What do you do if cross-functional teams in Automotive Engineering give you feedback?

Listening and Talking are required in balance. However, when it comes to feedback, be sure to listen and absorb as much as possible. Even when you disagree with what they're saying, don't interrupt them and prove that their feedback is wrong. Sometimes we may miss the context. Hear them out start to finish, and keep asking feedback in other areas of your work. Take notes diligently to show you're acknowledgement. Next, implement that feedback and show your improvement at the next feedback session. This is key to working cross-functionally with other teams. They need to know they can work with you, rely on you, and trust you to grow in your own way so you can keep pace with their growth too.

Analyze feedback and devise a game plan for implementation. Here's how: 1. Note feedback from all team members in their own note / word document. **You may have a lot of overlapping feedback. So, consolidate all feedback. Don't be overwhelmed! 2. Open a new note or word document and start with a random feedback bullet point from any team. 3. Count how many teams gave that same feedback and write that number beside that bullet point. **Keep doing that for all feedback bullet points. Eventually, you'll have consolidated all feedback. 4. Arrange the bullet points in descending order of the number placed beside each of them. 5. Implement all feedback in that order to have an instant, positive, and noticeable impact!

Collaboration is always a prelude to something very special and innovative being brought to the market. Especially in Automotive Engineering. As there are so many systems, sub-systems, and parts involved in the function of vehicles, there are a lot of interdependencies between them. Therefore, collaborate with those working on other the sub-systems and parts that are directly related to the one's you're designing or testing. For example, if you're working on the drive inverter team for an EV, work with the motor team to ensure that their specs can handle the inverter's. This ensures that the design is reliable, durable, robust, and able to smoothly function as a single cohesive unit to deliver a solid driving experience.

If you hit constraints that are too hard to deal with without increasing costs, voice your concern! You're there to work with each other. No matter the barrier you're hitting, it's the collective responsibility of all teams to satisfy product targets. For example, if there's an issue with a bearing causing undesired NVH-effects on a drive unit, work with others to devise solutions to the problem. Work together to devise and select a solution that requires the least amount of change in design, material, and costs while not compromising on drive unit performance and reliability targets. A change gets costlier if it affects more sub-teams. So don't involve more sub-teams unless absolutely necessary to stand by your performance targets.

Start-ups have a hard time doing this as they're new. Reflection and learning gets quicker as they gain experience going from concept to production. When you design a new car, or an all-new version of an existing model, the total time it takes to to from concept to production should be reduced. This is because you should now remember the hard lessons you learned from past projects and avoid them by making decisions accordingly. If you reflect, maximize your learning, and note all of your learnings down, you can avoid pitfalls you've encountered in the past. This will reduce the total cost, time and CAPEX it takes to go from concept to production. Without reflecting and learning, new vehicle development will likely stay expensive.