I CAN turn a wrench over and over again, and, if you insist ( and pay me enough ), I will.. [ though you can pay someone else a lot less money to do that and they'll probably do it better and faster ] but I'm the guy you pay $10k to hit something with a hammer because I can find the root cause of an issue and address it.
Understanding
The first step in making anything good is understanding.
What are you trying to solve ? Why ? What are the constraints ?
Once we understand the problem, the how and what are easier to discover.
Finding the hard parts
If you're thinking about making something new, I'm great at figuring out what you're trying to accomplish, coming up with good [ and possibly novel ] ways to do it.
I'm also exceptionally good at finding challenges with various approaches / risks - the gotchas and things that you won't see coming until it's too late.
Solving difficult problems
One thing I particularly enjoy is finding engineering solutions to difficult problems. Whether it's coming up with something de novo, or putting things tegether in a novel way, figuring out how to do something new is very gratifying to me and generally useful.
Laying out a roadmap
Given an objective, I like thinking through how to get there, including what steps will have to be taken along the way, and assessing where the real work in the journey is hidden. Generally I prefer working in an agile model without having to rigidly impose a brittle schedule or plan, but it's good to figure out at least in broad strokes what the landmarks will be along the way.
Initial Proof-of-Concept
Although I've gone through the process of taking an idea from conception through mass-production, and understand and can work through the stages of Engineering, Design, and Production Validation Testing ( EVT, DVT, and PVT ), my strong preference is focusing on the earliest stage proof-of-concept one- or several- off prototypes because that tends to be where many of the most interesting unsolved problems lie.
Hand-off and ongoing support
Once the initial research & development / prototyping / small-scale production work is complete, I can put together a complete design package including testing plans, or I can help you do that. I have a lot of experience working with contract manufacturers and doing design-for-manufacturing as well as with design reviews and production / optimisation, and can help you and your partners with those things.
