My advices for electronic engineers in young startup companies.
– Set your priorities every day. In a startup priorities change incredibly fast.
– Remove risks for the company. It will help setting your priorities.
– Make a short task list every day. It makes you 30% more efficient.
– Make a short list of your progress every day. It will always look like you have a huge pile of problems to solve, but this list will show that you actually made progress, every day.
– Send that email out right now, that person is working on your solution while you are solving others
– Make decisions because you are the only hardware engineer in the company
– Take risk, move forward, some problems can be solved later, some can’t.
– Solve the problems that can’t wait NOW, otherwise you spent your valuable time again in the future.
– Do daily standup meetings and share your progress and plans. Keep it short. 5 mins per person
– Ask a lot of support from component manufacturers, but be nice. They are there to help you.
– Meet people in person and do video calls instead of sending email and making phone calls. It really helps building a good relation if you read someones emotions face to face.
– Build a network of useful people and give them appreciation.
– Prototype a lot. Test each component separately on breakout boards extensively before you design it in, it will save a lot of time later.
– Buy tools and supplies for quick prototyping like a reflow oven, hot air gun, oscilloscope, power supplies, solder stations, components, bread boards, cables. It will cost you $1000 but it saves a lot of time in the future.
– Document every test you have performed, it will save your future time.
– Do not proceed to production if you don’t know exactly how your circuit behaves.
– Take a tour thru the PCB and assembly factory and learn.
– Build your own functional test fixture, it helps reduce time/cost during manufacturing.
– Meet hardware engineers and entrepreneurs. Join a hackerspace. Join hackathons. join technical meetups in your area. Get inspired.
– Work hard, sleep well and get exercise.
– Divide work from private life. No work in the living room or the bedroom.
– Relax one hour before you go to bed. Don’t drink alcohol, it’s bad for your sleep.
– Motivate your colleagues. Help them if they get stuck on a problem.
– Build a personal relation with your colleagues, you will spent more time with them than with your partner. At the end of the week have a beer together.