I am a masters student studying robotics at Columbia University. I enjoy learning more about robotics and have been working in this field for the last 4 years now. However, as I specialize further in this field, I have come to realize that I am developing a specific bias in myself. I revere all my professors at Columbia but having said that I feel like a large part of the robotics industry solves problems in a very backward manner. Students and researchers work on some really cool robotics projects like making a robot that can dance or jump (I am doing that myself now) after that they will make the robot do more cool stuff like pick up objects or open a door autonomously. This research work then further grows into complex robotics companies like Boston Dynamics.
Boston Dynamics started out as a research lab on legged robotics at MIT. You must have seen videos of their robots like Spot, the robot dog or Atlas, the humanoid which are amazing feats of engineering. However, I wonder if this is the best way to build a company. BD went from a research idea to a marvelous piece of engineering and is now searching for problems that its robot can help solve. They are now trying to find use cases for where its robot dog can work in and trying to modify the robot accordingly. Does this not feel like a completely reversed way to build a company?
"Engineers think that ideas are very valuable. On the contrary, finding the correct problem is most valuable"
-Prof Harry West,
Columbia University, CEO Frog Design
As an engineer I would love to iterate over a solution to fit in advanced technoliges and better design, but I cannot help but take a step back and think how important is the problem that I am solving in the first place. I dont want to waste my time, pouring my heart out to build something that will never be used in real life. Which raises the question, how do I formally look for problems in the world that actually matter? This is probably one of the most difficult questions to answer.
I don't want to hate on BD but they have built a very expensive robot that has no use case or revenue generation under its belt. Their new CEO recently said very proudly that they are hiring marketing and sales teams for their robots. Let me repeat that for you, after 30 years, this company is now hiring a marketing and sales team for its products! Even if BD is building some of the coolest robots in the world, there is no value they are producing for anyone. That is the reason they have been passed on from Alphabet, to SoftBank and now to Hyundai. To avoid this issue, it is imperative for engineers building products to preemptively think about customers, sales and the financials of the company. Engineers have a common misconception that marketing personnel are just fast salesman who do not add any real value to the company or product, but this kind of thinking is what leads to the downfall of many companies. At the core of any great company is a strong communication between design, engineering and business teams and this is what leads to the innovation and growth of a company.
So, coming back to the question of what the best way would be to search for problems. This is too wide and vague of an issue so let's take this slow and go step by step. Before anything we would first like to know which field we would even like to work in. We are looking for a field or territory which we could then further investigate into. This investigation would help us zero in on a particular problem in our territory by identifying stakeholders, conducting unbiased interviews with them and iterating through quick prototypes to refine our problem statement and solution. We will discuss more on that later.
So, what factors would affect the territory we choose. This is the part where you can really customize every decision to your tastes and likings. For one, we want to work in a field where competition would be less so that our barrier to entry is reduced. One does not need to build a tech company just because her background is in engineering. There is no reason for someone to restrict their problem space to a particular field for the sole reason that you took certain courses in that field when you were 18 years old. The entire world and all its fields are open to your search, and revenue generation is the only criteria one must consider.
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