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 The Engineer’s Product Design Kit from Pannam
Product design engineering is a complex and often lengthy process requiring regular collaboration with
your design team, getting feedback and working through multiple iterations to achieve the ideal balance
of form and function. Perfecting your methodology, your design processes, and the technology tools
you rely on to make continuous process improvement is one of the best ways to maximize your
productivity, but spending too much time on analysis can negate your potential productivity gains.

We’ve done the hard work for you to create this essential toolkit for PDEs, including the top five tools
and apps to boost productivity, valuable tips from thought leaders on overcoming the most common
product design challenges, and five leading industry blogs and communities to help you stay abreast of
the latest trends and technology advances in the field.

What are you looking for?

 Tools and Apps to Make Me More Productive

 Expert Insights on Overcoming Product Design Challenges
 Blogs and Communities for the Latest in Product Design News

5 Killer Apps and Tools to Boost Your Productivity

Gone are the days of drawing product sketches by hand. In fact, you’re not even tied to your desk
thanks to productivity and design apps that you can take with you anywhere. We’ve identified five
feature-packed, useful apps and tools to help you save time throughout the design process.

eDrawings
@SOLIDWORKS

eDrawings, from SOLIDWORKS, offers the easiest way for product designers to share 3D data across
multiple CAD environments. From designing and viewing in the real world, to communicating in 3D, to
collaborating without constraints, eDrawings is a product design app for productivity that product
designers won’t want to be without when designing their next product.

Key Features:

 Intuitive and easy-to-use interface

 Visualize 3D models in real context with augmented reality
 Open 3D, 2D, and associated files from any source
 Zoom, pan, and rotate your 2D and 3D CAD data using multi-touch
 Animal 3D standard views as well as 2D drawing views
 Adapt the scale of your 3D model in AR mode

Download:

 iTunes: $1.99
 Google Play: FREE, with in-app purchases available

Fusion 360
@autodesk

Autodesk offers 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software and services. Their Fusion 360 is
the first 3D CAD, CAM, and CAE tool of its kind, connecting product designers’ entire product design and
development process in a single cloud-based platform that works on both Mac and PC. Collaborate on
3D designs with anyone inside or outside your company with Fusion 360 on your mobile device, in
conjunction with its companion cloud-based desktop product, Autodesk Fusion 360.

Key Features:

 Supports more than 100 file formats including DWG, SLFPRT, IPT, IAM, CATPART, IGES, STEP,
and STL
  Easily share designs with your team, clients, partners, and friends
 View and track project activities and updates
 Review large and small 3D designs and assemblies
 Access design properties and complete parts lists
 Isolate and hide components in the model for easy viewing
 Navigate by touch with zoom, pan, and rotate
 Comment, share, search, and much more

Download:

 iTunes: FREE for Fusion 360 subscribers

 Google Play: FREE for Fusion 360 subscribers

Evernote
@evernote

An app that helps busy product designers remain productive by managing and organizing tasks,
Evernote is available for both iOS and Android devices. Evernote “keeps you focused on moving those
ideas from inspiration to completion” and makes it easy for product designers to clip articles, capture
handwritten notes, and snap photos to keep project details at hand at all times.

Key Features:

 Take notes, create to-do lists, and save content you find online
 Syncs between your smartphone, tablet, and computer automatically
 Used by more than 150 million people to move their projects forward
 Share and collaborate with others effortlessly

Download:
  iTunes: FREE, with paid upgrade options available
 Google Play: FREE, with paid upgrade options available

DWG FastView
@Gstarsoft_CAD

DWG FastView, a product design app for productivity, is a free CAD blueprint viewer and drafting tool,
available for iOS and Android devices. DWG FastView is compatible with 2D and 3D DWG drawings and
smoothly opens drawings from AutoCAD, ZWCAD, and more.

Key Features:

 Create, browse, and edit with no limit to file size

 No registration or login required
 Save designs even when offline
 Transfer CAD drawings to PDF, BMP, JPG, and PNG
 View mode enables users to view DWG files more quickly
 Edit mode is appropriate for professional and practical drawing

Download:

 iTunes: FREE
 Google Play: FREE

iCircuit
iCircuit is an easy to use electronic circuit simulator and designer for product design students, hobbyists,
and engineers. With its advanced simulation engine, iCircuit handles analog and digital circuits and
features real-time always-on analysis.

