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Quality During Design Podcast Blog

Listen, access bonuses, and find inspiration.

Need to innovate? Stop brainstorming and try a systematic approach.

When we’re trying to innovate, we can get trapped into the old thinking that the solution has to be out there somewhere. We need to think outside the box to find the solution to a problem. We should stop brainstorming and, instead, think inside the box with Systematic Inventive Thinking. We use systematic approaches to…

HALT! Watch out for that weakest link.

Headphones illustrations by Storyset

HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Test) uses the weakest link mentality. We apply stresses beyond what our designs would normally see in the environment to make something fail. It’s meant to be an iterative test program where you are testing, analyzing the results, determining the root cause, fixing the design, and then testing it, again.

This blog reveals more about its roots, why you should perform HALT (or not), when in the design process it’s best (hint: really early), and who likely needs to be involved. Also understand how HALT is different from ALT.

The Designer’s Risk Analysis affects Business, Projects, and Suppliers

Headphones illustrations by Storyset

It takes a village to produce a design from concept to realization. Everyone along the way seems to think of risk a little bit differently. Designers are both directly and indirectly involved with all these risk management methods, but it’s important to understand who is looking at what type of information. Why? Because of communication. One group…

A big failure and too many causes? Try this analysis.

Headphones illustrations by Storyset

We have identified a failure of our design. It’s a complicated failure that has multiple potential root causes, and some that are conditional. Is there a tool that can capture it all and help us prioritize our reactions to get rid of this problem? Yes, there is: Fault Tree Analysis! Learn what it is and…

Why Your Design Inputs Need to Include Quality & Reliability

Headphones illustrations by Storyset

You’re nearing the end of your project, getting cross-functional approval on your design, when your QE or RE friend comes running with a big, red STOP button! Let’s avoid that! Quality and Reliability are INPUTS into the design process, much earlier than by the time we have a prototype in-hand (even at the black-box, input-output…

My product works. Why don’t they want it?

Headphones illustrations by Storyset

Have you ever designed a product that works but that customers just don’t want to use? We’ll review some tools and strategies to help prevent that from happening before product launch, or to help as a starting point when you plan for your version 2.0.