Tailored Coaching for Engineers

Excel in Design, Foster Team Synergy

As a product design engineer, you need to make design decisions based on clear information, without the hassle of functional silos or late-stage "Ta-Da Flops".

You want higher quality products, better relationships with your team, and to achieve star performance. This requires effectively collaborating with cross-functional teammates and translating their diverse knowledge into actionable engineering inputs.

You're a design engineer pulled in a million directions, trying to satisfy countless stakeholders. But when you finally present your work, it's picked apart, rejected, or met with a resounding "meh." You're tired of the "Ta-Da Flop" – pouring hours into designs only to go back to the drawing board.

<a href="https://storyset.com/online">Online illustrations by Storyset</a>

Personalized Coaching to Elevate Your Skills

My personalized coaching is designed specifically for engineers like you who want to excel in concept development and advance their careers.

Together, we'll focus on:

  • Turning diverse knowledge into clear design inputs.
  • Building quality and reliability into your designs from day one.
  • Mastering team collaboration to get the feedback you need, early.
  • Applying powerful tools like the ADEPT Team Framework and Concept Space Model.
  • Boosting your performance to become the go-to design engineer.

Ways to Avoid Early Concept Design Challenges

Learn practical ways to develop design concepts.

The ADEPT Team Framework and Concept Space Model provide you with the practical methods to gather the fact-based inputs you need early in the design process. Individual coaching offers personalized guidance to help you master these techniques, apply them to your specific projects, and transform shared knowledge into winning product designs.

Concept Space Model (1)

Get Actionable Design Inputs Early

The Concept Space Model gives you a structured way to explore customer experiences – their desired Benefits, potential Symptoms, and Use Process.

This helps you gain deep user insight and translate it directly into concrete inputs for your engineering work, reducing the frustration of designs being picked apart late.

ADEPT_Logo

Collaborate Effectively with Your Team

The ADEPT Team Framework provides a repeatable process for planning and leading focused co-work sessions with your cross-functional team.

This helps you foster shared understanding, ensure valuable knowledge is captured, and build buy-in for your design decisions by involving teammates from the start.

Choosing

Improve Design Clarity and Reduce Rework

By exploring the concept space and potential problems early, you can anticipate issues and define requirements with greater clarity, beyond concepts.

This leads to less rework and helps you design higher-quality, more reliable products faster.

QDD graphic

You covered a lot of material in a very clear practical manner. The example was very helpful showing how the Quality tools can be used in a real-life example."

Cary Enslow, Reliability Engineering Expert at HP, Inc.

re: "Quality Tools Training" custom training program

It was such a pleasure working with Dianna in designing a workshop on Reliability Fundamentals for my company. She exemplified professional work habits and followed through with her proposals. Her presentations encouraged us to think through our problem solving process and use reliability and stats tools to assess risks and help us make informed decisions. 

Rachelo Kay, Quality and Reliability at Calix 

What Coaching Might Look Like

Ready to dive deeper? My coaching packages are designed to empower engineers to excel at concept development and transform knowledge into actionable technical design inputs.

Here's a glimpse of a typical coaching package, tailored to your unique needs:

Example Coaching Package: The Design Accelerator

This popular package focuses on immediate impact and lasting skill development.

  • Kick-off Session (2 hours): We'll set clear goals and map out your coaching journey.
  • 6 Individual Sessions (60 mins each): Bi-weekly, one-on-one guidance personalized for you.
  • Practical Tools & Resources: Access to assessments, templates, and a curated library to support your learning.
  • Ongoing Support: Unlimited email support between sessions for quick questions and feedback.

Key Outcomes: You'll master gathering information, translating it into clear design inputs, enhancing team collaboration, and making confident, evidence-based decisions – ultimately accelerating your product development cycle.


Ready to Explore Your Options?

Every engineer's journey is unique. Let's chat about how I can best support your project and career goals.

Tired of Endless Rework and Rejected Designs?

Stop the frustration. Get exclusive strategies for engineers to secure early, fact-based inputs, integrate user experience seamlessly, and build products customers truly love, right from the start.

FMEA In Practice

Introducing an Online Course

FMEA in Practice: From Plan to Risk-Based Decision Making

link opens in Udemy

QDD Versus Video Series

Get Quality and Reliability Engineering fundamentals from a Product Design Engineering point-of-view.

This video series introduces you to quality and reliability topics from a product design point-of-view. It introduces several topics by comparison in just 8 episodes.

  • each episode builds upon the previous ones
  • focused on relationships to product design engineering
  • "crash courses" - each episodes is less than 15 minutes
  • graphics in videos and Venn diagrams in the notes help drive home concepts
  • several options: watch the video, listen to the podcast, read the transcript, and/or read the notes.

At the end of the series, you'll have a framework for your own application of Quality Thinking that can help with the success of your designs.

Episode 1 - Detection Controls vs. Prevention Controls
Episode 2 - Discrete Data vs. Continuous Data
Episode 3 - Internal Customers vs. External Customers
Episode 4 - Design Specs vs. Process Control, Capability, and SPC
Episode 5 - Quality as a Strategic Asset vs. Quality as a Control
Episode 6 - ALT vs. HALT
Episode 7 - Design Input & Specs vs. Test & Measure Capability
Episode 8 - UFMEA vs. DFMEA

Quality during Design Redux: Test Results Analysis

We're pulling episodes from our archives about test results analysis. Download the latest episode from your favorite podcast provider, and check back here for the next episodes.

1. The Fundamental Thing to Know about Statistics for Design Engineering

Released Mar 2023, this is the episode that kicked off our QDD Redux.

2. How Many do we Need to Test?

Originally released October 2021. We talk about the typical questions we ask to figure out sampling and why they're important to consider.

3. How to Handle Competing Failure Modes

Originally released May 2021. We talk about the importance of examining failure modes plus other topics:

  • competing failure modes
  • suspensions
  • independent vs. dependent
  • reliability block diagrams

4. When It's Not Normal: How to Choose from a Library of Distributions

First released May 2021, we review the things to think about when choosing a statistical distribution.

5. Statistical vs. Practical Significance

Aired October 2021, we talk about both and why we need to evaluate the practical significance along with the statistical significance.

Popular Podcast Episodes for Engineers

Collaborating and Systemic Changes

By Dianna Deeney | October 9, 2022

Dianna and Fred talk in podcasts about quality, reliability, and engineering topics. New topics include collaborating and systemic changes.

Use Meetings to Add Productivity

By Dianna Deeney | October 12, 2022

We need our time to be productive, individually. We can use meetings to add productivity to our day, if done right.

STEM Voices Panel Discussion

By Dianna Deeney | October 17, 2022

Dianna Deeney participated in a panel discussion on Linked-In Live, as a guest of the Speaking Your Brand podcast, on September 12, 2022. The topic was Women in STEM and the importance of using their voice. A theme of the conversation was women using their voices to empower themselves and to empower others in their…

Variable Relationships: Correlation and Causation

By Dianna Deeney | October 19, 2022

We talk about correlation, causation, and ways to check that we’ve got the triggering cause that’s going to affect our outcome.

Continuum for Goals

Get clarity on goals with a continuum

By Dianna Deeney | October 28, 2022

Seeing if we have alignment on goals is easy if we gather the team and stakeholders for 10 minutes and use a continuum.

Getting to Great Designs

By Dianna Deeney | November 2, 2022

We talk about the spectrum of designs (from great to spam), the various customers engineers need to design for, and how engineers can work with their team in getting to great designs.

Stop the cycle of rework and missed opportunities.

Ready to transform your design process and achieve the recognition you deserve?