Key Features:

 Use as you would any CAD program by adding elements, connecting them together, and
setting their properties
 Always simulating, just like when working with the real circuit
 Allows product designers to be more productive by not having to stop to take a
measurement or spending time configuring reports
 Use more than 30 elements to build circuits, including simple resistors, switches, and digital
gates

Download:

 iTunes: $9.99
 Google Play: $4.99
5 Expert Tips on Overcoming Product Design Challenges
Product design has never been without challenges. While technology like the apps and tools above have
alleviated some common challenges of days gone by, others remain, and technology has also introduced
some new obstacles that today’s PDEs are constantly striving to overcome. We’ve rounded up some
sage advice from thought leaders with expertise in the product design, engineering, and legal fields to
help you overcome the most common challenges facing product design engineers today.

Be Mindful of Security in the Age of IoT

Greg Scott

@DGregScott

Greg Scott is a veteran of the tumultuous IT industry. He currently lives in the

Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area with his wife, daughter, and two
grandchildren. He holds several IT industry certifications, including CISSP
number 358671. He decided to write what would become Bullseye
Breach after becoming frustrated from too many sensational headlines about
preventable data breaches.

“In this coming IoT world, the top challenge all new product development
teams should be thinking about is…”

Security. Somehow, some way, all those new devices all be interconnected, and somebody out there will
want to penetrate them for some evil purpose. Beyond the basic function of the device, every designer
and engineer should be thinking about how that device interacts with the new Internet and how and
why an attacker might want to penetrate it. And be creative.

Am I nuts? What could a criminal do with, say, a thermostat controlled remotely from a cell phone?
Could an unscrupulous contractor freeze the house, burst the water pipes, and then make lots of money
from the repair? How about remotely controlled door locks? Baby cams? What about marshalling
thousands of devices into a new type of botnet to launch a DDOS attack against somebody? Sound far-
fetched? Too much like science fiction to be true? But then, who would have predicted even a few
months ago that North Korea could take down a major movie studio. Or that Russians would steal
millions of credit cards. Or Chinese violate the privacy of millions of U.S. Government workers and
security applicants.

So maybe the new generation of product developers will learn lessons from their predecessors.
Narrow Your Focus and Hone in On Your Users’ Point of View

Jackie Vanover

@jackievny

Jackie Vanover is an innovative leader who works with corporate

teams to fast-track product development from conceptualization
through delivery. Her areas of expertise include building high-
functioning teams, cooperative problem-solving, implementing
Agile/Lean Methodologies, and innovation for Advertising
Technology and Digital Media.

At MediaOcean (formerly Donovan Data Systems), Ms. Vanover held

various strategic leadership roles. While Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Products,
she led an 85-member integrated digital product development team to reinvent the next generation of
workflow systems for both the digital and local broadcast advertising industry, which resulted in an 85
percent market share for the company.

Ms. Vanover holds an MBA in Marketing and Management from New York University and a Bachelor’s in
Advertising and Public Relations from Texas Christian University. As a certified Transformational Coach,
she utilizes her elite coaching skills to build teams that value a variety of viewpoints which results in
faster development of quality products that sell. Passionate about health and wellness, Ms. Vanover, a
Board Certified Holistic Health Coach, started RealLifeHealthy.com. The mission of which is to help
women attain optimal health and more balanced and productive lives. She is also a Certified Pilates
Instructor and a Triathlete.

“Two of the toughest challenges I’ve seen teams tackle when it comes to new product design are…”

1) Understand the customer’s point of view

2) Keeping a narrow focus

When designing a product, especially one where the idea is revolutionary, it’s easy to lose sight of the
way the customers will interact with the product. Designers and engineers are so close to the product
and understand the decisions and tradeoffs so intimately that they can lose track of the most important
problems they need to solve. Because teams take on ownership of a product, when the customer
questions a decision or doesn’t understand how the product works, they can become defensive and
assume the customer is not smart enough to figure out the obvious. It’s easy to forget that the
customer’s experience determines the success of the product and that we should always approach
development with a beginner’s point of view.

Additionally, when teams are excited about solving a problem for customers, it’s easy to pile on
unnecessary features. Most tempting are the cool features that are challenging to program because
these make our work more interesting and fun. Development teams must remember that any feature
not essential to solving the core customer problem clutters the user’s experience, complicates testing,
and ultimately delays delivery.

