Episode 338 | Jonah Myerberg - Engineering Excellence

Guest:

@

Jonah Myerberg talks with Dave Rael about engineering, metal, software, leadership, and understanding value

Jonah is a co-founder of Desktop Metal and serves as its chief technology officer where he is responsible for leading the technical direction of Desktop Metal’s 3D printing solutions. Prior to joining Desktop Metal in 2015, Jonah held senior positions with a variety of organizations focused on high performance battery development, including Renovo Auto and A123Systems. Jonah also founded Boston Impact, a contract engineering consulting firm, in 2013. During his time with A123Systems, Jonah led the motorsports business unit which focused on the development of high performance batteries. These products were adopted by the majority of Formula One teams, including McLaren, Force India, Mercedes Benz and Red Bull. Jonah was also a race engineer for Porsche on the 919 team and for Mahindra Racing on their Formula E team. Jonah holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Lehigh University and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and manufacturing from Johns Hopkins University.

Chapters: 1:18 - Dave introduces the show and Jonah Myerberg3:42 - The many disciplines coming together to make useful products6:05 - The differences between 3D printing with plastics and metals7:34 - The nature of engineering, the question of whether software development qualifies, and the ubiquity of software11:35 - Desktop Metal's products15:15 - Origins of Desktop Metal and the problems that needed to be solved18:46 - The appeal of metal 3D printing20:32 - The difficulties in the story of Desktop Metal22:45 - Jonah's story of failure - trial and lots of error in figuring out how to do metal 3D printing economically25:22 - Shortening feedback cycles in the physical, as opposed, to soft, world26:57 - Lessons learned from having engineers from many disciplines working together28:28 - Having technically capable users and impact on design31:41 - Johan's exposure to different parts of the business at Desktop Metal34:08 - Software engineers among natural sciences engineers and the contributions of software engineers at Desktop Metal37:34 - How Jonah stays current with what he needs to know40:04 - Jonah's book recommendation41:04 - The things that Have Jonah most excited43:29 - Jonah's top 3 tips for delivering more value44:23 - Keeping up with with Jonah and Desktop Metal

Resources: Desktop Metal Desktop Metal's Studio System Desktop Metal's Production Machine

Jonah's book recommendation: The Way Things Work - David Macaulay The Way Things Work Now - David Macaulay

Jonah's top 3 tips for delivering more value: Really understand your customer really understand who your stakeholders are and make sure they have input into what you are developing - have a lot of input channels Make sure you are constantly balancing and rebalancing your design so that it stays relevant