If You Can Define It Right, You Can Design It Right

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Design engineer Chris Young is known for his optimized design process. As lead hardware engineer with Moog Space and Defense Group and owner of Young Engineering Services, Chris collects data like it’s going out of style, and he leaves nothing to chance.

With that in mind, I asked Chris to discuss his views on rules of thumb—which ones work, which ones should be avoided, and how rules fit ideally into the PCB design process.

Andy Shaughnessy: I know that you’ve spent a lot of time and effort over the years dialing in your design process. How do you use rules of thumb in your design cycle?

Chris Young: I use purpose-driven rules of thumb that produce practices that reduce risk and drive a desired outcome. I am much less concerned about using a specific PCB stack-up than producing a solution that works and meets requirements.

Shaughnessy: What are some of the rules of thumb that you use regularly, and why?

Young: Rule No. 1: If you can define it right, you can design it right.

Spend time up front developing requirements that can be used to guide your design to success. The lack of requirements in a project lead to technical ambiguity that is too often stop-gapped with assumptions. These assumptions lead to design errors that result in technical debt or design spins that cost money. The old adage of “measure twice, cut once” still applies. I recommend the INCOSE Guide to Writing Requirements (incose.org) for anyone interested in learning more about developing clear, actionable requirements.

To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the November 2024 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.