Lesson 9b: Design vs Engineering Trade-Offs

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All right, midday here. We've been going hard. Midnight last night, 6 a.m. calls today, so it doesn't give us much in-between time to record these things, but it's important, so we do it.

Okay, interesting topic today. We're going to move from esoteric belief stuff into, like, actual physical built stuff. And by physical, I mean both the digital and the real, you know, what is real.

We're not going to get into that stuff right now. So this idea of an idea versus a design versus an engineered implementation versus a final product, it's a stage or a workflow across pretty much any product or service that you develop. And you can't jump it.

Even with AI, you can accelerate it, I suppose, but you can't skip it. And the idea piece we've talked about at length, we haven't talked much about between the design and engineering piece. And I think that's really important, because there's a thing that folks in the industry who have been doing this for a long time really realize and understand.

And that's that as a product person, I can deliver a tech pack, a spec, a list of requirements, user goals. I could deliver mock-ups. I could deliver wireframes.

I could deliver a blueprint. I could deliver some type of written, drawn, 3D video explanation to the folks who are going to build it, whether that's myself, if I'm designing for myself, and then I have to go build it, or to another team member, or perhaps another supplier, contractor, manufacturer, etc. What inevitably happens is there's a lot of conversation back and forth, and a debate, and compromise.

Because a lot of times there's this idea of what we want, and a vision spec in our head, sometimes even made possible by AI image generation tools. It's like, yes, that is the essence of what I'm looking for. And then the people who actually have to bring that into real life say, yeah, I can do 1, 17, and 32, but 9 through 15, we don't know how to do.

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It's impossible. Can't do it. And so there's some folks who have the reality distortion machine, and say things like, and we've done this, you're the best in the world.

I really want to work with you. I believe in you. Why don't you give it a shot, and see what you can come back with, and push the limits, push the state-of-the-art forward, see what you can do.

And the reason is important. Because the reason that that spec exists is because it's something, hopefully, if you've listened to all of our videos, that the market really wants, desires, is something that's missing. It's different.

It's better. It's built with strong core values. And so it's a precise, thoroughly threaded needle.

So then if you have someone come back to you and say, I can't do that, then all of a sudden that needle that you've been trying to thread through the loop is off by a mile. And you go, oh man, it's not going to hit. We're off by a millimeter.

We're off by the size of the Milky Way galaxy. Because it's missing the essence that we've been trying for. And so then the real question is, what do we do then? What to do? What to do? There's a couple options.

One, you can go shop it around and see if you can find someone, something, some company, some organization who says they can do it. Now the question is whether they can or not. If they're believable, if they have capabilities, the expertise, have proven they can do it in the past.

In which case, believability is high and there you go. Maybe you were just talking to somebody who hasn't gone down that path yet. Experience aside, just look like we do a lot of this and we just don't do a lot of this.

So maybe we're not the right fit. Perfect. Great.

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No biggie. No harm, no foul. Next time we need this, I got you.

We'll come back to you. Okay. But the question I suppose that really matters is what happens when you've figured out the spec, the tech spec, the precise specification of what you're looking for, and you have a gut feel, evidence, and you know it's right.

And you've been around the horn, right? And it's like, man, I can't find, I can't find anybody to do this. Then what? Well, opportunity. Ding, ding, quiz question.

Because essentially what you've found is a gap. You found something that the market wants that nobody either can do, has never tried to do, or is unwilling to do because it's too costly, too complex, too difficult, too, too much issue, like isn't going to work. And that's where invention occurs.

That is where humanity has thrived. And that is where all of these things that everyone gets celebrated for being on magazine covers. That's what happened.

And that's how they got there is because they did something where everyone else was like, yeah, I don't know, I just never went down that path. Or like, it's impossible. And they're like, no, I've actually like it is possible.

Like, here's the method. It's you do one, and then two, and then four, because everyone's doing three, but actually, you skip that and do four. And so what does that require? It actually requires thinking, like different thinking.

And so really, I think the gap, and this gap is gigantic, the gap between those who are unwilling to compromise in a reasonable way, because they know it's what the market needs. Right? It's the unwritten, unspoken truths of the market, of the customer base of humanity, right? Of the machines, it's the unspoken thing that they need, that you're just gonna have to do yourself, you're gonna have to find a way, you're gonna have to like, go to the mine and like, figure out what new ore is there and like, chop it out of the ground and like, then go to another person and say, hey, do you have a kiln large enough to melt this? And then you're gonna have to go to another one and be like, hey, can you get the chemistry right on this combination of things? And then, okay, you've got that. Now I need to go to like a steel or press manufacturer to take this big blob and press it so I can work with it.

