In this week's newsletter, Aaron Moncur has a conversation with Samuel Feller, mechanical engineer and founder of awkwardEngineer.com, who has worked across structural, aerospace, medical, and consumer product development before transitioning into product management and consulting.
What do I get? When do I get it? You can answer all those questions in about two tweets - 280 characters is enough to provide all that information."
In this episode:
How asking "What do I get? When do I get it?" eliminates status meeting chaos and focuses teams on deliverables instead of process details
Why learning CAD tools deeply teaches systems architecture and interface design that engineering classes never cover
How talking to machinists about stock sizes and fixturing reduces costs more than negotiating quotes ever could
Why Kickstarter success depends on audience building before launch, not product quality alone and why ongoing distribution is harder than the campaign
Bonus Content:
The Anatomy of a Great PDX Session
Samuel Feller | Product & Project management, Kickstarter, & DIY Product Launch
Samuel Feller spent three years being unbillable 85% of the time at a consulting firm - a period that pushed him to bootstrap products, learn manufacturing from scratch, and eventually build a philosophy that cuts through project chaos. His approach strips status meetings down to two questions that can be answered in 280 characters, treats tool mastery as essential as first principles, and recognizes that making products is rarely the problem, distribution is. From pressure vessels fizzing watermelon to voltmeter clocks on Kickstarter, Feller learned that talking to machinists about their stock suppliers matters more than arguing over quotes, and that the real education happens when you understand how the people actually doing the work think about your designs.
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📣 PDX 2026 - Built on a Different Psychology
Most trade shows are built around exposure. PDX is built around trust.
There's a reason engineers walk past 90% of booths without stopping and it has nothing to do with your product. Salesperson avoidance is a documented behavioral response. Engineers are trained skeptics. A three-minute pitch from someone with a financial interest in your decision is, in their framework, weak evidence.
PDX changes the format. Exhibitors run short, hands-on training sessions at their booths throughout the day. Engineers arrive in learning mode, not avoidance mode. The psychological contract is completely different and so are the conversations.
From exhibitors who were there in 2025:
"The training session brought us attention and gave us a commitment from the attendees to spend more than a few minutes at the booth." - Trimech
"The small group conversations made for better engagement than simply standing in front of a booth watching people walk by." - Spanner
"Our team connected with the exact people we're building for - manufacturing leads, heads of ops, mechanical engineers." - Quarter20
PDX 2026 - October 20–21 · Mesa Convention Center · Arizona
Booth selection is first come, first served. Many are already reserved.
Contact us using the link below or register directly on our website
Status Systems That Scale: Why "What Are We Doing?" Misses the Point
Most status meetings devolve into engineers explaining their process while managers try to figure out if the project is on track. Feller encountered this problem at scale and learned to ask different questions.
One person said something to me, like, Sam, you're running around talking to all these engineers, and you're really cross disciplinary, and you're talking to them face to face, which is great, but it doesn't scale. You need to build a system so that information flows to you.
The insight came from combining two pieces of advice: build a system for information flow, and focus only on what matters. The result was a framework that eliminates the noise.
I just want people to distill the information down. I just want to know, like, what do I get, and when do I get it? And I think a lot of engineers, and managers for that matter, because there are a lot of poorly run projects out there have never been trained to think or communicate important pieces of information in that fashion.
The difference becomes clear when you compare it to the traditional "what are you doing?" approach. That question invites detail about process, which changes constantly and obscures the actual outcome.
If you say what are you doing? Well, I'm spreading the peanut butter on the bread. Okay, like that's according to plan. But the thing that I care about is, am I going to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich ready for snack time when the kids come home from school.
The peanut butter jar can shatter on the floor, requiring cleanup and a grocery store trip. "What are you doing?" now gets an answer about cleaning and shopping, not sandwich assembly. But the sandwich deadline hasn't changed and that's what actually matters for planning.
What do I get? When do I get it? And you can answer all those questions in about two tweets, like 280 characters is enough to provide all that information.
The Anatomy of a Great PDX Session
I talked to five engineers who attended PDX 2025 and asked them what they remembered about the sessions that turned into real conversations. Same answer kept coming up across five different companies: the title, the examples, and how the presenter ended it determined everything that happened after. This week's article breaks down the five specific mechanics — and why most exhibitors get at least two of them wrong.
To read the full article, visit the full article on The Wave.