the seven habits of highly effective people in r&d
DESCRIPTION
Being effective in building something new needs special habits. What does it take to navigate the unknown successfully? These seven habits, or regular practices, have been found to be essential for success in moving a project through uncharted waters.TRANSCRIPT
Daniel E. Grupp, PhD [email protected] 1
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in R&D
Daniel E. Grupp, [email protected]
March, 2011
PEOPLE WHO GET THINGS DONE
March 2011
Daniel E. Grupp, PhD [email protected] 2
Elements of Success/Sources of Project
FailurePeopleMoneyR&D Strategy
Management: Planning, ProcessFacilitiesHabits
March 2011
hab·it - noun1. Customary practice.2. An acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary: the habit of looking both ways before crossing the street.
Daniel E. Grupp, PhD [email protected] 3
1)No finesseDon’t push the limits of materials or machines.Use ingenuity to do the heavy lifting.Don’t walk a tightrope.
Use ingenuity to find a better way across the river. Finesse may be the easy way out.
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Daniel E. Grupp, PhD [email protected] 4
1)No finesseDon’t push the limits of materials or
machines.
Used “side effect” of etch process. Required fine tuning of etcher. Required “soldier” wafers to sacrifice
and analyze. Stability of process unknown.
Good habit: Robust process. Self-Limiting: Stops by itself. Uses what the machine was designed
to do.
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BAD HABIT:
Silicon sidewall etch in Lam TCP-9400
Etch down…
…and under
100 nm100,000x
Daniel E. Grupp, PhD [email protected] 5
2)Answer questions fastUnclog pipeline to answers: where’s the
blockage?Ask: I know how to get an answer, but what is in
my way of getting the answer fast?Testbeds, testbeds, testbeds
Pay cost of time and money upfront: saves time down the line.
Isolate element that needs testing.“Don’t launch the space shuttle to test the door
seals.”
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The Trade-off Triangle
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Cannot have all three without luck.
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The Trade-off Triangle
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Best choice for R&D: Give up low cost – pay the price for the test bed up front.
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Example: Waterjet TestbedProblem: Need to control properties of a miniature
waterjet that is part of larger device. Variables: nozzles, chamber geometry, and pressure.
Solution: Build a pressure cell that has removable parts that contains chamber and nozzle separately.
Costs:Device cost: $1k, 2 week turn-aroundTestbed cost: $1kChamber “pucks”: $25/part, <2 day turn-aroundTime per test chamber/nozzle combo: 15 minutes.
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Isolation Example: Large system
Problem: Fix fridge. 2 years of downtime.
Challenge: 2 weeks turnaround per test.
Solution: Isolate fridge with internal cap.Time to build and install
cap: 3 weeksTurnaround: 1 day.Result: Fixed in 2 months.
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Fridge to test
Everythingelse
Ultrahigh vacuum chamber with milliKelvin dilution refrigerator. A.M. Goldman Lab.
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3)Don’t make assumptions
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Test everything.Be aware and honest
about what you don’t know.
Presume if you don’t know if something will work, it won’t.
You will win in cost and time in the long run: Failures may be rare but
large.
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4)“Lightly Wrapped” Testbeds and Prototypes
Need to be able to see inside.Easily changedGet your fingers into itNo “tightly wrapped” testbeds
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Example:“Lightly Wrapped” TestbedGet close to the action: Access with high-power
zoom and ultrafast flash (Prism Sci./MIT)
March 2011Daniel E. Grupp, PhD [email protected] 14
Width of a hair
Messy
Better
Perfect
Stop-motion Waterjet Images: Nikon D60 with 10x magnifier and Prism Science Works (MIT) strobe with 250 ns flash duration.
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5)Don’t be a perfectionistDo just enough at each stage of development to move on to
the next stage. You don’t know how good a stage needs to be until you have done
the next stage or even the one after that. Ask “What do I need to do to move on?”
“Don’t build a pyramid to change a light bulb”. Perfectionists overbuild
Contingencies covered may not occur.Capability may be excessive.
Caveat: Overbuild if you can afford it (as long as you don’t “tightly wrap” it)e.g.: If you don’t know what pressure you will need, buy the biggest
pump you can afford…but not if it becomes impossible to change pumps.
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5)Don’t be a perfectionistIterate steps by circling back:
You don’t know how much of A to do until you have done C.
“Do a little of A, a little of B, a little of C, then more of A…”
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A B C D 1 2
3
4
When you know what to do, then be a perfectionist.
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5)Don’t be a perfectionist…
…until the end.
March 2011Daniel E. Grupp, PhD [email protected]
R&D Product Development &Manufacturing
A-frame
Steps
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6)Dream bigDream the endpoint of what you
want to do.Avoid saying: this is where I am,
where can I go from here? All you will see is the limits. You will be stuck in what is known.
Engineers are great at building a bridge from here to there once there has been envisioned.
Constraints drive innovation: “It must have, or be able to…”
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Cima Ladder
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7)Pick Do-able ProjectsPick projects you can map out a route from start
to finish . Avoid projects that require finesse.
If you can't say what you need to solve and how at each step then the whole project is finesse.
Steps may require rigorous engineering, but no unknown fundamentals.
Science = finesse
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7)Pick Do-able ProjectsInvensense1
“Just” a gyro – 2-axis MEMS 1 month to working testbed6 months working prototype
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1- Daniel Grupp is not associated with Invensense
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7)Pick Do-able ProjectsInvensense
Sales in 1 year.
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Nintendo Wii remote…
…then everythingRecipe for success: Indentified need with solution
requiring hardcore engineering but no miracles.
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7 Habits1) “No finesse”2) “Answer questions fast”3) “Don’t make assumptions”4) “Nothing tightly wrapped”5) “Don’t be a perfectionist”6) “Dream big”7) “Pick do-able projects”
March 2011