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Implementing a Design

I have become a formal student.  Again.  In the evenings.  I am taking a course on 'Design Implementation - taking an idea to market'.

In the course of my varied career I have had the privilege of sorting out different types of problems.  Some had to do with information technology.  Some were process design or re-design.  I also taught students early in my career.  At times I counseled some senior leaders in a business on perspective.  Fresh set of eyes or something like that.

Now I am curious about the formality of design.  How does one design?  An object, a service or a process.  What are the goals of design?  What cues do you pay attention to?  What makes it worthwhile?

All of the above I realized could also be summed in a quote I read during my time as an engineer taking Total Quality classes - What problem are you trying to solve?  It is harder than it sounds.  Can take days to define and define well.

Someone looking for a drill bit is not looking for a tool they are looking to make a hole.  Do they really need that hole?  One needs to drill down deep to find the root problem.  Maybe they want to hang a photograph.  What they really want is a way to preserve a memory.  A drill is only a drill not the problem to be solved.

I am also able to network with sharper minds in the audience at this campus and it is helpful as much as listening to the professor to expand one's horizon.

More once I finish this program in the summer and a sanity check on what I learned.  Let's hope.

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