Making a change, one step at a time

This writing has more to with personal change, but the same principles do apply to changes in anything. Start doing it, just do it repeatedly over and over again, and big things will happen. Not over night, not in three months, some in half a year, and a lot in two - three years. First You need a lot of energy to keep pushing, but there comes a day when it becomes a habit and a day when it pays off. I could draw analogies to work life, but let's skip that and leave possible findings to readers...

Some years ago I started not to be able to hide the fact that I'm not in the shape I'd like to be. I've always been sort of a slim guy, not really athletic but in quite OK condition. It came easy, I don't eat that much, don't use much alcohol and I did have some exercise when the kids were younger. But no more. And when shopping for new trousers I didn't like the side view of a fat belly. That's not what I want to be.

So, what to do ?

I did nothing for a long time. OK, I had a diet for a while and got rid of some of the weight. And then it came back. I thought of starting some excercise somehow some day. And didn't.

Until one day I accepted, that I'll never start swimming, running, playing tennis, going to gym, start cycling or anything else that I haven't started so far, anything that involves going somewhere and finding time for. So I started exercising at home. 15 minutes first, doing pushups and sit ups and stuff like that. That amount of time is always feasible to take, I didn't need to go anywhere, no need to book a time or buy membership, I just walked to a different room and shut the door. I put some classic heavy rock playing to make it more pleasant... And then two days later I did it again. It was not fun, it was awful, felt bad, hurt and was generally unpleasant.

I didn't buy any equipment to begin with. After I had worked out regularly for a few weeks I bought as a reward dumbells so I got to do more things. And bought a book full of good exercises You can do at home and with little equipment and mostly body weight. Then I bought a kettlebell, and could do more excercises again. And suddenly I was excersising 3-4 times a week, and always 30-50 minutes per session. I decided to workout every tuesday and thursday, and at leat once per weekend. I still have those days as my regular training days.

Dragomir was my first coach ! That's a good book, even though there are excellent Youtube videos available just as well. I prefer reading books, so that worked fine for me. Dragomir has a good roadmap for starting training, has trainings for all muscles and using body weight mostly, and also good strecthing guidelines. But to be honest, exercising was far from being fun for a long time, it took at least six months before it was not really unpleasant... Even with quite OK instructions, I managed to get my shoulder hurting, probably did something wrong or used too heavy weights. Hurting in a meaning that I couldn't sleep on one side, couldn't raise one arm etc...

Major breakthrough in exercising-happiness was the day I started jogging - after a year of training at home with mostly body weight and according to Dragomirs systems, I started jogging and to my own surprise it worked well ! So my basic condition had improved so much that jogging was possible and also felt good. Good running shoes helped too. That opened up a new world to me.

Okay, I had now excercised at home for a year and started jogging also. I had lost some weight, not so much, and had improved my condition somewhat. For quite the right time I got a proposal from a local gym to join a 40+ year old mens training group. It was meant for guys that'd like to start working out again after a pause or something. I wondered for a while - do I need that, I like to work out at home, maybe that's unnecessary or whatknot, and finally decided to let's give it a try.

And that was the most important decision I've made after actually starting the excercising !

Because finding a gym with lots of guided group activities has changed my excercising completely. After the initial really energizing and motivating group trainings I started to attend to Cross Training sessions, Body Pump and Body Combat sessions. And having a group workout is just so much more fun and so much more efficient ! The hour spent in Body Pump for example is something completely different than doing things alone, at least in my experience. There is a good warm-up, there's no resting during excercise, the structure is well-thought out so all muscles get excercise and there's good stretching in the end.

Result ? I've lost 5 kilo's in the last half a year and 10 kilos in the last 12 months, my body fat percentage is now what it should be and all the condition tests have improved significantly, and all strength and mobility tests etc are either good or excellent. How do I know that ? I took thorough tests in Vierumäki Sports academy on april and november this year as part of Trainer's House "Muutosjohtajan Polku" -training, so I have facts :)  And what's even better is that while getting better results, the exercises are also much more fun, there's group pressure and support helping to get motivated, and what's most important : I no longer have any body part hurting, ie the shoulder pain is gone.

After getting good advice I also started yoga, to help improving mobility, and also just to improve my own well-being. Now I do yoga once a week, Cross Training/Body Pump three times a week, and then jogging once a week. And keep improving slowly buth surely.

