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There is little question that User Experience has become as fundamental to product success as the core engineering. My guest this week has been a leader in User Experience and Design since its rise to prominence a couple decades ago. In this episode, Jason helps me understand what User Experience is all about including how to incorporate it into new products.___________________________________________________________________________ Jason Whitney has over 20 Years of experience and more than 50 patents filed creating and leading teams that create digital, physical and retail products that not only delight customers but have also had considerable impact on the marketplace.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-whitney-ba12a12/ Notes- http://highway22.com- Jason can be reached at jasonwhitney@highway22.comIntro CreditsMe with apologies to Robert DuvallThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

I am extremely excited to bring you a discussion about one of the most exciting new product development methods - Jobs to Be Done. In a world where 25% success rates of new products is typical, Jobs to Be Done delivers results above 80%!! The Jobs to Be Done approach was an epiphany to me and we have started using it at my work. In this episode, I talk with Tony Ulwick who came up with Jobs to Be Done and has spent many years perfecting it.___________________________________________________________________________ Tony Ulwick, Founder & CEO - StrategynTony is the pioneer of Jobs-to-be-Done Theory, the inventor of the Outcome-Driven Innovation® (ODI) process, and the founder of the strategy and innovation consulting firm Strategyn. Tony has applied his ODI process in the world’s leading companies and across nearly all industries, achieving a success rate that is 5-times the industry average. Philip Kotler calls Tony “the Deming of innovation” and credits him with bringing predictability to innovation. Tony is the author of the best seller, What Customers Want, and a new release on the subject titled JOBS TO BE DONE: Theory to Practice.  Jobs to be Done: Theory to Practice By Anthony W. Ulwick Intro CreditsMe after a failed attempt from JaneThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

I have been really looking forward to getting this episode posted since I had such a fun time talking with my guest, Heather Ann Havenwood. Heather Ann will teaches us what it means to be a "Sexy Boss" and the steps it takes to become one. Her approach in her book "Sexy Boss" is provocative and powerful. It will help you take control of your life and get it headed in the direction you want.___________________________________________________________________________ Heather Ann Havenwood, is a serial entrepreneur and is regarded as a top authority on digital marketing, sales coaching, and online publishing business strategies.  Heather Ann has been named Top 50 Must Follow Women Entrepreneur's for 2017 by Huffington Post.  She is also called Chief Sexy Boss™ (from her Amazon BEST SELLER book Sexy Boss™ How Female Entrepreneurship is Changing the Rule Book and  Beating the Big Boys and others call her an 'Icon Creator' or a 'Wizard Behind the Curtain'.   In 2006 she started, developed and grew an online information marketing publishing company from ground zero to over $1 million in sales in less than 12 months. Starting without a list, a product, a name or an offer, Heather Ann molded her business partner into a successful guru now known as an expert in his field.   She has instructed, coached and promoted hundreds of entrepreneurs leading them down the path to success in building a lucrative business from their knowledge and leveraging it online.others call her an 'Icon Creator' or a 'Wizard Behind the Curtain'.   In 2006 she started, developed and grew an online information marketing publishing company from ground zero to over $1 million in sales in less than 12 months. Starting without a list, a product, a name or an offer, Heather Ann molded her business partner into a successful guru now known as an expert in his field.   She has instructed, coached and promoted hundreds of entrepreneurs leading them down the path to success in building a lucrative business from their knowledge and leveraging it online.Heather Ann currently is the Author of many books including  Sexy Boss™ How the Empowerment of Women are changing the Rulebook for Money, Success and Sex and The Game of Dating and How to Play it: A rule book for divorced men stepping back into the game. (Found on Amazon)Heather Ann is now a nationally syndicated radio show host of ‘The Win’ where she shares her incredible story of success and loss on the entrepreneur journey, and her true happiness in a completely compelling and vulnerable way that audiences relate to and always learn from.  She talks about achieving ‘The Winners Edge’, from “losing it all’ and discovering her true passion in owning her own businesses and serving her clients by helping them achieve their goals.  Heather Ann Havenwood is a smart and savvy business woman who is now stepping out from behind the curtain to educate, enlighten and empower ALL  entrepreneurs to grow or start an online business and live a fearless and fulfilled life.Be You! Be REAL! Be the BOSS of your LIFE!