The Art of Product Design

Embrace Open Engineering and accelerate the design and manufacturing processes

Product development is a team sport, but most companies don't practice it that way. Organizations should be drawing on the creativity of engaged customers and outsiders, but instead they rely on the same small group of internal "experts" for new ideas. Designers and engineers should be connecting with marketing, sales, customer support, suppliers, and most importantly, customers. The Art of Product Design explains the rise of "Open Engineering," a way of breaking down barriers and taking advantage of web-based communities, knowledge, and tools to accelerate the design and manufacturing processes.

• Explains how to establish open flows of information inside and outside an organization, increasing the quality and frequency of input from different groups and stakeholders
• Hardi Meybaum is the founder and CEO of GrabCad, the largest community of mechanical engineers and designers in the world

Open Engineering is crowdsourcing, it's collaborating, it's sharing and connecting. And it's helping a growing number of companies create better products faster than they ever imagined. The Art of Product Design shows you how to harness its power for your company.

HARDY MEYBAUM is a mechanical engineer, and the cofounder and CEO of GrabCAD Inc. Hardi's vision of how manufacturers, engineers, designers, and students could work together online led him to create the GrabCAD Community for engineers and designers, bringing together more than one million members who have shared more than 350,000 projects.

The Web has revolutionized so many things, but has only just begun to change what really matters--the physical world. The things you pick up, drive, sit on, and rely on to live your life haven't been affected by the digital revolution. Until now. The Art of Product Design explains the rise of Open Engineering, a way of breaking down barriers and taking advantage of web-based communities, knowledge, and tools to accelerate the design and manufacturing processes. What's changing? Suddenly, in small-town South Carolina, Terry Stonehocker gets commissions from California. In the depths of Greece's economic meltdown, Andreas Gkertsos gets a great job offer. Out in Oregon, self-taught Tommy Mueller finds Hollywood asking for his help. And way over in Cochin, India, Sasank Gopinathan becomes the go-to guy for an American maker of supercars. The world's design and engineering organizations are catching on. With CAD professionals networking in online communities and using new tools to share and collaborate, an almost infinite reservoir of expertise is within reach for companies of all sizes. Learn how big organizations, like GE and Nokia, are jumping in with both feet, by issuing an open "challenge" seeking novel engineering solutions to their hardest problems. See how small companies like Rest Devices try a hundred prototype designs to find the perfect fit in less than a year. Meet the individual engineers all over the world finding new ways to build great products faster. The Art of Product Design shows you how embracing Open Engineering will unlock resources, open new opportunities, and put you ahead of the competition. The Art of Product Design shows you: How companies large and small are drawing on Open Engineering to build better products faster How crowdsourcing ideas can jump-start the creative process The benefits of connecting engineers and designers to peers and partners through the design process How to overcome the challenges of communicating complex ideas The benefits of rapid design iteration Common problems with outside manufacturers and how online tools can improve communications How social networking and other new technologies speed up the design process

Praise For The Art of Product Design "Hardi tells two fascinating stories with this book, one about how he founded and grew GrabCAD and the other about how he sees the world of product design changing. Both stories are relevant to anyone seeking to take advantage of new online communities and connections to grow their business." Dean Kamen, Founder of DEKA Research and Development Corp. "The communications revolution created by the Internet is breaking down barriers between countries, as well as companies, enabling talented individuals everywhere to find opportunities around the globe. The Art of Product Design is a story of how smart, creative people from around the world can find each other, solve problems, old and new, and do amazing things." Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia "We are fortunate to be living through the most important communications revolution in human history. The ramifications of real-time communications instantly connecting every human on earth with every other human on earth is even more important than the invention of moveable type and the printing press more than 500 years ago. Yet most executives think these changes only relate to their companys PR and marketing departments. Hardi Meybaum shows us how the digital revolution impacts product design and manufacturing and explains why fortunes will be won and lost in the new world order. You need to know how your organization will thrive in an environment where CAD is in the cloud and engineers in every corner of the world suddenly have access to the sophisticated tools and massive processing power that only the richest companies could once afford." David Meerman Scott, marketing strategist and international bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR

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