Shipulski On Design

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Startups are good at making something work in the lab for the first time. However, startups are not good at moving their one-in-a-row prototypes to the manufacturing floor.  But if startups are to scale, that’s exactly what they must do.  For startups to be successful, they must continually change the design to enable the next […]

A prototype moves us from “That’s not possible.” to “Hey, watch this!” A prototype moves us from “We don’t do it that way.” to “Well, we do now.” A prototype moves us from “That’s impossible.” to “As it turns out, it was only almost impossible.” A prototype turns naysayers into enemies and profits. A prototype […]

Ideas are all talk and no action.  Ideas are untested concepts that have yet to rise to the level of practicality.  You can’t sell an idea and you can’t barter with them. Ideas aren’t worth much. A prototype is a physical manifestation of an idea. Where ideas are ethereal, prototypes are practical. Where ideas are […]

If you’re serious about innovation, you must learn, as second nature, to convert your ideas into prototypes. Funny thing about ideas is they’re never fully formed – they morph and twist as you talk about them, and as long as you keep talking they keep changing. Evolution of your ideas is good, but in the […]

Create something that isn’t. Build something that turns ‘didn’t’ into ‘does’. Work on your cants. Help people. Make a prototype. Use all the pieces, but use them in different ways. Make it worse and then do the opposite. (H/T to VF) Finish one before starting another. Turn a ‘must not’ into a ‘hey, watch this!’ […]

Improvement is progress.  Improvement is always measured against a baseline, so the first thing to do is to establish the baseline, the thing you make today, the thing you want to improve.  Create an environment to test what you make today, create the test fixtures, define the inputs, create the measurement systems, and write a […]

Why do factories have 50-ton cranes? Because the parts are heavy and the fully assembled product is heavier.  Why is the Boeing assembly facility so large?  Because 747s are large. Why does a refrigerator plant have a huge room to accumulate a massive number of refrigerators that fail final test?  Because refrigerators are big, because […]

If you see something that matters, say something. If you say something and nothing happens, you have a choice – bring it up again, do something, or let it go. Bring it up again when you think your idea was not understood. And if it’s still not understood after the second try, bring it up […]

One of the best problems to solve for your customers is the problem they don’t know they have.  If you can pull it off, you will create an entirely new value proposition for them and enable them to do things they cannot do today. But the problem is they can’t ask you to solve it […]

If it’s not different, it can’t be innovation. With innovation, ideas are the easy part. The hard part is creating the engine that delivers novel value to customers. The first goal of an innovation project is to earn the right to do the second hardest thing. Do the hardest thing first. Innovation is 50% customer, […]

One of the best ways to learn is to make a prototype.  Prototypes come in many shapes and sizes, but their defining element is the learning objective behind them.  When you start with what you want to learn, the prototype is sure to satisfy the learning objective.  But start with the prototype, and no one […]