Advice from a Senior Design Consultant on International Women's day
Q1) What inspired you to study Product Design?
From a young age I enjoyed creating; painting, building, sculpting, but also understanding how things worked. Art and Maths were my favourite subjects at school and when it came to exploring university courses, I was delighted to find the perfect blend of the two in product design.
Q2) Have you faced any gender-related challenges in your career so far, particularly in mechanical engineering?
All individuals can face challenges in any team and industry, but I believe being adaptive to the environment around us whilst staying true to your core principles and identity is the key to success and happiness. Engineering is a challenging field; you are often breaking new ground whilst finding solutions to problems. You need to be resilient and driven to finding those answers, but when you do it can be incredibly rewarding.
Q3) As a Six Sigma Green Belt, what role do you think these methodologies and play in ways of working for women in STEM?
Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) provides a framework for new product development and continuous improvement. The tools within the framework provide guidance on measurement systems, statistical analysis as well as an understanding of quality and controls needed to ensure this is maintained. For anyone working in STEM, DFSS can be a valuable methodology to problem solving, using analysis tools to find and even predict issues early on as well as creating robust test conditions and measurements to be confident in.
Q4) You’re passionate about user-centred design. How do you think diverse perspectives contribute to the impact of industrial products?
Even though a product may be classed as Industrial and installed by a qualified engineer, other user groups may need to understand and interact with this once installed. For example, the EasyAssist device we have developed at OPD is just this. A robust product which needs to comply to gas industry standards, initially retrofitted to a standard gas valve in a residential home by a Registered Gas Installer, but ultimately designed to be an accessible product for the occupant to more easily switch off the gas in an emergency. With this in mind we applied a more holistic approach to the solution to meet the needs of both installers and end users.
Q5) What advice would you give to women who aspire to enter the field of mechanical engineering but might feel intimidated by the dominance of men in these fields?
Don’t be! This may be the case, but I don’t think it is helpful to focus on this and approach with any preconceptions. Keep an open mind. Chances are you’ll work with a diverse range of individuals. There are so many different industries within mechanical engineering and product design. My advice would be to focus more on your interests and passions. What are you good at? What do you enjoy? This field is so diverse with creatives, engineers, human factors, scientists, to name a few so don’t limit your thinking and hopefully you will go on to find a fulfilling career doing what you love.
Q6) What does International Women’s Day mean to you? Which of the IWD pledge cards resonates with you the most and why?
"I will maintain an inclusive mindset" IWD pledge really resonates with me. There is always something to be learnt in challenging your own thinking and biases and cultivating this is so important, striving for everyone to be heard and understood. We can all play a part in contributing towards great solutions which can go onto help so many people.