So today ? I have now done regular excecise for over two years ! I'm in much better shape, feel much better and really enjoy both gym and outdoor activities. I'm much more confident physically, I know that I'm able to do much more than before. I feel that I have a lot more energy at work and in private life. I have also changed my eating a bit, I've skipped eating excess sugar, ie candies and lemonade except once a week, and I do eat more vegetables and fruits nowadays. Other than that no real changes to diet. Less white bread and potatoes, but those are quite small changes. I'm still trying to get 1-2 kilos away, but that seams to be a slow process nowadays... I'm not targeting to be a super athlete, that's not possible, neither is it necessary. Just good health, strong enough, all body muscles fit, enough stamina and a tigh butt made of organic iron to please my lady...

How to keep going and how to know what is the level of activity ? As I said, I took tests at Vierumäki, but for following the activity on weekly basis I've used a fitness watch. With this I can clearly see how many hours I'm doing a week or month, what is my activity levels etc. Recently I've also started to plan harder and easier weeks to let the body rest sometimes also. As an engineer, I believe in measuring real data to back up anything I'm doing. If the activity watch shows that I'm doing my excercices and if the InBody measurement shows that there's more muscle in body and less fat and the results get better, then I'm doing things right... Some may have different methods, but for me systematical work is right way.

There's no way I'll ever give up now, life is better when You are physically in good shape !

Should we talk about Hourly Cost or the Quality of Deliverables ?

This year's pricelist negotiations between Subcontractors and Big Customers in subcontracted engineering business were hard work, mostly thanks to the governments Competetiveness agreement (Kiky) in Finland. There is clearly something gained for the Subcontrctor from the Kiky, and obviously the Customers wanted it all. We got some hours more for year 2017 thanks to KiKy but at the same time there happens to be a few working days less this year.

Pricelist negotiations are not my favorite things. I wonder if anybody loves that work, not from the Supplier side or from the Purchaser side. There are real reasons for raising the prices : the costs usually do go up every year... Salaries, rents, logistics, licensies, insurances, all kinds of costs for running business tend to grow, not diminish. Then we look at third party indexes and statistics to tell the Customer that it's reasonable to raise the costs a bit, and they show some other data to tell the opposite plus of course the Competitors are hinted to lower their rates... And by lowering costs the business might grow, though that is seldom guaranteed - and there is often some truth for this also. Then there's the case that sometimes one side looks at history data and the other side looks forward by calculating how some decisions (like KiKy) affect the coming costs.

For a Supplier the situation is usually like this : if the Hourly Rates don't go up enough, it can either cut down costs or margins. Cutting down costs means cheaper designers, tools, less training for the personnel, less salary raises and thus higher attrition rate and less own development for reusable assets, processes etc. That means lowering quality of service, and in a longer run worse deliverables. Cutting margins means better and new negotiatiors for next year... Quite seldom the personnel want's to cut their salaries, and the negotiators would really like to keep their jobs also.

For normal sales setting the price is quite simple : I just define the prices and it's up to the customer to either buy with that price or buy it from somewhere else. I have the right to set the price and the Customer has the right to buy or not. I like that.

But, when there is a relatively big business going on between the Supplier and Customer it's not that easy. The Supplier doesn't have the option of just defining it's own prices. In reality the Customer also doesn't have the option of not buying, but they do have the option of slowly directing further purchases to a Competitor. That's when we negotiate the pricelists...

For the supplier side, it's very tempting to head for lowering hourly costs and increasing sales -loop, which inevitably also decreases margins. The Customers really values lower pricelist. Or to be more specific, the Purchasing Manager does. And depending on a company, a Purchasing Manager has a bigger or smaller Gate Keeper role. Usually, the purchasing department doesn't really need or buy anything, but it can boost or hurt the sales by directing RFQs to preferred suppliers. On the other hand, the R&D -department and Product & Project Managers and in the end the end-customers value the Deliverables really much more, meaning that for a long term success the quality and timeliness of Deliverables is what defines true success. And what affects the Deliverables ? Quite simply it's things that cost for the supplier, like processes, tools, training, reviews, testing, audits, good management, available assets and most importantly really competent and skilled Engineers. And I think of it like this :

Truth is, the cost for getting quality products out is seldom only about the Hourly costs, though it of course affect also. The cost for designing the end product or service is also affected by having efficient design processes, understanding the requirements and priorities, reusing old designs, handling the project professionally, having experienced designers and seasoned project managers, having a team that is used to doing good cooperation, investing time for Test Automation, doing longer term cooperation etc. But all that is seldom interesting for the Purchasing Departments. Why ? Well, I'd guess that Purchasing Managers bonus is tied to average Hourly cost and nothing else, but that's just a wild guess and may be completely wrong...