___________________________________________________________________________Sponsor: This Episode is brought to you by Pro Alpha Nutrition. I use their power greens product each morning and it gives me the energy, vitamins, and probiotics to start my day off right. I rely on it to fill in the gaps in my diet that I know must be there. Check them out at www.proalphanutrition.com. Use coupon code "Matt" at checkout and get 15% off your first order. Notes- Heather Ann's website: HeatherHavenwood.com- SexyBossPodcast- "Sexy Boss" on Amazon- "Power Guesting" on Amazon- Heather's Radio Show: The Win- coachwithheather.com- To receive free audio book of the first three chapters of "Sexy Boss", text "Sexy" to 72000.Intro Credit:Jane Hermstedt at high speed.The R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Jason Carman returns to the show to give us the rundown on hardware development. This is a very good introduction to the steps of making electronics for new products and the associated best practices.___________________________________________________________________________ Jason Carman is a seasoned product development and manufacturing professional in hardware and embedded software products.  Jason has a technical background with deep knowledge of product development, portfolio management, manufacturing, and business development.  Jason has held leadership roles in varying organizational structures and sizes ranging from global multi-billion dollar organizations to founding new venture technology startups.  His product line knowledge ranges from high-reliability industrial applications, to consumer retail, to versatile OEM platforms.  ___________________________________________________________________________SponsorThe sponsor for this show is Cargt Consulting (website). You may remember Mark Vogt from Episode 002 - Software, a Baby Step. Mark and his team at Cargt are masters of developing electronic and software solutions. The more innovative and challenging your development project, the more you need a Cargt as a partner. They make your creative product ideas and make them a reality. Notes- ANSYS- Jason can be reached at jason.carman@gmail.com and on LinkedIn HERE. Intro Credit:Wolf Hermstedt in his "why" phase.The R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

It's obvious that I love a good play on words and this episode title is a favorite. Mostly because may new product development projects find themselves desperate to get the required approvals necessary to launch the product. It is the number one risk to getting product delivered on time since final approval testing happens late in the project. In this episode, Stephanie Barrows from Intertek joins me to help navigate the dangerous waters of approvals and certifications.___________________________________________________________________________ Stephanie Barrows is the Managing Consultant for Innovation with Intertek’s Consulting Services Group. She has spent the her career in the Regulatory and Compliance industry, assisting manufacturers with business and process advisory, product development, and global regulatory strategies.As the Managing Consultant – Innovation, Stephanie works with companies to help them understand how technology trends will impact compliance strategies in their organization.___________________________________________________________________________SponsorThis week, I welcome a new sponsor - Cargt Consulting (website). You may remember Mark Vogt from Episode 002 - Software, a Baby Step. Mark and his team at Cargt are masters of developing electronic and software solutions. The more innovative and challenging your development project, the more you need a Cargt as a partner. They make your creative product ideas and make them a reality. Notes:- Intertek- NRTL- CE Marking- FCC Marking- NSF MarkingIntro Credit:Matt HermstedtThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this episode, I give you an overview of the Project Management Body of Knowledge, aka PMBOK (pronounced pem-bock). The PMBOK is the the Project Management Institute's (PMI) bible for project managers and the basis for the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. I discuss the structure for the PMBOK, how I've used it in the running of my projects and my project management offices, and the value of and suggested preparation for the PMP exam.SponsorThis week, I welcome a new sponsor - Cargt Consulting (website). You may remember Mark Vogt from Episode 002 - Software, a Baby Step. Mark and his team at Cargt are masters of developing electronic and software solutions. The more innovative and challenging your development project, the more you need a Cargt as a partner. They make your creative product ideas and make them a reality. Notes- PMI.org- PMBOK- The "Rita" PMP Exam Prep GuideIntro Credit:Julia JiangThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A little fun this week with all the show intros thus far. The R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this week's interview I learned that companies have a lifecycle just as products do. Companies need to reinvent themselves in order to survive. The cycle time is longer than products, sometimes measured in decades, and if companies do it well, they will not die out like so many do. Joanne Highland, of the rInnovation Group has cracked the code on getting companies to develop and execute an innovation strategy successfully.___________________________________________________________________________ Joanne Hyland is the Founding Partner and President of the rInnovation Group, an International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) Advisory Board Member and former Vice President, New Venture Development, at Nortel Networks. There, she, with her innovation team, founded the internal venturing program, a multi-million dollar investment fund that led to 12 business start-ups, one of which reached a billion dollar exit in October 2008.  