And then you need to find a cutter, right, who can cut it out into a shape. And then you need to find a roller, who can do that sort of thing. And then I need to find like an electrical engineer who can develop circuitry in it.

And so all of those steps are defensibility. All of those steps are invention, all of those steps is value. And because you're able to do it and go all the way through, then there's higher willingness to pay.

Because customers will go, damn, that's it. Like, something, if you've done all the steps correctly, something will trigger in someone and they'll go, who understands intrinsic value, and they'll go, holy shit. Like, that's it.

I didn't like, that's what I've been looking for. And they'll glom onto it. And then word of mouth, like, holy crap, you got to check this out.

Like, I didn't even know this was possible. I didn't know this existed. Somebody did this.

Who did this? Oh, so wow, like, we got to talk to this person. Okay, like, and then you start to see the snowball develop. So the other side of that is where most of the world operates, which is, all right, you can't do it.

Fine. Compromise. We got bigger fish to fry.

I got to hit my quarterly numbers. Or we got to hit this deadline. All right.

Yeah, it's not that big of a deal. It's just one thread. Okay, yeah, it's not gonna have that much impact.

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And granted, been there too. You have to have a good experience level and um, taste, decision making capability, things you've tried failed one over long time horizons, where you go, actually, this thing doesn't matter that much. So I'm not going to fight on this one.

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But this one does matter. So that becomes the upfront thing where you're like, look, these top three requirements are the thing. If we can't do these three, then we're just not going to do it.

Because those are the three things that really matter. Like when the combination of those things come together. That's it.

The iPhone, it was the touchscreen, the camera, the applications, the iPhone, the phone, the music player, the mapping software to get you where you're trying to go the internet, not baby internet, but grandpa, like big dog internet. Big Mama internet. Got the birds out here, too.

So that that's interesting. So you got to get if you're in one of those moments, and you're not sure and you can feel it, we're like, oof. Oof, we really need that.

You got to take a pause. And I think I know where I lie, which is I've determined that this thing matters, matters a lot. And so I'm going to have to find folks who can, and I want to work with these certain folks.

And maybe they can grow and expand and give it a shot. And we can figure it out together or else we got to just like, find a way. Otherwise, like you're going to be sitting there with the final product, and you're just you're going to be pissed, you're going to be bothered by it for all time.

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And you're going to be like, man, I wonder what if. And that's the killer. That's the soul killer.

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The what if that regret will eat you up. And you'll be like, man, I spent all this time, money, energy took us months, years, decade, finally got there. And it was missing this one piece.

And then like people didn't like it. And I'm going, I wonder what if, and then you got to do it again. And then you're like, well, I know what the next thing I need to do.

And so you go try to add that piece. And it's like, well, shit, you already knew up front. Why don't you just do it from the beginning? So that's the intent today.

I think you got to plow through when you know that it really does matter. And you're really trying to build things that help or like have that strong core value that doesn't hurt, but helps. And removing it would reduce the essence.

And the impact is that heavy, where you fall a bit, it's like, No, I need to raise it back up. And that system where you're placing that up there. And you're like, No, we're going to achieve that thing, because that's the thing that's right.

Go invent it, go create it, go figure it out, go put the pieces together, get the people to help you. And that's where the world will come in service. Because then you have a real problem.

It's like, hey, you reach out to someone on LinkedIn over email, an expert, even a leader. And you're like, Look, I'm really trying to solve this problem. I believe that I need to get this thing in this thing.

And I can't figure it out, because it won't attach right? What am I doing wrong? What is the issue? And they're like, Oh, yeah, like, I figured that back out in like 1987. Like we had this really big issue. And like, funny enough, it was like, the spring was coiled the wrong way.

So we reverse the spring and added an electrical circuit. And then like it came through, it was magnetized to just the right amount. And boom, like no more like fuse failures.

Like what? So that's how things kind of happen. And I don't know what I just said. Like, I probably created something that maybe somebody was hoping for but doubtful.

So that's it. We're gonna end on that one today. Put our sunnies back on because my eyes are bleeding from staring at computer screens all day and night.

Okay, that's it. Love y'all. Remember, stay true to it.

If it matters, find a way invent it. Get her done. Alright, peace.