I have been at my current employer for 16 months, during that time I have had 5 different bosses and it seems the reasoning for hiring me has not been communicated through these changes. The 1st boss understood the ID process and was all for it, the 4th said to me “There is still a place for sketching?" 4th has hired 5th, who is new to management and not aware of ID, 5 comes from an implementation background, starting in cad.
I recently proposed having a meeting to show the skills I bring to the table and work on becoming involved up front more often, the basic outline for this meeting is below, and the response I received from 5th boss, including my answers. Interestingly I was introduced to the company in such a meeting of team leaders and managers by my original boss.
Currently I am doing special projects for management, all custom embossing cad modeling (including designing the tooling and running samples). Without any support from anyone here I am having a tough time getting anyone to see any value in what I do, and am being steered to working on the tube in NX all day. I do have several examples of project I worked on (to be used in the meeting).
I currently have a very time consuming special group project that potentially could keep millions of dollars of business with us, this is seen as not as important as the cad work by my supervisors. (?)
Please read the below, I am looking for a better way to get myself back on track here.
inital email-
AAA,
Attached is the agenda and detailed list of what I will cover in the remote conceptualization meeting we discussed in my monthly meeting. The invitees to this meeting would be xxxxxx and yourself. If there are others you would like to attend please let me know and I will add them.
The goal of this meeting is to shorten time to market by narrowing down the design of the product up front, requiring fewer design iterations later don the stream.
Please review and comment.
Thanks,
Me
Remote Conceptualization Meeting Agenda 9 7 2011
• Demonstration of remote design capabilities
• Show examples of past projects.
• Explain how the process can help.
• What departments can benefit.
• What software is involved.
The process-
• Bidding on job.
• Discuss goals.
• Examples of what customer uses currently.
• Customers wants/needs.
• Research customer/theme.
• Brainstorming products.
• Thumbnail sketch ideas.
• Refine sketches/review.
• Refine sketches/review.
• Create presentation renderings.
• Create presentation strong points for cover page.
• Create PDF/review.
• Hard prints.
• Send to Marketing/Sales.
When to involve this process-
• At the beginning of research into the needed product.
• After the customer contacts Dart for a custom package quote.
• When Ideas need to be ironed out before submitting quote to customer.
• After a cad model has been created and you want to show examples of changes.
• Propose changes to current products.
• Propose new item.
Why to involve this process:
• Gain advantage over competitor.
• Larger market share.
• Create new market.
• Reduce the number of design iterations created.
• Create the design parameters early in the project.
Examples-
• Left blank for this discussion-there are several.
Software/Hardware necessary-
• Video conferencing equipment.
• Laptop or desktop computer.
• Wacom tablet.
• SketchbookPro.
To me,
do you know or can estimate how much this can improve our time to market (or approximately how long this process takes us today)?
Using the current sundae cup project as an example, all the initial container size, shape and decoration, and number of containers were decided based on the work I did last year with marketing research. The actual designs in which the decisions were made took less than 40 hours for both the 4 container proposal and the three container proposal, the product renderings covered 9 initial designs, then 3 more proposals, narrowed down to the current design. I then started on the CAD model at which time the project was halted. This process covered research into current sundae cups offered by competitors, sample review and initial concept sketching.
When I came to ABCD, the initial design process was to create a few cad models based on the FAB and propose those to Marketing, there would be several iterations after those and refinement of the chosen beyond that. This process could take 40 -120 hours and not address all sizes or appearance issues like embossing or engraving because there was no way to represent them quickly. Research into the product was limited to samples of competitors gathered by program management, and after the process had already started.
Now, on the sundae cup project, as it is revived, the appearance is already in place, allowing the product design work to flow smoothly without worrying about how different appearances will affect the seal, rim, and cap.
Looking at the time difference and issues resolved early on in the product concept stage reduced time spent later on in the product design process.
what is the additional cost/capital investment required (software, hardware, installation, support, etc)?
There is no additional cost, ABCD already has the equipment and support.
I’d like to better understand the current state we’re improving and the business case we’re submitting.
I feel during all the leadership changes in the last 16 months that the purpose for having an industrial designer in (department) has not been communicated. I suggest we set up a meeting so we can discuss what skills I bring to the table and how to utilize them best at ABDC.