Joanne is now working with major corporations to link new business development, venturing and innovation initiatives with strategy, systems, leadership and culture requirements to drive growth and corporate renewal.  She is an accomplished innovation strategist, architect, orchestrator, implementation expert and co-author of Pivot: How Top Entrepreneurs Adapt and Change Course to Find Ultimate Success, (Wiley, October 2013). The rInnovation Group’s client list includes BASF, Bekaert, Bosch, Clariant, Danfoss, Evonik, Grundfos, HP, LM Wind Power, Moen, NOVA Chemicals, Novozymes, Shell, Tetra Pak and Vestas, among others.  Joanne speaks regularly on topics related to innovation and corporate entrepreneurship and has been a member of the faculty or guest speaker in executive education programs at Babson College, DTU, MIT, Motorola University, RPI, Stanford University, the Tata Management Training Centre (TMTC) and the Industrial Research Institute.  She is a featured executive in the book Radical Innovation: How Mature Companies Can Outsmart Upstarts, (HBS Press, 2000) and expert resource for Grabbing Lightning: Building a Capability for Breakthrough Innovation (Jossey Bass, 2008), Strategy + Business Magazine Innovation Award. She is a graduate of Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. For more information, please visit www.rinnovationgroup.com or contact Joanne directly at joanne.hyland@rinnovationgroup.com.___________________________________________________________________________Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Sunflower Electrical Systems. Sunflower is a custom manufacturer of light electromechanical assemblies with a focus on wire and cable harnesses. But they also do wire preparation, complex sub-assemblies, and full turnkey products Sunflower allows its customers to reduce their total lower cost of ownership AND risk by: Reducing or eliminating inventoryOptimizing use of labor resourcesEliminating equipment, tooling or other capital costsAgile and flexible to meet their needsSunflower is very flexible and scalable to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Visit them at  www.sunelecsys.com. Notes:Rinnovation GroupJoanne's book ==>   Intro Credit:Jason CarmanThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Josh Roberts returns to the show to dive into Agile team management methods. Josh gave us a great introduction to the Scaled Agile Framework in Episode Four. In this chat, Josh teaches about Scrum, Kanban, and various other techniques that are used at the team level of the Agile Framework.___________________________________________________________________________ Josh and kids enjoying the Sunflower State Josh Roberts is an accomplished technology leader with over 17 years of experience delivering business value. Most recently he has been focused on creating high-performing delivery organizations using Lean-Agile portfolio, program and team management practices. He is a servant leader that enables business and IT collaboration by building a culture that values transparency, alignment, and continuous learning.Over the years, Josh has led a number of Lean-Agile transformations. He was first exposed to Agile team practices in 2010 at Jack Henry & Associates while managing the product development activities for a portfolio of solutions to include Mobile Banking, Online Bill Pay, and Electronic Statements. Using Scrum, he was able to increase team productivity, quality, speed to market, and overall employee engagement. Learning from this great experience, in 2012 he joined Waddell & Reed to lead a Lean-Agile transformation across 8 enterprise technology teams utilizing Scrum and Kanban. Not only did the Web, SharePoint, ETL, Siebel, and Mainframe teams adopt a combination of Scrum and Kanban, there were several business units that adopted these same practices to manage their own work. That’s when it became clear to Josh that Lean-Agile practices were not limited to application development teams, or even specific technologies. These practices were about creating an environment in which high-performing teams thrived.All these experiences culminated in 2014, when Josh joined Westar Energy as an Agile Coach to help them modernize their IT processes. Here he went on to direct a 3-year enterprise transformation program to implement Lean-Agile Pipeline, Portfolio, Program, and Team Management practices using the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). To date, there has been 10+ Agile teams and 6 business units that have adopted these practices.As Josh’s knowledge continues to grow with each Lean-Agile implementation, so does his passion to help organizations modernize their delivery processes.