For an Engineering company's Customers, the really important thing in the end are the high quality products and services with which to compete in the global markets. And to have the best possibility for success making them in cooperation with an engineering company, both parties should work on :

• Understanding the use and need for whatever is being developed. All the time prioritizing the development so that the intended most important use is advanced first and tested as soon as possible. This should be tied to good Product Management and ability to make decisions during the project !
• Analyzing Risks and reducing them starting from prioritized ones.
• Understanding what the directives, standards, quality standards, environmental requirements, interoperability requirements, safety standards, Quality of Service, and other possible such commercial or legislative requirements mean for the design. 
• Checking how the processes of the Supplier and Purchaser meet each other, go through responsibilies, dependencies, deliverables and expectations -  communicate the real priorities and requirements to all stakeholders.
• Making the cooperation profitable -> Good money for the Supplier guarantees best resources, profitable end product makes the Customer prosper and come back. Neither one should be happy unless both win !

The money is flowing from the Customer to the Supplier, so it is the Engineering Company's primary target to make the cooperation smooth and happy. But R&D Subcontracting is in the end like dancing, it takes two to Tango !

If You want to enjoy the dance, get the Best partner, not the cheapest !

Engineering Company is the Best Company !

I've had several employers, both in public and private sector, and after starting my studies at Technical University I've worked for Micronas, Ericsson and Espotel/Etteplan. The first two of those were "Brand owners", ie companies that have their own products, and Espotel/Etteplan is an Engineering company, meaning that we do subcontracted work for companies like Micronas and Ericsson... And of course to lot of other companies, pretty much to all companies in Finland.

What's the difference, and why do I think that for an engineer an Engineering Company is the best place ?

Well, the name says a lot, doesn't it :) 

But seriously, there are ups and downs for everything. When doing subcontracted work, the projects are not decided by ourselves, it's up to the Customer to decide what they want to do, and from where to buy the needed outsourced parts. But that's really not that different from working for a brand owner, You don't get to always choose what products and services the company decides to develop... There are Product Managers and whatknot trying to guess what the market is needing next. And quite often in a brand owner, You get to design the next and slightly improved version of the same product. Sometimes the change is slightly bigger and sometimes it's just finetuning and cost optimization. Well, those kinds of projects happen in an Engineering company as well.

Difference is, that spending 5 years in a Brand owner, You most likely work five years making two versions of the same thing. In an Engineering company, You may have designed a part of five or more different products at the same time.

Why an engineer working for the Brand owner gets less done in the same time ?

Well, maybe they get more out, that's just an educated guess... But truth is, when You are involved in creating the Company's own product, You'll end up having to do with the User manuals, type tests,  product ramp-up, production transfer, handling customer feedback, presenting the thing in exhibitions, making minor market specific variants, being in sales support, having meetings of the Next Generation version, etc. All in all, You get to do lots of non-design tasks. Which may or may not be that interesting, but actual design or engineering work they are not. And as always, there are different sizes of companies, and different kinds of organizations. But my gut feeling is, that a designer in Engineering company does a lot more design work over a longer period.

Which means, that as a designer, You get to see a lot of different products, applications, different fields of industry. And just design more.

Surely there are some downsides also. If You are more Product Manager -type of person, that kind of role is more frequent in Brand owning company, and all in all there are much more non-design related career possibilies there. But let's face it, spending 4-7 years in engineering studies often means that the person really likes to do engineering tasks...

My personal favorite thing in an Engineering company is the variety of customers. From established big players to startups. It's fun and innovative to work for startups, and when doing work for the startups from Engineering company, there is the added pleasure of not having to worry whether they can pay the salaries in time or not... Of course the Engineering company also needs the bills paied, but one has to remember that startups money spending keeps continuing after the core development has been done and before the incoming money really starts happening. Over the years I think I've somehow seen most of the companies working in electronics field at least on some level. If I'd stayed on any Brand owner -company, I would've seen seen a much more narrow field, though in a much deeper level of course.

If You noticed the nice tables, they are random samples of Etteplan designers work stations :) They look like there's work happening. If You are interested in Etteplan as interesting employer or subcontractor, just let me know.

Training done right - on a Change Managers Path !

I've attended to quite many courses, from design & technology courses to presentation skills and sales practises, project management etc. All the courses have been held by competent, decent and professional trainers. Still, there's not too many things that in the end get into use and daily life from the courses. One thing I learned from a presentation skills course was not to look straight into a persons eyes but rather look at their forehead... A good advice, and still in use. From Timo Rope's sales course (from engineer to salesman) I really learned that it's always a monkey buying what a monkey wants to buy, and reason has little to do with it.

