This is the eighth step in the Strategic Design process, which focuses on reprioritizing strategies for each team. Before you continue, please be sure to review prior steps (see the list in the Strategic Design process article)
Reflecting on what went well, and also what didn’t go as planned, is a key part of both strategic design and the engineering design process. Embracing perceived failures as opportunities for growth, and learning to receive constructive feedback from peers also plays an important role in continuous improvement.
An all-team design review is a perfect way to communicate the results of testing and prototyping in a constructive and professional manner. Students can present their findings and be open and honest about whether or not they were able to meet the strategic scoring objectives.
- Were there enough resources to complete the design as intended?
- Did the design do what it was supposed to? Why or why not?
- What improvements could be made?
- What additional resources are needed to continue with future iterations?
Based on test results and team discussions, it may be necessary to reorganize priorities (similar to the method used in step five). Strategies that show a high return on investment should move up in importance (remember that the items further to the left should always take precedence). If a lower priority strategy negatively affects the functionality of a higher priority item, then it’s time to reassess.
At times, a design or idea may need to be eliminated from the overall strategy because there aren’t enough resources (time, money, robot real estate) to include it. It can be discouraging to see hard work go unused, but keeping the initial strategy in mind can help students see the valuable insights that were gained during the development and testing stages of design.
Repeating this step again after the first major test of the competition-ready robot, and again several times throughout the season, can be extremely beneficial. Strategies that perform well on their own may lose effectiveness when combined with other tasks, and comparing documented data sets can help identify when this occurs. Teams can work together to reassess overall contribution, reprioritize scoring opportunities, rework their match strategy, and redesign mechanisms to come up with the most beneficial solution.
Credits
This version of Strategic Design is inspired by the work of Karthik Kanagasabapathy, the originator of Strategic Design in competition robotics, and the ideas are used with his permission. Karthik is a former Chair of the VEX Robotics Game Design Committee and a respected mentor in the robotics community. Additional information was provided by the mentors of team 2337, the EngiNERDs, from Grand Blanc High School in Grand Blanc, Michigan.