As an Agile coach, I know teams are straying into murky waters when I hear designers and engineers
start user stories by saying, “They might want to…” My response is always, “Has anyone asked for that?”
If the answer is no, the feature goes into the backlog as a good idea. When a customer mentions a
problem the feature will solve, then we move the idea to the top of the list.

Understand Who Will Buy Your Product – and Why

Brian Mitchell

@SchneiderElec

Brian Mitchell is an experienced Engineer and Product Manager

with Schneider Electric. With 8 years of professional experience,
Brian has worked for Schneider Electric, Eaton, and Emerson,
focusing on new product development. Brian holds Bachelor’s
degrees in economics and mechanical engineering and a Master’s
degree in mechanical engineering from the Missouri University of
Science and Technology, as well as an MBA in business from Baldwin
Wallace College.

“The #1 problem facing engineers in terms of new product development is…”

A lack of customer knowledge. This includes things like how they make buying decisions, how they use
the product, and what the user’s key challenges really are. As a new product designer, I found that solid
engineering principles only go so far toward creating a great design.

Much more important, and much more difficult to find, is understanding who will buy the product and
why. Aggressively pursuing interactions with all levels of customers, including partners, resellers, and
end users, gives designers the tools they need to design products that are marketable and fit in with the
company’s strategy and distribution. This approach creates a win-win-win situation for the designer, the
company, and the customer!

A sincere understanding of customers isn’t taught in school, and it is often difficult to find even on the
job. Those designers and engineers who seek this understanding and hone their intuition about buyers’
preferences will rise above the pack.
Align Supplier Development Work with Engineering and Design Realities

Sarah Rathke

@spb_global

Sarah Rathke is a partner in the international law firm of Squire

Patton Boggs. Her practice focuses on manufacturing and
engineering litigation, and particularly complex supply chain
disputes. She has argued and tried supply chain cases in forums
throughout the United States. She is also a co-author of the
upcoming book, Legal Blacksmith: How to Avoid and Defend Supply
Chain Disputes.

“The number 1 issue or challenge in development projects is in…”

Trying to get the commercial terms of suppliers’ development work to match the engineering and design
realities. So often, with development projects, the parties cannot be certain if the new product can be
successfully designed in the needed timeframe, and within the needed budget. Engineers who plan
development projects are almost always too optimistic in their estimates of how long a project will take,
and how many resources it will require. Unfortunately, however, these early estimates become the basis
of the parties’ legally binding contract. This creates problems between collaborating companies, when
one or more of them begins to feel that the new project is not going to be as profitable as originally
believed.

The best way to avoid this, in my experience, is for the engineering parties (suppliers and buyer) not to
set production terms in stone before development is complete. In addition, it helps when collaborating
parties impose frequent milestones on the development project — no less frequently than once per
month — at which point, someone with authority from both contracting parties can make a
determination as to whether the project is still a go or a no-go.

Get the Most Out of Your Talent

Jon Quigley

@ValueTransform

Jon M. Quigley is the author of several books on project management and

product development topics, including software development. Mr.
Quigley has multiple masters level degrees as well as certifications. He is
also a frequent speaker at industry events. He has more than twenty-five
years of product development experience, ranging from embedded
hardware and software design to verification and project
management. He has taught at Technical Schools as well as at Seattle City
University. He is on the Forsyth Technical Community College Advisory
Board and Western Carolina University MPM Advisory Board. He is an
expert contributor to PM2Go by The Standish Group, and is frequently cited in product development,
project management, and business magazines.

“The biggest challenges faced by developers and engineers in new product development are…”

Focus:

Companies have always desired to get the most out of their human resources/talent. There is limited
talent in the organization and there is often little desire to extend headcount. In many cases, hiring
additional people is really not possible, so management works to get the most out of the available
resources. However, watering down the available talent and diffusing resources over multiple projects
can be a source of difficulty for the developer due to a lack of focus. Unless the organization is
employing a true form of Agile project management, we may find that our team spends so much time
transitioning from project to project and task to task that they are unable to give the focus the item
under scrutiny deserves. Our team members may offset this by working long hours, but that comes with
a downside also. More hours spent working does not translate to greater productivity, and there are
many studies which suggest that additional hours over time wears the individual down to a point where
a recovery period is required. That is, the individual must work fewer than the typical work week (40
weeks) for weeks on end to recover effectively, erasing any benefit that may have been gained due to
the extended work hours.

