On track/off track is a “get stuff done” framework shared with us by business coach Kate Purmal, to help us drive projects end-to-end and focus on sharing results-based updates. Meeting fatigue infects many companies, stealing valuable time and status meetings are especially ineffective when people spend too much time reporting activities (“Last week, I worked […]

Well designed toys can have a major impact on a child’s creative and intellectual development. Lots of engineers I speak with have serious nostalgia around LEGOs (some still build LEGOs today) and fondly consider that toy a launching point for their passion and love of building things today. So to inspire the littlest makers and […]

Earlier this month, we had the pleasure of hosting Women in Hardware at our space for an inspiring panel on prototyping best practices. Women in Hardware is a fantastic organization that aims to connect the female founders, engineers, investors, manufacturers, and marketers who are building the future of connected hardware. Women in Hardware is comprised […]

Growing up, books and the people they contained were the most important thing in my life. The characters I read about dramatically influenced my personal philosophy, whether it was the compassion of Jean Valjean or the fierce protectiveness of Jo March. One of my favorite series is the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, which introduced […]

This past Saturday afternoon, the China Manufacturing parts, Inc. team hosted a group of 20 high school girls to teach them about prototyping and manufacturing. The girls were part of ChickTech, a nonprofit program for high school girls that creates engaging hands-on engineering workshops, in partnership with startups and big technology companies. Groups like ChickTech are doing incredible […]

Ineffective meetings are a major time-suck.  People straggle in late, not exactly knowing what the purpose of the meeting is. A quick review turns into a length discussion.. which turns into a debate, which ends in no-one-really-knowing-what-the-point-of-the-meeting-was-or-what-to-do-next. Sound familiar? When run properly, meetings can provide clarity, alignment, and keep projects on schedule. Thankfully, we had […]