___________________________________________________________________________Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Sunflower Electrical Systems. Sunflower is a custom manufacturer of light electromechanical assemblies with a focus on wire and cable harnesses. But they also do wire preparation, complex sub-assemblies, and full turnkey products Sunflower allows its customers to reduce their total lower cost of ownership AND risk by: Reducing or eliminating inventoryOptimizing use of labor resourcesEliminating equipment, tooling or other capital costsAgile and flexible to meet their needsSunflower is very flexible and scalable to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Visit them at  www.sunelecsys.com. Email to a FriendNotes:ShuhariScaled Agile FrameworkExtreme ProgrammingAgile ManifestoProject Iron TriangleFibinachi SequenceBurndown ChartKanbanTasty CupcakeIntro Credit:Wolf HermstedtThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Every R&D team is inescapably made up of people. As such, each team has a culture. Leaders know that results are reflective of the organizational culture and that it is very difficult to change a culture. My guest in this episode has cracked the code on this. Elan from the Breakthrough International Group has shown companies how to change their culture for decades with remarkable results. A high performing R&D team can drive the success of the entire company. This episode introduces the conversations that build a culture that leads to extraordinary results._________________________________________________________________________________ Elan - 8,373 miles from the R and D Show studios Elan is president of Breakthrough International Group Inc. and Breakthrough International Group Ltd. He has been leading Breakthrough seminars for 25 years.  He has a BS in Psychology and an MA in Education both from the City University of New York.  He lives his commitment to empower people to fulfill on what’s possible. Elan is both a US and NZ citizen, residing in Queenstown, New Zealand. Breakthrough International Group is a resource for corporations committed to achieving organizational breakthroughs and designing their corporate culture.  The Breakthrough team has successfully shared their work with executive officers, managers, staff and union leaders from leading companies around the world. Participating companies include: ESPN, GoPro, HP, AT&T, Telecom NZ, Electricity Corporation of New Zealand, Methanex, Fletcher Challenge, Motorola, LG, ITT, Caltex Oil, BHP, Vancouver Airport Authority, Levi Strauss, Flextronics International, West Marine._________________________________________________________________________________Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Sunflower Electrical Systems. Sunflower is a custom manufacturer of light electromechanical assemblies with a focus on wire and cable harnesses. But they also do wire preparation, complex sub-assemblies, and full turnkey products Sunflower allows its customers to reduce their total lower cost of ownership AND risk by: Reducing or eliminating inventoryOptimizing use of labor resourcesEliminating equipment, tooling or other capital costsAgile and flexible to meet their needsSunflower is very flexible and scalable to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Visit them at  www.sunelecsys.com. Email to a FriendNotes:Elan can be contacted at:wearebig@aol.comIntro Credit:Anita HermstedtRing Recorded by Mike Koenig found at http://soundbible.com/The R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

What do R&D, space elevators, Gorbachev assassination plots, manganese nodules, ozone depletion, and saturation diving have in common? The answer is this episode! I talk with Dr. Robert Williscroft who, in a storied and adventurous life, has been involved with all of these. It's probably not hard to believe that Robert is also a writer. He teaches me about "hard" science fiction as we discuss one of his latest novels._________________________________________________________________________________ Robert at the Los Angeles Adventurers' Club with unidentified guest Dr. Robert Williscroft can not be succinctly described in the space allotted for the blog post bio. He has done research on the south pole, he has dredged manganese from the deepest depths of the ocean, he has tapped into soviet communication cables which may have led to the end of the Cold War (no kidding!), and written numerous books. Since Robert has such interesting and varied experience, it is best to visit his website at http://robertwilliscroft.com and check out his Bio, Resume, and Creed. _________________________________________________________________________________Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Sunflower Electrical Systems. Sunflower is a custom manufacturer of light electromechanical assemblies with a focus on wire and cable harnesses. But they also do wire preparation, complex sub-assemblies, and full turnkey products Sunflower allows its customers to reduce their total lower cost of ownership AND risk by: Reducing or eliminating inventoryOptimizing use of labor resourcesEliminating equipment, tooling or other capital costsAgile and flexible to meet their needsSunflower is very flexible and scalable to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Visit them at  www.sunelecsys.com. Notes:- Manganese- Keith Lofstrom Operation Ivy Bells: A Novel of the Cold War By Robert G Williscroft - Influence training based on Shackleton- Arthur Clark's Fountains of Paradise- Jerome Pearson- Robert's novel Slingshot-Robert's websiteIntro Credit:Matt The R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