Streamlining the work processes, providing time for talent to focus on the objective, and recognizing the
limits of pushing people to beyond the 40 hour work week can help alleviate these types of problems.

Distributed work:

There was a time when teams were often co-located, enabling quick communication and collaboration.
It can still be quick with the level of connectivity technology provides; however, there is much to the
saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.” I have seen many developers make decisions on their portion of a
project unilaterally, not really aware of the consequences put upon some other person, either in the
team or a depending department. When we put the parts from these individuals together, we find that
significant portions may not work, as the design pieces diverged somewhere along the way. Distributed
teams require some mechanism which ensures the individual’s efforts are connected to the rest of the
development team, no matter where they are located in the world. The tools are there, but if the
developer and the project management team are not aware of connectivity needs, we may realize too
late in the project that key communication was missing. Late in the project means more money
invested, and more time required to sort out the discrepancy. This creates a risk of late delivery and
increased cost due to the need to rework portions of projects or projects in their entirety. I have seen
this happen fairly frequently.

5 Top Blogs and Communities for Product Design Engineers

It’s a bit ironic that the one constant in the product design engineering field is a state of seemingly
constant change. Trends and technology come and go, leaving PDEs on a constant mission to stay
abreast of the latest trends and developments in the field. We’ve chosen five blogs and communities to
help you keep your finger on the pulse of the industry, connect with fellow professionals, or simply
satisfy your curiosity about the intriguing projects your like-minded professional and aspiring engineers
are working on lately.

Bolt Blog
@BoltVC

Bolt is dedicated to helping hardware startups burst onto the scene with manufacturing support, capital,
and more. Their blog, Bolt Blog, offers “advice and opinions at the intersection of hardware, software,
and startups.” While most of the blog’s content is geared toward hardware startups, the posts contain
gems of information that will help even the most seasoned designers and manufacturers.

Three posts we like from Bolt Blog:

 What I’ve Learned From 10 Years of Hardware Startups at CES

 Speed Can Kill: The Importance of Process for Hardware
 Can You Show Traction for a Product You Haven’t Manufactured Yet?

ByteSnap Blog
@ByteSnap
ByteSnap is an “embedded electronics design consultancy expert in cutting-edge hardware and software
development, taking your ideas from mind map to market.” The ByteSnap Blog is a robust resource for
designing and manufacturing hardware products, as it includes posts in software design, electronic
design, product development and more.

Check out these three informative posts from the ByteSnap Blog:

 Electronics Product Development: 3 Tips for Detecting Touch Controller Failures

 ByteSnap’s 6 Electronics Industry Predictions for 2017
 Design trade-offs in M2M product design and development

Open Compute Project

@OpenComputePrj
Started by Facebook, Open Computer Project (OCP) is an initiative that strives to accelerate data
center and server innovation, with the ultimate goal of increasing computing efficiency. The OCP also
promotes open source hardware. Their community members use the project “to develop hardware
designs based on open specs and designs that are open sourced through the project.” End users benefit
from the project because they are able to get custom hardware and lower their costs because multiple
vendors supply the same products.

Cost – Tiered Membership Pricing:

 Individual
 Corporate: Community, Silver, Gold, Platinum

Electronics and Electrical Engineering Community Members: Hardware Design

@EE_Web
EEWeb is “a premier electrical engineering community for hardware designers.” The hardware design
community of EEWeb gives members the opportunity to network with electronics and engineering
experts from dozens of organizations and companies, plus various universities.

Cost: Contact for community membership pricing

Electronics/Hardware Development Forum

@cemetech
Cemetech is a community for technology professionals and enthusiasts that also serves as a hardware
and software development group. Their forum on electronics and hardware development is an active
forum with dozens of users. Guests may read discussion threads, but only registered users may interact
with the forum by posting new topics, replying to topics, and more.

Check out these three useful discussion threads from Electronics/Hardware Development Forum:

 Electronics Component Suppliers

 Control Panel for Kerbal Space Program
 ArTICL SimpleI/O Demo: LEDs, Buttons, Switches, and a Motor

Cost: FREE registration