{"id":21738,"date":"2014-04-13T10:27:11","date_gmt":"2014-04-13T14:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/?p=21738"},"modified":"2014-04-14T13:16:31","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T17:16:31","slug":"marketing-vs-engineering-5-rules-for-peaceful-coexistence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2014\/04\/marketing-vs-engineering-5-rules-for-peaceful-coexistence.html","title":{"rendered":"Marketing vs. Engineering: 5 Rules For Peaceful Coexistence"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may seem like a clich\u00e9, but in many companies around the world, Marketing and Engineering often don\u2019t see eye to eye. Whether it\u2019s a marketer taking offense because Engineering says a potentially world-changing new product idea can\u2019t be produced and sold for less than a small fortune, or Engineering accusing Marketing of exaggerating the technical capabilities of a new design, we\u2019ve all been on one side of the divide at some point.<\/p>\n

Can the relationship between Marketing and Engineering be constructive? As an independent design consultant I\u2019ve had the good fortune to work with design\/engineering\/marketing teams at companies big and small; famous and infamous; harmonious and rancorous; successful and\u2026otherwise. Based on years of observation, I believe the answer is yes. It may not be easy, but I have some suggestions sure to facilitate peace, love and understanding\u2014not only between Marketing and Engineering, but across your organization as a whole.<\/p>\n

But first, a disclaimer: Unsupervised interaction between engineers and marketers may lead to passive-aggressive inter-departmental email flame wars, ugly rumors, backbiting, program delays, injury, or death. Before attempting this in your place of work, take care to establish plausible deniability for yourself and any other persons involved.<\/i><\/p>\n

Stereotypes: they\u2019re fun because they\u2019re true!<\/h2>\n

At Industrial Design school they teach you to speak Marketeerish (the secret: it\u2019s mostly made up) along with rudimentary Engineerian (tip: an engineer with free beer is a happy engineer). A fledgling industrial designer quickly learns that marketers are usually considered too manipulative and\/or willfully obfuscatory to sustain real relationships, while engineers are typically assumed to be born without empathy, and therefore incapable of expressing emotions beyond mild, sardonic annoyance. And when one department says something, the other often hears something different, as in these examples:<\/p>\n

Marketeerish -> Engineerian Translation
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

Marketer: \u201cIt needs more sex appeal…\u201d
\nWhat Engineering hears: \u201cI have no idea what I want. Now go do it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Marketer: \u201cWe need something disruptive*…<\/i>\u201d (*insert marketing buzzword of the month)
\nWhat Engineering hears: \u201cI read the dust cover on a Malcolm Gladwell book this morning. The words sounded smart, which made me feel empowered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marketer: \u201cThe market study we purchased says\u2026\u201d
\nWhat Engineering hears: \u201cWe spent your annual salary on some charts illustrating common sense! Carry on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engineerian -> Marketeerish Translation<\/b><\/p>\n

Engineer: \u201cIt\u2019s a program risk.\u201d
\nWhat Marketing hears: \u201cThat sounds like work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engineer: \u201cIt\u2019s technically infeasible.\u201d
\nWhat Marketing hears: \u201cThat sounds like a lot<\/i> of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engineer: \u201cHow are you going to pull that out of the mold tool?\u201d
\nWhat Marketing hears: \u201cWhen will you openly worship my innate superiority?\u201d<\/p>\n

5 Rules for Inter-Departmental Peace and Prosperity<\/b><\/h2>\n

\"Engineers<\/a><\/b><\/h2>\n

The worst office in which I\u2019ve ever worked was utterly dysfunctional. Yes, it was disorganized, chaotic, and constantly rancorous, but the root cause of its dysfunction was political\u2014not organizational. The power struggles between groups were so cancerous that they infected virtually every project the moment a bid was won. Junior staff worked long, stressful hours. Senior members were often indecisive, self-contradictory, and perpetually supplied with the favorite scapegoat of \u201cexcessive workload.\u201d (Workload was not the problem.) Despite the long hours worked, the firm brought only a tiny percentage of its projects through to completion. In an atmosphere this toxic, no two departments\u2014least of all Engineering and Marketing\u2014can work together effectively.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the spectrum, the best office in which I\u2019ve ever worked (it\u2019s a real place, I promise!) was one in which designers, engineers, marketers, and management all respected one another, spoke well of one another behind closed doors and trusted one another\u2019s judgment. When conflicts arose, the interested parties took it upon themselves to understand one another and come to a solution.<\/p>\n

