Yesterday I spoke as an Engineer in Residence at my alma mater, the University of Illinois Department of Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering.
As students (and early career engineers, analysts, etc.) we are focused on analyzing the problem and coming up with the answer.
So I led my talk with an early career moment to set up my story. I want to share it with you.
I was a consultant. True industrial engineering work. I led a major redesign project. I did the work. I had the “right” answer. Saved money. Enabled new capabilities. Met all requirements.
The client said “that’s not how we do it here.”
Nothing moved.
I walked out with the right answer and zero impact. And one question I couldn’t shake:
What good is analysis if nothing changes?
Looking back, my pursuit of that question explains my whole career. Why I was great at strategy consulting. Why I loved sales operations. Why my approach to analytics is decision-focused over data dump. Why I thrived leading through periods of significant change. Why I enjoy coaching and advising today.
Analysis needs a decision. Most decisions need behavior change.
I’m still an engineer at heart — I love frameworks, systems, nerding out on how everything connects. But somewhere along the way I stopped engineering answers and started engineering decisions.
My advice to those aspiring engineers in the room: be the one thinking beyond the technical answer. Think about the decision that needs to be made and the change that will follow. That is what you’re engineering. That is what you need to be designing for.
That’s what I’ve always done. That’s still what I’m doing. Just in different rooms.