I am so excited to bring you Dr. Bob Cooper on the show this week. Thus all the exclamation points above! Bob is the founding father of the Stage-Gate process. I attended one of Bob's seminars earlier this year and, in a nothing to lose moment, asked him to be on the show. Bob has worked with the biggest and the best to improve their R&D with impressive results. His impact on corporations around the world and the world itself can not be overstated._________________________________________________________________________________ Robert G. Cooper is one of the most influential innovation thought-leaders in the business world today. He pioneered many groundbreaking discoveries in product innovation, including the Stage-Gate® Idea-to-Launch Process, now implemented by almost 80% of North American companies. Having spent 40 years studying the practices and pitfalls of 3000+ new product projects in thousands of companies, he has assembled the world's most comprehensive research in the field of product innovation management. His presentations and practical consulting advice have been widely applauded by corporate and business event audiences throughout the world, making him one of the most sought-after speakers.A prolific author, Dr. Cooper has published 100+ academic articles and thirteen books, including the best-selling 'Winning at New Products', now in its 4th edition. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Crawford Fellow from the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) and the Maurice Holland Award from the Industrial Research Institute (IRI). He is also Professor Emeritus of Marketing and Technology Management at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, and Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) at Penn State University. _________________________________________________________________________________Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Sunflower Electrical Systems. Sunflower is a custom manufacturer of light electromechanical assemblies with a focus on wire and cable harnesses. But they also do wire preparation, complex sub-assemblies, and full turnkey products Sunflower allows its customers to reduce their total lower cost of ownership AND risk by: Reducing or eliminating inventoryOptimizing use of labor resourcesEliminating equipment, tooling or other capital costsAgile and flexible to meet their needsSunflower is very flexible and scalable to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Visit them at  www.sunelecsys.com. Notes:- American Football- PDMA's Research- AC Nielson Study- Bob's Website: www.bobcooper.ca- Other Stage-Gate Resources Winning at New Products: Creating Value Through Innovation By Robert G. Cooper Intro Credit:Stan KijowskiThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Quality Management is a key part of new product development that is often not present or is constantly being over shadowed by other priorities. That's a shame since a strong Quality Management presence in projects ensures that all in the development projects are proactively planning quality into their work. The alternative is to rely on testing to ensure quality which comes late in the project when changes can be very costly. Good Quality Management can ensure you build the right thing and build the thing right. In this episode, I interview my good buddy Barry Schmall. Barry has a passion for quality and has many years of experience seeing both good and bad examples of quality programs._________________________________________________________________________________ Barry discussing Quality with Ruger Barry is the principal at Schmall Strategic Advisors and specializes in industrial engineering process improvement and business system alignment consulting work.  He has over 20 years experience leading the development of quality systems and approaches within several global design/manufacturing corporations.  He has spent time as individual contributor (Quality Engineer) and as manager/leader (Engineering & Operations Manager) and brings this broad experience base together with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Industrial Technology from California State University, Fresno.  In his leisure time he enjoys camping with his family, hunting, and working with his labrador retriever gun dogs, Ruger and Kodi.  You can find more detail on and contact Barry via LinkedIn._________________________________________________________________________________Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Sunflower Electrical Systems. Sunflower is a custom manufacturer of light electromechanical assemblies with a focus on wire and cable harnesses. But they also do wire preparation, complex sub-assemblies, and full turnkey products Sunflower allows its customers to reduce their total lower cost of ownership AND risk by: Reducing or eliminating inventoryOptimizing use of labor resourcesEliminating equipment, tooling or other capital costsAgile and flexible to meet their needsSunflower is very flexible and scalable to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Visit them at  www.sunelecsys.com. Notes:- SIPOC- Hoshin Kanri- RACI- KANO Quality Function Deployment: How to Make QFD Work for You By Louis Cohen - Diagrams: Pareto, Fishbone, Process Flow- American Society for QualityIntro Credit:Me and JaneThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this first book review episode, I take a look at Peter Thiel's Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future_______________________________________________________________________________This episode is brought to you by Sunflower Electrical Systems. Sunflower is a custom manufacturer of light electromechanical assemblies with a focus on wire and cable harnesses. But they also do wire preparation, complex sub-assemblies, and full turnkey products Sunflower allows