Play nice and get along? If it sounds like Kindergarten logic, that\u2019s because it is! And it works. This company, despite being a fun and easy-going place to work, was also one of the most productive I\u2019ve ever encountered. They released an (unusually) large number of products to market, had a large pool of repeat customers, and were able to build capacity to accommodate new ones. When Marketing, Engineering and Design work together humbly, honestly and efficiently, great products happen almost effortlessly.<\/p>\n

In considering these two extremes, I\u2019ve come up with at least five ways that every office can foster the kind of relationships that make for an efficient team environment. They\u2019re simple, universal and\u2026well\u2026frankly, pretty obvious.<\/p>\n

1: Use plain English (or your language of choice)<\/h2>\n

One plain-English sentence is worth a thousand industry buzzwords. All too often, we try to hide a lack of real insight by using important-sounding lingo. Throwing around technical-sounding catch phrases might make me feel smart and empowered in the moment, but I know that if I can\u2019t explain myself in simple, straightforward English, I really have no business saying anything at all. If I find a lot of sloppy lingo<\/a> in my day-to-day lexicon, I try translating it for a twelve-year-old. If I can\u2019t do that, I need to do some soul searching.<\/p>\n

2: Cede all authority outside your areas of expertise<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve worked in offices where Marketing ruled by diktat, while engineers and designers scrambled to make their impossible \u201cideas\u201d into workable realities. I\u2019ve also worked in offices where Engineering held sway, forcing technically-smart but unmarketable products to market, naively believing that a product that \u201cworks well\u201d is one that will succeed on technical merit alone. Both of these approaches are deeply problematic.<\/p>\n

When Marketing is charged with making decisions about engineering (or vice versa) volatility inevitably ensues. If I hire someone to do a job, it\u2019s because I believe him or her to be more competent than I am in that particular area, and it\u2019s critical that I empower the people I manage to make any and all decisions in their particular realm of expertise. This doesn\u2019t mean shoving responsibility off on others, but rather allowing competent professionals to do what they do best. Marketing serves a crucial role in a successful business, as does Engineering. For these to mesh well together, strong, mutual respect is vital.<\/p>\n

3: Assume every request is difficult<\/h2>\n

Nothing makes an engineer angrier than when someone in management asks if he or she might \u201cjust\u201d do something with a design. When making requests, I find it\u2019s best to always assume that it will require a herculean effort on the part of the person being asked, and to show appropriate gratitude for the work involved.<\/p>\n

For example, I know that when a client comes to me<\/i> and asks \u201cHey, can you just<\/i> render fifteen more views of xyz for me?\u201d I want to reply \u201csure, and can you just<\/i> add a couple of zeros to the end of that quote I gave you?\u201d Conversely, if a client says \u201cHey, I know this is a lot to ask, but so-and-so really needs this. I\u2019m trying to fight him off, but is there any way we could accommodate at least part of what he needs?\u201d I\u2019ll bend over backwards to get that person what he or she needs\u2014and then some. A little respect goes a long way!<\/p>\n

4: Be forthright<\/h2>\n

This may sound obvious, but it\u2019s surprisingly rare in office culture. I\u2019ve seen team members try to affect change through petty manipulation, back-stabbing, withholding information, spreading rumors, and\/or generally doing anything possible to avoid looking someone in the eye and confronting a problem directly. I\u2019ve seen both engineers and marketers do this, and while it may work out on occasion, it generally leads to an atmosphere of mistrust. When one group feels they can\u2019t trust the other\u2014as is all too often the case\u2014it\u2019s impossible to collaborate effectively.<\/p>\n

5: Humility wins the day<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve worked in dozens of offices, and I\u2019ve witnessed thousands of day-to-day interactions between (and among) designers, marketers, engineers, bean-counters, project managers and executives. If there\u2019s one thing common to all productive exchanges, it\u2019s humility. When smart people sit down together believing that their collective intelligence is greater than that of any one individual, good things happen. That doesn\u2019t mean bending over backward to let others have their way, but it does mean listening with the energy and attention that real respect deserves.<\/p>\n

\"Engineers<\/a>Can marketers and engineers get along? Yes they can. Does it happen often? Well, let\u2019s just say that it could <\/i>happen a lot more often than it does<\/i>. But I\u2019m an optimist, and the nice thing about \u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d is that it tends to weed out the bad actors. Firms that allow engineers and marketers to live on the brink of fisticuffs at all times are not ones that will succeed in the long run. Conversely, assuming that you may not always be right only makes the workplace a more pleasant place for all involved, and makes teams more productive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may seem like a clich\u00e9, but in many companies around the world, Marketing and Engineering often don\u2019t see eye to eye. Whether it\u2019s a marketer taking offense because Engineering says a potentially world-changing new product idea can\u2019t be produced<\/p>\n... Continued<\/a>","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":21748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solidworks"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}