Learning fast is the business
Where new products are created, there is no manual. Our core business is innovation – and that requires quickly acquiring new knowledge.
Where a product is new, there are no Lessons Learned to draw on – and the experiential knowledge from development, if anyone has it at all, sits with the competition, guarded as a trade secret. So we have to build that knowledge ourselves: from principles, from related fields, and from what you provide. The faster we build this knowledge, the shorter the onboarding phase, and the sooner the actual development work begins.
Why we learn fast
It is well documented that the more related knowledge you already have, the faster you absorb new knowledge. Cohen and Levinthal call this absorptive capacity: the ability to recognise the value of new, external information, absorb it and apply it. How quickly this happens depends largely on the knowledge already held and applied. Our cross-disciplinary competence across materials, processes and tools is exactly this knowledge base – and it noticeably shortens the onboarding time for a new project.
A genuinely new product cannot be developed by routine. This is where what Hatano and Inagaki call adaptive expertise helps: specialists who not only execute a procedure quickly, but understand why it works. Applying a meta-solution helps you find your way faster. A meta-process that increases efficiency in precision farming can, once understood, be applied to increase efficiency in medical technology.
Extended workbench – we learn with you
You don't have to let us start from zero. If you need an extended workbench in engineering, train us with your know-how – protected by NDA and with a handshake you can rely on. Your internal knowledge is exactly the external information that speeds up our onboarding even further. Deploy us wherever you need us: for the whole journey, or just for the part you're missing.
Onboarding is necessary
Of course, we too have to get up to speed on your subject. This onboarding is fast precisely because related knowledge from other industries shortens the process. What this means over the course of a project, and how it compares financially to a new hire, is covered in the article From one-stop shop to single item.
Sources
- Wesley M. Cohen & Daniel A. Levinthal – Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation, Administrative Science Quarterly 35(1), 128–152 (1990) – existing knowledge determines how quickly new knowledge is absorbed and applied.
- Giyoo Hatano & Kayoko Inagaki – Two Courses of Expertise (1986); overview of adaptive expertise – new strategies in unfamiliar situations rather than pure routine.
IDEA e.U. · Determined Innovation