What Do Engineers Do?
A few years ago I volunteered at my kid’s school to speak at career day. The goal, obviously, was to answer the question “what do engineers do” in a way that elementary school kids could relate. As I enjoyed my complimentary coffee and donut from the PTA in the library waiting for school to start, I started looking around at the other parents: a firefighter in uniform with some gear, several police officers with their vehicles parked out front, a dog handler with a golden retriever service dog. I was empty-handed and out of my league--rookie mistake. The following year, I stepped it up and brought a drone. I only had about 15 minutes with each class, but that was enough time to use the drone to get their attention and have a meaningful conversation about solving problems. By the end of each session, each class was answering the question for me: what do engineers do? They solve problems!
A few days later, I was flying that very same drone on my street, taking pictures of my daughters riding their new bikes. As the drone drifted down the street, I was paying a little too much attention to the camera view and I lost track of which direction the craft was pointed. It started to drift, I panicked, and the drone crash landed on the roof of a house at the end of my street.
The first thing that went through my head was my wife’s voice: “You idiot. This is why we can’t have nice things.” Truth be told, this was not the first drone under my command that had taken an alternate flight path. I walked down the street and stared up at my drone wedged into a corner of the roof. As I started feeling sorry for myself, my 9-year-old daughter skidded to a stop next to me. Daddy, what do engineers do?
Engineers solve problems! We solve problems by curating solutions, and that starts with framing up the problem—and understanding that some people don’t even understand there is one. Imagine walking up to the door of someone you don’t know. You ring the bell, and you tell the person who answers: Get a ladder and use this long pole I built for you to get the drone off your roof. When you’re done, bring it to me. I live at the end of the street. Put yourself in this person’s shoes (we’ll call him Sam, because that’s his name). Sam’s thinking, what do you mean there’s a drone on my roof? I don’t know how to process that information, and you’re telling me to go get a ladder and use some tool you built for me!
I knocked on the door. Nobody answered. Summoning every bit of humility in me, I wrote a note: “dear neighbor, I was flying my drone today and it crashed on your roof. Give me a call or a text and I am happy to come and remove it for you.” I didn’t drop off a solution, I gave him a convenient way to act. 48 hours later, Sam texted me: “come by today after 5, but I want to be there.”
Of course he wants to be there, this is his house. I’m the invader, just like a process improvement or a new consumer product disrupting the status quo. It is my job to properly identify and communicate the problem to be solved (there’s a drone on your roof) and then use my training and experience to engineer a solution (see the drone recovery tool picture above, patent pending), and deliver it in a way that gives people a convenient way to act (in this case, all Sam had to do was show up). No one expects a drone to land on their roof, so when you show up with a solution, make sure the person you’re selling it to understands the problem. Engineers solve problems by curating solutions, not dropping them off.
