“Success is measured by the value we deliver. When we coach and mentor engineers and leaders to relentlessly focus on value—by knowing more, caring more, and doing more to meet customer needs—we are on the right track.” ~Alan Willett, Chief Engineer Exceptional Difference
New Age Navigation
Prior to the invention of the compass, and modern GPS-based technology, generations of sailors relied on the North Star to navigate at night. The North Star represented a constant against which they could set their course and measure their accuracy. Positioned about one-degree from the north celestial pole, the North Star appears to remain stationary while the rest of the stars rotate around it, which makes it a trustworthy navigation aid.
Value: The Engineer’s North Star
In the world of systems engineering, value is our guiding North Star, directing our decisions, discussion, and overall direction. The products we produce are measured by their usefulness, benefit, and worth. These products must not only work technically but also provide meaningful benefits to the customer and the organization. While there isn’t a single metric that encompasses value, there are many measurable factors: usefulness, usage, user delight, quality, speed to value, cost effectiveness, and various “-ilities” like flexibility, maintainability, scalability, reliability, usability, and stability. Together, these elements shape our concept of value.
Exceptional engineers relentlessly focus on value as their North Star, which shifts their attention from the technical details to customer needs and outcomes. This emphasis on value fuels speed and innovation, ensuring that every effort is made to deliver maximum value to customers as quickly as possible through creative and effective solutions.
Alignment
Value also aligns people and organizations, as it elevates the engineer to a new level that speaks the language of leadership. Picture a scenario in which there’s a conversation between a leader and engineer. The leader is visibly upset over a customer-discovered defect and says, “The customer just called and chewed me out, and I need answers! Whose fault is this, and what are you doing about it?” Envision two potential responses from the engineer:
- Traditional response: “This isn’t our fault. The defect didn’t get caught in testing because the schedule was compressed, and we had to rush.”
- Value-based response: “This is very upsetting. I can see why you’re angry. Heck, I’m angry too. This is one of our best customers, and their business is critical to our growth and profitability. There is nothing more important to my team than delighting our customers. I’m going to review our checklists to better inspect for this type of defect going forward, and then I’m pulling some of our best and brightest engineers to conduct a Learn from Defects session. That way we can review recent defect data to see what other systemic improvements we can make.”
The traditional response is likely to be perceived as whining, which will only serve to widen the gap and drive further confrontation. The value-based response is likely to align the engineer and leader to solve a problem, and it comes from focusing on value: growth, profitability, and customer satisfaction. The engineer creates trust and disarms the angry leader by leading with value. This changes the tone of the conversation from confrontation to aligned problem solving. The engineer also demonstrates empathy and provides a path to a better place. This shows the leader that the engineer knows more, cares more, and is willing to do more to solve the problem and improve the situation.
Next Steps
At Exceptional Difference, value is the first of our five Obligations of Engineering. Our comprehensive consulting and experiential learning offerings put value at the center of everything we do. We teach engineers how to lead with value, build trust with management, run Learn from Defects sessions, and more. Contact us at info@exceptionaldifference.com or visit www.exceptionaldifference.com to learn more about how we can help you create a Culture of Excellence where everyone relentlessly focuses on value.
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