But did any of those dozens of courses really make that much of a difference ?

No.

But now I started on a Trainers House "Change Managers Path" -course which really looks like it might make a difference.

Subject is "Change Managers Path". What we have done so far is an introduction session and a first three day intensive period at Vierumäki. Three days away from work is a huge time investment, so I was really worried if there's any point in going there. Have to say I was a bit skeptical of Trainers House offering - I'm not too sure I want to listen to Jari Sarasvuo (or his minions) talking for three days the same stuff that Jari speaks in radio or where-ever... Jari's radio shows are fine, but 90 minutes of it is enough.

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. OK, the Minions do sound a bit like Sarasvuo every now and then, but not disturbingly much... Truth is, the trainers Marc and Max have paid there dues, and they are masters in their field. And the field is changing the trainees behaviour in a positive way. Because no change in any results will come, if the behaviour doesn't change. And changing a professional grown-ups behaviour isn't easy. It takes many different kinds of personal moments of enlightment before something really is understood and change has possibility to happen.

Why is this (still ongoing) course doing things right ?

The trainers are playing with their hearts open, bravely, showing that they are in this without holding anything back. This atmosphere has quickly been adapted by the audience, which also consists of truly amazing individuals from really various companies. The program is quite expensive, so there is a quite elitistic audience gathered... But as the trainers created an open and trusting atmosphere, the whole group has been able to function amazingly well - participants are really sharing their experiences, wisdom and personality for the benefit of all.

OK, that is all fine and good. Good trainers, good people. I've been on courses with good trainers and good participants (not quite this good...) before. What makes this stand out is three things :

1. Personal physical improvement program and meditation practices
2. Good focus on the attendees personal and organizational goals
3. Really practical and easily understandable and well theoretically backed way of making real changes in corporate culture.

I'm not going to open these individual items too much, attend the course and You'll see (I'm not getting any provision...).

In the end, to make a change the physical condition should be good, the goals should be clear and there are things to understand and tools and practises needed. So, the the whole structure is well though out, and most likely based on a lot of experience and deep understanding. The traineers have paid their dues as I said.

The personal health improvement program started with a test at Vierumäki, full check of muscle & fat situation and oxygen uptake. Now we know where we are, and we got practical programs for further improving. I was happy with my performance, but there are areas where I still need practise and improvement.

So, I started on the Path, feel good, and look forward to get some more tools and experiences !

Now it's time to meditate a bit and hit a Golden egg to my head (inside joke, sorry for that...).

Roleplaying Convention and a Good Corporate Culture !

I just read a good blog article of how the young men are made into a functional team in the Finnish army. How they build the team during the basic training period, and get a group of young men from very different backgrounds into trusting each other and functioning as a team. For me that sounds like one of my favorit subjects : Corporal Culture. How is a healthy and productive Culture created and what can it achieve ?

My military training is over ten years ago, so I cannot recall it too well any more... But I have experience of a bit similar group-building and team creation excercise, namely building Roleplaying Convention - RopeCon - with voluntary workers.

Ropecon is a guite big event, it gathers some 4000 people yearly for three days to play roleplaying games, live action roleplays (LARP), tabletop games and whatnot. There are no paid employees for the event, everything from the logistics to security to programs is created by volunteers. There's a team called Conitea which is in charge of the event and then a lot of people working under it. Conitea is formed every year, with some having previous experience and some not. Ropecon has been arranged for over 20 years, and few of the people that were involved in the first events are still around to arrange it. Conitea 2014 looked like this :

My first prejudice when taking a position in Conitea three years ago (I only did it once, so I'm not a part of Conitea at the moment) was that it's probably going to be very chaotic an unefficient to arrange anything with a bunch of artistic, extrovert alternative people with elf ears and flower diadems and from various backgrounds. I have some experience of leading expert organization, and I was very suspicious how something that big can be done by non-engineers...

I couldn't have been more wrong.

There was a very strong Culture in the Conitea and in Ropecon ry. This convention has been arranged for over 20 years, and it is known what needs to be done and how. First surprise came in the starting meeting, where we had to agree on the theme for year 2014 Ropecon. The meeting used hand signals for supporting or disagreeing suggestions, there was a strict control of speech times, and generally decisions were both super smooth and democratic. And the rules were quickly teached to us new guys. A group of people previously mostly unfamiliar to each other could function together very well. Conitea consists of experts for different aspects of the Ropecon event, so there was a need to get various expertises being heard and decisions being made. And it was done more efficiently than I've ever seen in business meetings ! Of course all the Conitea members have been arranging a lot of different events from LARPs and games to Scifi & Anime Cons, Assembly and other big events, so they have "professional experience" in arranging events.

