​Fruit Salad Engineering

Or: why a diverse team is a good engineering team

How do you have the best engineering team?
You might, depending upon your age (or your children’s age) know the song We’re all fruit salad by The Wiggles.
The lyrics note that you can’t make the perfect fruit salad with only one fruit. You need a lot of different types of fruit.
Also, in the lyrics, it is noted that the fruit bowl is the world. Meaning the world is a better place with diversity.

But the analogy does apply when the bowl is an engineering department as well.
If you want an excellent team, then it too should be like fruit salad.
Why is this so?
There are two reasons:

1. The three attributes of engineering expertise.
2. The implications of a fruit salad engineering team.

If you have been reading my content for a while now, then you know that the three attributes of engineering expertise are:

1. Framing – looking at a problem from a different perspective to find an easier engineering solution to implement; allowing for greater success sooner.
2. Systemic thinking – considering ALL aspects of an engineering challenge for potential issues and opportunities so that the solution eventually developed is comprehensive and optimised.
3. First principles – using scientific knowledge so that every decision is informed and optimal.

When you have a diverse team of engineers, they are more likely to:

1. Provide different perspectives so you can find the best frame.
2. Consider more aspects of any challenge, due to different experiences, values and education.
3. Cover more first principles due to having different areas of expertise.

If you have a team of people who have all studied in the same institution and worked for the same company, then you can expect them to all think the same. They will all have the same blind spots, the same biases, and the same foci. Thus, they will not catch others’ mistakes and they will not spot opportunities missed by the rest of the team.
So next time you are putting an engineering team together, or looking to join an engineering team likely to succeed, make sure it is diverse. In as many ways as possible, country of origin, place of education, places worked, age, sex, and anything else that makes engineers different.
Of course, you can and should always be working on broadening your own engineering skills, experiences and knowledge. And so should the others in your team (no matter how diverse it might or might not be). You and your colleagues will each be more well rounded bowls of fruit salad, but it always helps to have a bigger bowl with more fruits.