Objects of Collaboration: Roles of Objects in Spanning Knowledge Boundaries in a Design Company
Name
v006t06a006-detc2022-89388.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
2.12 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
48bc72c985e36d7e4782ee968adf7b43
Author(s)
Brubaker, Eric R
Sheppard, Sheri D
Hinds, Pamela J
Yang, Maria C
Date Issued
August 14, 2022
Journal
Volume 6: 34th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology (DTM)
Publisher
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Citation
Brubaker, Eric R, Sheppard, Sheri D, Hinds, Pamela J and Yang, Maria C. 2022. "Objects of Collaboration: Roles of Objects in Spanning Knowledge Boundaries in a Design Company." Volume 6: 34th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology (DTM).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Abstract
Engineering designers often span knowledge boundaries when developing complex systems but doing so poses challenges because members of different knowledge groups must bridge their language, cognitions, and “thought worlds” to effectively broker, resituate, and make use of each other’s ideas. Objects — ranging from prototypes to kanban boards to value stream maps — are frequently used in cross-functional design practice, but the outcomes associated with such objects appear varied and dependent not only the objects’ characteristics but on how, when, and by whom they are used. This paper describes a two-year inductive ethnographic study within a turbomachinery design company to understand how cross-functional design teams span their knowledge boundaries to advance their designs and design processes. We collected observations of 70 cross-functional meetings and 52 interviews across functional groups during the development of complex turbomachinery products. Our findings include three roles of objects of collaboration: routinizing cross-boundary interaction, translating information across boundaries, and motivating joint negotiation or discovery. We found two prominent outcomes — co-discovery of a design risk, opportunity, or workflow bottleneck and co-design of a joint integrated solution — that appeared to follow from the latter two roles, respectively. These findings are significant because they clarify the roles of objects in cross-boundary design work and suggest ways for designers to more effectively use objects to span knowledge boundaries.
Engineering designers often span knowledge boundaries when developing complex systems but doing so poses challenges because members of different knowledge groups must bridge their language, cognitions, and “thought worlds” to effectively broker, resituate, and make use of each other’s ideas. Objects — ranging from prototypes to kanban boards to value stream maps — are frequently used in cross-functional design practice, but the outcomes associated with such objects appear varied and dependent not only the objects’ characteristics but on how, when, and by whom they are used. This paper describes a two-year inductive ethnographic study within a turbomachinery design company to understand how cross-functional design teams span their knowledge boundaries to advance their designs and design processes. We collected observations of 70 cross-functional meetings and 52 interviews across functional groups during the development of complex turbomachinery products. Our findings include three roles of objects of collaboration: routinizing cross-boundary interaction, translating information across boundaries, and motivating joint negotiation or discovery. We found two prominent outcomes — co-discovery of a design risk, opportunity, or workflow bottleneck and co-design of a joint integrated solution — that appeared to follow from the latter two roles, respectively. These findings are significant because they clarify the roles of objects in cross-boundary design work and suggest ways for designers to more effectively use objects to span knowledge boundaries.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1115/detc2022-89388
