We all know how fanatical Apple was about design. And how they were able to differentiate themselves through design. The simplicity, the intuitive interface and the beauty of the interaction! And that was also how they were able to beat the hell out of so many of their competitors - Nokia, Blackberry, Motorola, Palm - in the typical David vs Goliath-ish battle: always led-by-design. And still continues to do so. And yet, Steve Jobs made it a point to emphasize that Design isn’t just about the look and feel of a product; it’s also about the engineering underneath, about the plumbing and of all the individual components that make a product. Bullseye.

Design is the soul of an Engineering endeavour. Real Engineers are the ones who give always enough emphasis to Design. That’s how you separate wheat from chaff, boys from men. All Engineering problems ought to be tackled through Design. Connecting the Problem Domain with the Solution Domain. It’s so fundamental to Problem Solving that it’s hard to emphasize enough. Without Design, it’s difficult to get into Solutioning. And impossible to get optimum results. And yet, so often, one sees novice Engineers, literally rush into implementation just like a child takes to a new game title.

Arrgh, the haste! And then, they make a spectacle of themselves to get utterly bamboozled and fathomless, soon to get into reworking and reworking till they get the design right. So, 4 steps forwards and 3 steps back meaning just 1 step ahead. Wouldn’t it be good, if they then, only took only 2 steps ahead, but sure 2 steps? And in the right direction. That’s why Design is so super important. Take time, go slow, make the design, go smooth and hence go fast. Slow because of Design. Better because of Design. Cut the humongous rework. Implementation is so much faster if you get the Design right. And you avoid all the unnecessary friction as well.

Engineers often underestimate the time that it takes to make a good Design. In the days of instant gratification and amp’ed-up response times, who wants to understand the Problem well enough? Nobody wants to take time to lay down constraints, figure out dependencies and evaluate multiple options. Take the easiest route out. Google it out and hit the first one that comes by. In these days when Bosses and Customers are breathing down your neck for hyper-speed, it’s easy to succumb to the first thing that comes along and move on. But Design is an Art of the Craft in one sense. And a good work of Art takes time. It is thoughtfully made, moving back and forth between aspects, considering longer term and shorter term perspectives and concerns of the Stakeholders. 

How do real Engineers solve Engineering problems? They first work hard to define the problem well enough. Asking the right questions. Well begun is half done. Solving the right problem. Get the constraints out. Derive the Root Cause. And only then go for the Solution Options. And as a rule: Multiple Solution Options. That forces one to evaluate and cull alternatives. Consider and discard. Filter and Select. This is the heart of Design, where one is exploring Solution Options and making a Selection. Then, one tests it out or goes back to the drawing board. Of course, it’s an iterative process. Review with feedback. And where is Design? Design is everywhere here! In the Definition, in the Analysis, in the Solutioning and in the Selection. Unless one looks at all of these in totality macro or micro, one can never design well.

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