How we keep projects moving when things change.
"4 projects, 1 office move, 0 compromises on what matters"
4 projects running simultaneously across our team at Sketch Design Consultancy Ltd
And in the middle of it all? We moved into our new office space.
It would have been easy to let things slip. But our core values kept us grounded:
Customer first - Every decision started with our clients’ deadlines and needs. Projects didn’t pause because we had boxes to pack. We maintained delivery schedules and kept communication transparent throughout.
Supplier engagement in parallel - While managing client deliverables, we stayed connected with our supply chain. Quality issues got addressed immediately, production meetings continued, and partnerships stayed strong. You can’t deliver excellence without your suppliers being part of the journey.
Hands-on approach - No hiding behind emails or delegating problems away. Gregg, Oli, Luke and Jacob stayed deep in the work - from CAD and CFD to site visits and supplier coordination. When things get chaotic, rolling up your sleeves matters more than ever.
The office move could have been a distraction. Instead, it proved that our values aren’t just words on a wall - they’re how we operate when pressure is highest.
But this sparks a greater issue - are we too attached to CAD? Are too many engineers reliant on CAD to answer their many dilemmas or is there a shift for the greater good to use CAD as a tool and get more hands-on.
For us at Sketch Design, despite the dominance of digital tools, physical prototyping remains important.
We have a set of best practises in our team and these help us all ensure that we remain focused and don’t lose sight of the product and customer in mind;
Iterative Prototyping: Build and test multiple physical prototypes to refine the design. Each iteration should incorporate lessons learned from previous failures or shortcomings.
Early and Frequent Testing: Conduct physical tests as early as possible in the design process to identify issues before committing to expensive tooling or production. This minimises redesign costs and ensures that critical aspects are validated under real conditions .
Integration with Virtual Prototyping: Use virtual prototyping and simulation to narrow down design options, but always validate key findings with physical prototypes, especially for aspects that are hard to model accurately (e.g., assembly fit, user interaction) .
Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Involve manufacturing engineers, shop-floor representatives, and other stakeholders in hands-on prototyping to ensure designs are practical and manufacturable. This is a core principle of concurrent engineering and design for manufacturing/assembly (DFM/DFA).
Performance Assessment: Require demonstration of competence through performance assessment—actual demonstration of skills and solutions—rather than relying solely on written or verbal explanations. This approach is used in education to ensure mastery of essential knowledge and skills.
The most effective engineering workflows combine virtual and physical prototyping. Use CAD and simulation to narrow down options quickly, then validate critical aspects with physical models—especially for tactile feedback, assembly fit, and regulatory testing. Involving manufacturing and shop-floor teams early ensures designs are practical and manufacturable.
Physical models also help bridge communication gaps. Non-technical stakeholders like marketing teams or management often struggle to interpret CAD models or simulations. Tangible prototypes allow them to see, touch, and understand the product, leading to better feedback and buy-in.
Physical prototypes remain essential for testing fit, function, and user interaction. For example, in engineering education, students often print and refine multiple physical prototypes—sometimes 20 or more iterations—to learn from hands-on failure and improve their designs. This iterative physical process sharpens critical thinking and problem-solving skills in ways digital-only workflows cannot.
Sometimes the best test of your principles is when everything happens at once.
How do we keep things moving when things change - by having a deep rooted set of core principles that allow our team new or old to buy in to why we are doing it, not what we are doing it to yield great results for our clients.
Author: Gregg Bennett