories of CMF Design to inform and inspire those interested in this niche yet fascinating field, with digestible contents for anyone and everyone.
Although everyone has a different opinions, because each’s logic is based on their profession, everyone is able to join the “aggressive discussion” and convey their perspective (mostly) calmly and rationally.
In contrary, different perspectives also formulated cross-team collaboration. Whether during product definition stage or manufacturing trial runs, it is never a solo act of CMF Designer. Always and always, it is the joined contribution with Industrial Designer, PE Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, and more.
As a reminder for design students, once you enter into the real world, you will meet people who hold different perspectives than you do. The ability of empathy will determine the success of your proposals and how many allies you will gather along the journey.
Enjoy learning? Use the CMF terminologies mentioned above and continue on with your own research journey on the web. Comments and inspirations are welcome!
Instagram LinkedIn Unwrap CMF
