189: The Power of Your Team in Building Hardware Innovations

Aug 18 2023 • 18 mins

Paul McEnroe is the creator, developer, and leader behind UPC barcodes for IBM. The work he did is still the standard over 50 years later on almost all products worldwide. Since then he has been the head of engineering and eventually President for hardware companies, and sits on a number of boards and educational institutions. Today Paul is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on the type of team you need to build for your hardware product, how to manage that team, and how to ensure smooth communication so that your team can make sure your new hardware product is a big success.

Today you will hear us talk about:

When you see someone that has a huge part of the market, and they aren’t doing it well, you know there is lots of opportunity for new innovation.
Innovation and execution does not happen overnight, it can take years to get it built, then to market, then to scale.
The power of team in building a new hardware product
Ensure you have a great technical team in building a hardware product, especially as a hardware.
Have experience in fields that you do not have yourself.
What do you want to do with your product, and how does that bring about a team?
Each team member can not be focusing just on themselves, they need to recognize the power of the whole.
What do you want others to do?
Communicate openly, in both directions
Individual Skills, Whole goal, and communication.
You have your people, the designers and engineers in the shop,
Explain it in simple terms to people that have the money, or are buying the product.
To improve your business communication among your team, learn some of the skills of a college debate team.
Put your mind in the place of the person you are communicating with, not just your own perspective.
Ensure that everyone on your team is in full understanding.
Help out the quieter people in the room, as their insight is potentially just as important.
Make yourself, as the leader, as available as can be.
If someone comes up with an issue, do not let it bubble up, especially interpersonal issues.