In the months preceding the actual event we made plans, had team-building overnight sessions and made tough choises and decisions and a lot of work for the common goal. With the Conitea and within our subteams below the Conitea. It's easy to make a bond when You share a common passion and interest. I lead the miniature wargaming part and arranged tournaments for some 200 people in about 10-20 different games plus our Guest of Honour Games designer :

So, everything went smoothly. There was an infrastructure of tools and meetings to store and share information, knowledge database for checking how things have been done before. There was good spirit among people to help each other and make sure that things was progressing. And in the end we held the event for 4000 people from Friday to Sunday, an event that is the years highlight for a lot of people. We succeeded, and there was never any doubt of it. We also had a great time preparing the event. In the actual event all the Conitea members went three days with little or no sleep and in a haze.

What has this to do with Culture ?

Everything. There was a Goal - a Vision - that everyone understood and worked towards. Things had been done before and the good practises were teached to new-comers. There were existing procesedures, resources and experienced seniors. There was leading by example in how to do things smoothly. And there was a happy, enthusiastic feeling of getting something important and meaningful done - bringing happiness to a lot of people.

The Ropecon organization has completely changed from beginning to this day, it takes in a lot of new people every year, nothing is paid for anyone, it has been able to move the event from Otaniemi to Messukeskus and it's just rocking from year to another. And that is all thanks to a Culture that lives, remains and grows even when the people in Conitea gradually change. The good practises are transferred to new guys, and they are also accepted. The Culture also survived a really big change, namely moving from Otaniemi to Messukeskus, so it has capability for growth also.

What can be learned in business life from this volunteer organization that creates a recreational and a bit strange or excentric event yearly ?

If you have a Vision worth seeking, if You act according to Your organizations values, if You take the steps to store and teach the best practises to new people, if the people can work on what is really important to them - Great things will happen.

Surely, some pure hearted Knights in a full-plate armour are still needed in any organization !

Integration is like building an Empire ?

Dear blog (and readers), it's been a while. I haven't had time to write anything for a year. Not that there hasn't been subjects, quite the opposite. My employer Espotel was acquired by Etteplan a year ago, and this has been a busy, busy year. Maybe it's now time to look back a bit and see what has happened.

How are Empires created and big corporations done ? Can it succeed ?

Espotel was a medium sized company in Finland, about 300+ people, in about 7 locations around Finland, and an office in Poland Wroclaw of roughly 50 people. Espotel has a good reputation in Electronics and Software design fields, we've done projects for most of the major brand owners in Finland having something to do with embedded products. There's a huge list of products that we've been proudly a part of in making them to happen.

A year ago Espotel was owned by an investment company, the founders had already moved out of the company's daily life, and it was known that there will one day come a change in the company's structure. Still, the news that Espotel was acquired by Etteplan came as a surprise. And, not immediately as a nice surprise - at least to me. You know, we've been competitors for a long time, so the immediate reaction to being bought by the competitor is not necessarily a feeling of a major victory...

So, the "enemy" broke through the lines a year ago and started making it's intentions known. It's one thing to make a conquest, and another to make something permanently good out of it. Etteplan has grown by acquisitions for a long time, so this was not a new operation for them. Turned out, that Etteplan wasn't really so much buying a competitor than making a big strategic move into making itself a substantially more relevant player in the field of Embedded Systems design and Internet of Things field. Espotel, especially combined with Soikea that came into Etteplan with the same door opening, was actually much stronger in the software design and project deliveries than the bigger competitor and current owner (for Embedded products).

In the end that meant that the result of this integrations wasn't so much Espotel integrating into Etteplan than Etteplan's Embedded Design parts integrating into Espotel, forming a new Service Area within Etteplan. One that starts looking way stronger now than Espotel or Etteplan combined previously (for the embedded systems parts). Why's that ? Something has actually gone right and well this time, even if not everything... So, what has actually happened this last year in big picture ? Let's see :

First of all, a new Service Area within Etteplan was formed around previous Espotel, and it's management. Soikea and the related parts from Etteplan's Vantaa and Hyvinkää organizations were combined into it, giving the whole operation both more volume and muscle, but also two new stronger competence areas, namely Test Automation design and Mobile/Backend Software development. So, Etteplan Embedded Systems and IoT Service Area now has a full stack of services for any IoT project, were normally there is embedded device developed, some way to arrange connectivity to Cloud and Backend and Mobile SW, including Test Automation. It is a strong asset also, that Etteplan can offer much more mechanics designers for projects when needed as well.

