Ryan Schoonmaker spent the early part of his career solving problems where medical device design meets manufacturing - leading mechanical R&D at BD, Beta Bionics, and Dexcom, where he helped bring the G6 and G7 to production. He now runs Tightline Solutions, where he audits product development processes and coaches engineering teams through the gap between a good idea and a shippable product. This episode covers what actually goes wrong in execution and how to see it before it costs you a launch.
I can just sit in on a meeting and observe the team dynamic and kind of get a sense if that's where a big part of the problem is coming from. I don't need to see your product. I don't need to see anything technical.
In this episode:
Why execution failure begins with team dynamics and how to read the room in a single meeting without looking at the product
The assembly spec gap that trips teams at scale: components get documented carefully; assemblies don't get the same rigor
Technical debt in product development: how to take on risk responsibly when speed is a constraint
The "not-to-do" list: how one team documented their speed killers and used them to call out drift in real time
Why defining what success looks like before the work starts is the only reliable way to know when to stop
Bonus Content:
Part 5 of the PDX exhibitor series: Your Session is Over, Now What?
S7E19 Ryan Schoonmaker | How to Take A Structured Approach to Solving Engineering Problems
Ryan Schoonmaker is a medical device product development leader who spent over a decade in engineering roles at BD, Beta Bionics, and Dexcom before founding Tightline Solutions, where he helps growth-stage teams bring structure and predictability to complex product development work. In this episode, Aaron sits down with Ryan to unpack what actually separates programs that execute cleanly from the ones that stall and why the root cause is almost never where teams first look. He covers how to read team dynamics as an early execution diagnostic before you look at a single drawing, the assembly spec gap that consistently trips teams at the production transition, how to think about technical debt differently depending on company size, the discipline of building a "not-to-do" list at program kickoff, and why defining success before the work starts is the only reliable way to know when you've arrived. For engineers who work on complex hardware programs, this is one of the most practically grounded conversations on execution in recent memory.
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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
Assembly specs get half the attention of component specs and that's where production failures hide
When Ryan Schoonmaker was brought in to troubleshoot a program in trouble, the team had done most things right. Component drawings were complete. Tolerances were defined. Material choices were locked. Then they moved from prototype tooling to production tooling, and 20 to 30 percent of assemblies failed on the first run.
There was a dimension that was very important that was never on the drawing. The people making the parts - the supplier - they didn't know, because there was nothing to tell them.
The gap Ryan describes is consistent across the programs he's worked on. Teams apply rigor at the component level - a drawing for every part, tolerances for every critical feature. But the assembly spec, which defines what a conforming output of the assembly process actually looks like versus what doesn't, either doesn't exist or lacks the specificity the production team needs. The person implementing the process fills in the blanks themselves.
The person implementing the process fills in the gaps, instead of having that robust discussion with the designer to really understand what exactly are you trying to point out here as a good part versus a non-good part.
The fix is structural: the conversation between the designer and the process engineer happens before the process starts, not after the first run. What are you controlling at the assembly level? What does a conforming output look like, and what doesn't? The answer belongs on a spec sheet - not in someone's institutional memory.
That gap is especially costly at scale. During pilot production, the team is close enough to the work to compensate. When you move to an automation line or hand the process off to a new team, the institutional memory doesn't transfer. The spec does.
Your Session is Over, Now What?
The five engineers interviewed for this series described the same pattern: they left a great session with specific notes and a practitioner's card - then received a follow-up email indistinguishable from one they'd have gotten after three minutes at a booth. None of them replied. Not because the session was bad. Because the follow-up told them the technical conversation was over.
If you exhibit at engineering tradeshows, this is worth the read.
Read the full article on The Wave.
When Your Machine Shop Says No
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