Last week, I had a conversation with the CEO and Chief Engineer of the company I am presently consulting with. They are currently using paper and pencil to sketch out conceptual designs for their products. Before I could stop myself I said, “You guys need to be using Visio for these conceptual designs.” They hadn’t heard of the product. “It’s a simple drawing program,” I said. They had just spent 4 hours drawing a new conceptual design with pencil and paper. I took their design and drew it in 20 minutes. The CEO was pretty excited with what he saw. “No more pencil and paper drawings for me”, he said.
What was interesting was the reaction of the Chief Engineer. He didn’t like it. The Visio drawing wasn’t a true CAD (computer-aided design) drawing. I remember thinking something about “old school” or it could have been “old dog.”
I asked him, “How many of these conceptual designs do you do in a month.” “About 4-6 per month,” he replied. “Do you always spend this much time on a drawing?” I asked. The CEO said, “Mostly, but sometimes, we’ve spent two days on a conceptual drawing.” I had to ask this one, “What do you do if you want to change the design?”
“Start over,”
I didn’t say anymore.
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