Okay, I’ve vented a little in posts “Ready, Fire, Aim” and “Did We Hit the Target?“. Thanks for understanding. But those posts don’t offer solutions or advice to help you avoid “Ready, Fire, Aim Syndrome”.
Here are a few tips and advice:
- Planning and foresight (and often hindsight) are your friends. Figure out what you are getting into before taking too much action.
- Ask lots of questions: What is the intended use of the device? Who are the intended users? Was the device designed with the primary users in mind? What are the current issues with the current and competitor devices?
- Determine root causes of problems. Understand what changes to a process / design may affect downstream.
- Utilize your resources. The team members likely don’t know everything or the right things about the process / product. Find the people who do.
- Build bridges. It’s amazing what people can and will do if they are given a chance to help.
- If you’re bull, stay out of the china shop. Stepping on toes and making rapid, brash decisions rarely works out well.
- Listen. Listen to the people on the line making the product every day. Listen to the users of the device. Listen to ideas from as many people as possible.
- Speed kills. Trying to fix a problem in a ridiculously short period of time seldom leads to quality results.
- Give the team time to rest. Asking people to work long hours and weekends will lead to burnout quickly.
- Don’t be naive. Don’t assume that improving a manufacturing process will fix design issues with the product.
I can go on, but you get the point.