its customers to reduce their total lower cost of ownership AND risk by: Reducing or eliminating inventoryOptimizing use of labor resourcesEliminating equipment, tooling or other capital costsAgile and flexible to meet their needsSunflower is very flexible and scalable to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Visit them at  www.sunelecsys.com. Notes: Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future By Peter Thiel, Blake Masters Intro Credit:Me and SiriThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Tools are a major part of R&D. The right tool can be profoundly useful. A bad one will drive you crazy. This episode is the first of many in which I explore a development tool. I sit down with Mike Farleigh from ANSYS. ANSYS is a leading provider of simulation software. As you will see, if used properly, software simulation can be very powerful, efficient, and produce a significant return on investment. As with many software tools, simulation has become more user friendly and affordable over the years. All in R&D should give this episode a listen to learn more about the state of the art in simulation and virtual prototyping._____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mike is a Sr. Account Manager for ANSYS, Inc. an OEM of multi-physics software which enables simulation driven product development and virtual prototyping.   When not mentoring his customers in the Midwest on how to depart from costly and time consuming, "build, test, break" process of product development, Mike and his family enjoy boating, Royals baseball, and Kansas State sports.  You can find more detail about me on my  LinkedIn Page and more about ANSYS at our Corporate Website. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________This episode is brought to you by Sunflower Electrical Systems. Sunflower is a custom manufacturer of light electromechanical assemblies with a focus on wire and cable harnesses. But they also do wire preparation, complex sub-assemblies, and full turnkey products Sunflower allows its customers to reduce their total lower cost of ownership AND risk by: Reducing or eliminating inventoryOptimizing use of labor resourcesEliminating equipment, tooling or other capital costsAgile and flexible to meet their needsSunflower is very flexible and scalable to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Visit them at  www.sunelecsys.com. Notes:ANSYS Product and training resourceshttp://www.ansys.com/ANSYS YouTube ChannelANSYS "How To" ChannelSimulation for Every Engineer - ANSYS AIM Creating a Digital Twin - ANSYS Other ResourcesDigital Engineering Engineering.com - CAD/CAEUpcoming ANSYS training in KCCAE for Design Engineers - 3/2/2017 - SignUp & RSVPIntro Credit:The incomparable Cora Lee BoydenThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

I was looking forward to this episode from the moment I decided to start a podcast. There is much confusion about Agile and the terms within are often thrown around with little understanding of their true meaning. To cut through the clutter, I turn to my good friend Josh Roberts. Josh is as passionate about agile as he is knowledgable. He even uses agile to plan his family vacations! This interview is at a high and introductory level. It provides the foundation for many more discussions on Agile.___________________________________________________________________________ Josh and children proving beyond a doubt that they live in Kansas Josh Roberts is an accomplished technology leader with over 17 years of experience delivering business value. Most recently he has been focused on creating high-performing delivery organizations using Lean-Agile portfolio, program and team management practices. He is a servant leader that enables business and IT collaboration by building a culture that values transparency, alignment, and continuous learning.Over the years, Josh has led a number of Lean-Agile transformations. He was first exposed to Agile team practices in 2010 at Jack Henry & Associates while managing the product development activities for a portfolio of solutions to include Mobile Banking, Online Bill Pay, and Electronic Statements. Using Scrum, he was able to increase team productivity, quality, speed to market, and overall employee engagement. Learning from this great experience, in 2012 he joined Waddell & Reed to lead a Lean-Agile transformation across 8 enterprise technology teams utilizing Scrum and Kanban. Not only did the Web, SharePoint, ETL, Siebel, and Mainframe teams adopt a combination of Scrum and Kanban, there were several business units that adopted these same practices to manage their own work. That’s when it became clear to Josh that Lean-Agile practices were not limited to application development teams, or even specific technologies. These practices were about creating an environment in which high-performing teams thrived.All these experiences culminated in 2014, when Josh joined Westar Energy as an Agile Coach to help them modernize their IT processes. Here he went on to direct a 3-year enterprise transformation program to implement Lean-Agile Pipeline, Portfolio, Program, and Team Management practices using the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). To date, there has been 10+ Agile teams and 6 business units that have adopted these practices.As Josh’s knowledge continues to grow with each Lean-Agile implementation, so does his passion to help organizations modernize their delivery