Lessons Learned

This page is for specific lessons that have been learned in one area that can be applied to other areas. If it's a lesson learned that only applies to the area it was learned in, then it's better to document it in that specific area.

Team Wikispeed

Wikispeed is a team of volunteers that formed around the work of Joe Justice as he competed in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize. His greatest innovation was applying lean/agile/SCRUM software program management to hardware, specifically the iterative design of a 100+ mpg passenger vehicle.

The dramatic success of Team Wikispeed's activities pretty much demands listening to what Joe has to say.

TED talk:

General

• First functional prototype built in 3 months.
• Existing manufacturing processes are slow to change because they're exceptionally expensive to change.
  • Major manufacturers typically operate on 10-25 year design cycles.
• Wikispeed uses 7-day design cycles.
• Iterated a process that brought the cost/time of a full structural carbon fiber car body down from $36,000/3 months to $800/3 days.
• Went from 1 guy in his garage to 100+ volunteers, in 8 countries, and a production-ready car in 6 months.

Specific

• Modularity.
  • Every system in the car can be separated from every other system as quickly and easily as changing a tire.
• Test-based.
  • The customer-value standard, and the test for it, is designed BEFORE the solution is designed.
• Use less stuff.
  • The parts for the frame of the car can be built with stock 4" aluminum tube, an $80 band saw, and a used-kit-built CNC milling machine.
  • Reduce costs in tooling, machinery and complexity wherever possible. This allows for improvements to be incorporated into the design immediately because there are so few sunk costs.
• Distributed, collaborative teams.
  • Use free online tools.
• Morale for velocity.
  • It's not additive or subtractive, it's a multiplier.
• Work in pairs.
  • Put a newbie with a pro and the newbie learns AS the job gets done. This eliminates time devoted to training. The pro gets help, the newbie gets hands-on experience.
  • Also eliminates the need for most types of documentation.
• Visualize workflow to eliminate any time spent not creatively solving problems.