Dear Engineers

I know you're sick of hearing about how things work differently in the "real world."  I was once the young engineering intern on the receiving end of that unsolicited piece of advice.  I won't bother to repeat it here.

What I will tell you is this:  every design has unintended consequences.  Often the "perfect solution" creates three new problems.  Sometimes the new issues are an acceptable compromise.  However, more often than not they are simply the result of a lack of understanding/communication about the constraints of the system and could have been avoided with experience.

I'm not talking about your experience as a design engineer.  I'm talking about engaging the experience of the people that see, use and manage the operation you're impacting everyday.  You may be an expert designer but they are the experts in that operation.

They're the ones that know the ins and outs of the situation.  They're the ones that deal with the problem you're trying to fix everyday.  They're the ones that are going to have to deal with your solution long after you've moved on to another project.  And, ultimately, they'll be the ones that will determine the success or failure of your design.  Many "perfect solutions" have died by the hands of such operators.

Involving these experts in your design isn't easy.  They've been burned before and are wary of change.  They'll have their own opinions and priorities.  Everyone will have to make compromises and no one will love them.  But when, a few years later, no one can imagine how they managed before or wants to go back to the old way, you'll know it was worth it.