processes._________________________________________________________________________________Sponsor: This Episode is brought to you by Pro Alpha Nutrition. I use their power greens product each morning and it gives me the energy, vitamins, and probiotics to start my day off right. I rely on it to fill in the gaps in my diet that I know must be there. Check them out at www.proalphanutrition.com. Use coupon code "Matt" at checkout and get 15% off your first order. Notes:Where it all started - The Agile ManifestoGreat resource to learn more - www.scaledagileframework.comLearn about employee motivation with Dan Pink's book: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us More about the Dunbar number in Sebastian Junger's book:  Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging Learn more about Rugby than Josh and I can obviously teach you HERE.Intro Credit:Yoga guru Stephanie Gabriel BoydenThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this week's episode, Nile Fairfield and I dive into the V Model. The V Model sits at the heart of design and development and is critical to ensure that what you make works and is what you wanted in the first place.            Nile personifying the V Model Nile Fairfield is a father, husband, triathlete, and passionate systems engineer. With a Bachelor's in Physics and a Master's in Interdisciplinary Engineering, his broad perspective allows for a well-rounded approach to new product development. He has had the opportunity to learn the market needs of many industries including infrared imaging, security & surveillance, automotive navigation and infotainment, and industrial metering pumps. He has served on the leadership team defining engineering processes at multiple companies and been responsible for translating market needs into a concrete set of requirements, architecture, and design to create quality products that exceed market expectations. He is available for consultation (nile.fairfield@gmail.com) in bringing industry best practices in requirement management, architecture design, and system verification to your organization.This Episode is brought to you by Pro Alpha Nutrition. I use their power greens product each morning and it gives me the energy, vitamins, and probiotics to start my day off right. I rely on it to fill in the gaps in my diet that I know must be there. Check them out at www.proalphanutrition.com. Use coupon code "Matt" at checkout and get 15% off your first order. Notes:- V ModelTools- DOORS- Jama- HP Quality CenterMore info on Nile can be found on LinkedIn.Intro Credit:All the folks at the launch partyThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This episode is my leap into the knowledge abyss of software. To me, software is a bunch of concepts and terms that float around somewhat randomly in my head. At least, until software guru Mark Vogt laid it all out for me. I hope you learn as much from this interview as I did! Mark is the co-founder of Cargt Consulting and Flyover Innovations. He also has many years experience as a software engineer at Garmin. When he is not busy rebuilding pick and place machines for fun, Mark designs various embedded software, wireless communications, and display solutions for his clients. You can find more info on and contact Mark via his Cargt website or LinkedIn.This Episode is brought to you by Pro Alpha Nutrition. I use their power greens product each morning and it gives me the energy, vitamins, and probiotics to start my day off right. I rely on it to fill in the gaps in my diet that I know must be there. Check them out at www.proalphanutrition.com. Use coupon code "Matt" at checkout and get 15% off your first order. Notes: - Stack Overflow- Arduino- Code Academy- Article on coding boot campsIntro CreditWolf HermstedtThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

For my first interview on The R and D Show I chat with my good friend Jason Carman, Director of R&D at Accudyne Industries. We discuss an appropriate topic for the first show - definitions of research and development. We talk about the differences between R, D and E to include organizational structure, insource vs outsource, the next evolution of kids' wagons, and more. Jason Carman is a seasoned product development and manufacturing professional in hardware and embedded software products.  Jason has a technical background with deep knowledge of product development, portfolio management, manufacturing, and business development.  Jason has held leadership roles in varying organizational structures and sizes ranging from global multi-billion dollar organizations to founding new venture technology startups.  His product line knowledge ranges from high-reliability industrial applications, to consumer retail, to versatile OEM platforms.  This Episode is brought to you by Pro Alpha Nutrition. I use their power greens product each morning and it gives me the energy, vitamins, and probiotics to start my day off right. I rely on it to fill in the gaps in my diet that I know must be there. Check them out at www.proalphanutrition.com. Use coupon code "Matt" at checkout and get 15% off your first order. Notes:Jason can be reached at jason.carman@gmail.com and on LinkedIn HERE.Intro CreditJane HermstedtThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This episode is an introduction to The R and D Show. I talk about how the show came to be and what you can expect. Notes:Nothing to really add here!Intro CreditMeThe R and D Show Theme Music Credit:District Four Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/