On a more personal level, it's been really nice to get collegues from Etteplan, and being able to exapand my personal connections within Etteplan. Towards Customers it's really good to be able to provide a wider range of services. There's little that our 2600 designers cannot do.

Of course there are downsides also. A big company has it's practices (hour reporting and invoicing system : I'm talking bout You!), there are differencies in corporate cultures, benefits and whatknot. And that won't change or converge over night.  But, and this is a big but : In daily life the focus is still in making the project deliveries succeed, and for this the new integrated Etteplan Empire is much stronger than Espotel, Soikea or Etteplan were previously on their own. Nothing has really made any of us perform worse than before.

So :  drummers, beat the rhytm, we have this area secured and can start marching to new conquests !

What does it take to get a Thingie done, part #1

Let's say You are an inventor, and came up with a great new method of measuring something important and valuable. All it needs is a simple handheld device, that does the measurement and gives the results for the User. And perhaps wirelesly to a Cloud Service also.

Now You need the thingie that does it. Okay, there are some steps first, like verifying that the Invention actually works, getting some money for the development, perhaps starting a company...

Now, how can the Thingie be developed ?

In a modern world, You can use a Partner to make the project, especially the stuff that You don't have competence in Your company. Usually this means at least the necessary mechanics, embedded software, analysis software, user interface SW, electronics and software for cloud services or mobile software.

But is that how it goes ? Just tell the Design Partner what the Thingie is and wait for volume production to start ?

Well, no... Really not. Or depends a bit on the Partner.

Problem is, the engineers are usually really good in implementing a Customer need to a working device according to Customer specifications. But thre are two catches here : What really is the Customer Need, and what is a Working device. If we come back to the thing that measures something important : What is the device actually, and when is it done ?

Usually the Brand Owner (inventor) has a good or sometimes a vague idea of what are the important features for their new Product to be developed. And it is somehow described on paper as requirements, pictures and stuff like that. There's usually an idea how much it can cost, and for what cost it will be sold, and some estimations of how many will be sold per year. It can be taken as a specification of the work and get the project going on. Problem is, that this doesn't necessarily create the right kind of Thingie. It may of course. All depends on how well the Thingie idea and service has been developed and tested with real users.

But here's the thing : I'd say that it is typical to start making detailed design work before there's good enough understanding of what really is suitable for the intended use. And that is because thoroughly considering the Use cases, perhaps testing the concept with real users, preferrably with good pilot or mockup takes some time and costs some money, and also because it's easy to think that there is nothing unclear in the concept or to imagine that everything is understood of the users and their needs. A good pilot is small project in it self, and takes some effort in making. But may give invaluable insight into how possible users see the future device and it's value. And today it's quite easy to print a 3D model and use a Raspberry Pi or Arduino to make a Pilot functionality

Another thing is, that it's more than likely that the Design Partner doesn't really understand everything that goes on in the Customers mind. They understand the most important features, but there is usually a lot of secondary, but still valuable features and goals that are hard to be described in enough detail in paper. And if it's only described in talking, some of it is not understood and some is just forgotten.

So what is a good way to start a project ?

First of all, be sure that You understand is the purpose of the Thingie. And what are nice to have features, or things that can be implemented for next generation.
Write Use Cases and specifications with the Design Partner - Understanding Your needs is a process, not a read-only task. Anything can only be understood by time and some sweat. Target at making early prototypes and pilots for testing the concept with real users

There are lots of upsides for making the design in smaller steps, and piloting the Thingie. There's high likelyhood that understanding of what is really needed improves as the work progresses, and feedback from real users and real use environment really is easier to take into account. A good way of making the design is getting real functionality as soon as possible, moving to the real target, but if possible with proto & pilot steps. And the first prototypes usually don't need all the bells and whistles of the final product. Maybe even the end product really don't...

This approach also reduces risks, as any risks related to the product should be implemented and tested early on.

Downside ? Well, it may look like more work to be done. And possibly it also is. But in the end the odds are, that making a product in smaller steps, and testing it soon prevents major hiccups in later stage of product design.

Next time, some more stuff that should be considered early on when designing a Thingie :)