Consult Experts
Experts with knowledge of one or more of the subproblems not only can provide solution concepts directly but also can redirect the search in a more fruitful area. Experts may include professionals at firms manufacturing related products, professional consultan . university faculty, and technical representatives of suppliers. These people can be found by calling universities, by calling companies, and by looking up authors of articles. While finding experts can be hard work, it is almost always less time consuming than recreating existing knowledge.
Most experts are willing to talk on the telephone or meet in person for an hour or o with out charge. In general, consultants will expect to be paid for time they spend on a problem beyond an initial meeting or telephone conversation. Suppliers are usually willing to provide several days of effort without direct compensation if they anticipate that someone will use their product as a component in a design. Of course, experts at direct! competing firms are in most cases unwilling to provide proprietary information about their product designs. A good habit to develop is to always ask people consulted to suggest others who should be contacted. The best information often comes from pursuing these "second generation" leads.
The nailer design team consulted dozens of experts, including a rocket fuel specialist. electric motor researchers at MIT, and engineers from a vendor of gas springs. Most of this consultation was done on the telephone, although the engineers from the spring vendor made two trips to visit the team , at their company's expense.