Dodge Dart Commercial: 1 min 30 sec Microcosm of Engineering Design?!
Ok, wouldn’t have expected to play off of a car commercial for one of my blog posts, but here goes anyway. I first saw the Dodge Dart “How to Change Cars Forever” commercial during the MLB All-Star Game and have noticed a resurgence now that the NFL football season has ramped up. I really like many of the elements of design/engineering work it lays out…
From the beginning it had my attention. It’s a guy trying to think up something new:
“Start with a simple idea. Think. Think more…” Designs start with thinking, you bet. Not just ‘How shall I respond to this Facebook post?’ type thinking, but deep thinking. Go there!
“Stop thinking. Start doing.” Hey, that’s a big step. How many people actually turn the corner and start doing? More people should!
“Hatch a design. Kill the design.” Ahh, the process of iteration. If you design something, you’ll go through it, no doubt. Maybe fear of iteration is why some people don’t “Start doing”. Don’t fear iteration, learn from it.
“Design something totally original. Ok not that original. This original.” Great point. You’ll get a lot further if you create useful designs.
“Kick out the committees. Call in the engineers. Call in the car guys. Call in the nerds” It usually will take a team to pull of something worthwhile, and as they will show later, committees often lead to compromise (bad!).
“Build a prototype. Mold it. Shape it. HATE IT. Start over. Build another prototype. Mold it. Shape it. LOVE IT. That’s good.” Gotta build prototypes. Prototypes are key to observing form; function; and for more complex systems, system behavior. Prototype as early and as often as possible. You’ll be amazed at what you learn.
“Kick out the committees again. Why? Because they lead to compromise and compromise leads to this:” Bravo, such a poignant example! At best, a committee can generate some good ideas in the early going, but once you’re down the design path, committee suggestions and demands can spoil a design and wreak havoc on a schedule.
Can someone tell me whether that three-wheeled Yugo-looking thing was an actual car design?
The next segments balance performance and features against cost.
“Give it some kick. Give it power. More power. Never too much power.”
“Give it 40 MPG. No 41.”
“Give it a smart phone app that can start the engine.”
“Give it a huge display. Bigger. No. Bigger. Good.”
“Give it a starting price under $16 Grand.”
“Uh Oh, the finance guys.”
“You can’t do that.” (Love how they have this guy posing.)
“Kick out the finance guys.”
The rest: race-inspired tweaking with Travis Pastrana (cool), car shows, critics, marketing, awards, and celebrity endorser Tom Brady.
(Tom Brady? – CAREFUL! I’m fine with it because I respect his abilities and record, but I would venture to say many others who live in say St. Louis, Oakland, Pittsburg, New York – though the Giants have had his number as of late, Indy, San Diego, Denver, Baltimore, etc. who aren’t.) Anywho.
“Making a ground breaking car: It’s that easy.”
Hey, not bad for a minute and thirty second commercial! It covered a lot of the challenges that designers and design teams face when embarking on a new effort. Maybe I’ll even test drive one of these when the time to replace the ole’ Civic comes around. Props to the fact it is available with a 6-speed manual transmission.
So, if you have a design idea, and want to “Start Doing”, let me know, and I can help you get on your way! Top-Down Engineering has been down the design road many times before.
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