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30-10-2026
Beeing a leader or a coworker is a constant cooperation / balancing act with others
In my experience one of the more important areas to address is the balance between feeling and logic,
in my vocabulary Heart and Mind
Heart and Mind Management provides Assessment, Coaching, Training, Workshops supporting in management and organisation effectiveness
We updated the homepage on 30-10-2026
I have recorded spoken presentations on the following subjects and launched them, and also updated the homepage
Customer needs
What the customers use or their expectation on the product or service
1. Understand the Customer
2. Define the Real Need
3. Prioritise
4. Set clear expectations
5. Use All Knowledge (Internal & External)
6. Recommend a suitable solution
7. Follow up, Test and Validate
Quick feedback loops reduce risk and increase relevance.
8. Measure Impact
9. Continuous Engagement
Point 6-9 Usually performed in projects
Examples of customer needs
Product needs
- Functionality
- Price
- Convenience
- Experience, it has to be easy to understand the product
- Design
- Reliability
- Performance
- Efficiency
- Compatibility, it has to work together with other products that the customer uses
Service needs
- Insight, in contact with customer service
- Legal
- Transparency
- Control over the delivery
- Options
- Information
- Availability, to get hold of service
Tools to use are:
1. Keyword research
2. Customer needs servey
3. Customer first marketing standard
4. How do you act when a problem occurs?
Cost has to be a balance between the Quality and the service cost/activities
Cost for the Product
- Cost of the product
- Cost of the development of the product
and
Cost for Service
Service
- Corrective actions
- Diagnose of what is wrong
- Repare
- Exchange
Product Portfolio Management
Continuous process to identify, select, prioritise and manage the components of a portfolio to secure
- Components alignment with the strategic goals
- Optimisation of portfolio value
- Efficient allocation of resources
- Manage a project portfolio by collecting and evaluating project proposals,
prioritizing them
based on strategic value, benefits, risks, cost, and resource availability.
- Monitor progress through clear KPIs, identify dependencies and conflicts, and
regularly review whether each project should continue, change, pause, or stop.
- Communicate portfolio performance to stakeholders so decisions are
transparent and resources remain focused on the highest-value work.
Problem to address
- No shared definition of Portfolio Management and Product Planning across the
Company
- Difficulty to properly value the product opportunities
- Too many projects in pipeline
- Lack of objective information to support the decision processes
- Poorly defined portfolio decision criteria
- Inability to see available resource requirements or capacity
- Lack of visibility on products and project dependencies
- Lack of strategy cascading from the group down to the BA/BU and different
product lines
Benefit
- More clear strategies
- Ensures the consistent proposal, selection, prioritisation and planning of the
right products and projects for the organisation
- Project workload in accordance with capacities
- Value in line with expectations
Problem Solving Methologies
When we see a problem we tend to look under the lamp and to jump into an early conclusion of how to solve it
It feels good to do something about it quickly but give it a little time and thinking, to really solve the problem with a suitable solution to ensure that the problem will not reoccur
A simple process is: Define -> Analyze -> Solve -> Implement -> Review
Core Principles
- Concentrate on solving reoccurring root causes rather than solving just
symptoms
- Do not ignore the importance of treating symptoms for short term relief
- There can be, and are, often more than one root cause
- Analyse using the 5 W and H method (Ask Who?, What?, Where?, When?,
Why? - - And How? Did the problem show up?)
- Be systematic and look for evidence to back up the found root cause
- Try to find a way to solve the root cause to prevent it from appearing again
- When performing a Root cause analysis it is important to take a comprehensive
and holistic approach and to use all the knowledge available in the entire
organisation (Cross functional)
Tools to use when Problem Solving are:
A. Production Quality Tools
- Check sheet
- Flowchart
- Pareto chart
- Cause-and-effect diagram
- Histogram
- Control chart
- Scatter diagram
B. A3 method
C.Change analysis
Production Quality Tools
Production Quality Tools
We use quality tools to understand problems and improve
products, services, processes, reduce variation, and correct defects.
They help us:
- Collect reliable data instead of guessing.
- Identify the most important problems.
- Find the root causes of defects and mistakes.
- Measure variation in a process.
- Choose and test solutions.
- Monitor results to ensure improvements continue.
- Reduce waste, costs, and defects.
- Increase customer satisfaction.
The Production quality tools are:
1. Check sheet.
2. Cause-and-effect diagram (fishbone or Ishikawa diagram.)
3. Histogram
4. Pareto chart
5. Control chart
6. Flowchart
7. Scatter diagram
Other widely used methods include 5 Whys, 5S, FMEA, SPC, process mapping, benchmarking, and PDCA.
1. Check sheet
A check sheet is used to collect data and record results in a simple, organised
way.
2. Cause-and-effect diagram (fishbone or Ishikawa diagram.)
A way to analyse root causes is the Fish bone analysis (Ishikewa diagram
analysis), where you start with the problem and work your way back through
different possible causes of the problem
3. Histogram
A histogram shows how numerical data is distributed.
4. Pareto chart
A Pareto chart is a bar chart that ranks problems from the most frequent to the
least frequent. It helps identify which problems should be solved first.
5. Control chart
Look for warning signs:
- A point outside the control limits
- Many points continuously rising or falling
- Several points on the same side of the centre line
- Unusual patterns
6. Flowchart
Shows the flow
7. Scatter diagram
A scatter diagram shows whether two variables are related.
Design Quality Tools
We use quality tools in design to make sure a product or service meets customer needs before it is produced.
They help designers to:
- Understand customer requirements.
- Identify possible design problems early.
- Compare different design ideas.
- Find the root causes of weaknesses.
- Reduce defects, risks, costs, and waste.
- Test whether the design meets specifications.
- Improve reliability, safety, and usability.
The design quality tools are:
A. Design Risk Analysis
B. Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
C. Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA)
D. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
E. Design of Experiments (DOE)
F. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
G. Reliability analysis
H. Tolerance analysis
I. Design for asambly
J. Design for Afternarket
K. Design for Scrapping
A. Design Risk Analysis
A design risk analysis identifies how a design could fail, evaluates the risk, and
defines actions to prevent failure. A common method is Design Failure Mode
and Effects Analysis (DFMEA).
B. Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
Deploy the results
Transfer the priorities into concept design, component requirements, process
planning, production controls, and verification tests.
Review the QFD whenever customer needs or the design changes.
C. Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA)
Reduce the risks - Improve the design, materials, tolerances, safety features,
simulations, or testing.
Verify and update - Confirm that the actions work, reassess the ratings, and
update the DFMEA throughout the design process.
A DFMEA should be completed by a cross-functional team and started early,
before the design is finalised
D. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
The basic sequence is Define -> Measure -> Analyse -> Design -> Verify. Unlike
DMAIC, which improves an existing process, DFSS is mainly used to create a
new or substantially redesigned solution.
E. Design of Experiments (DOE)
Example: To improve adhesive strength, you could test temperature, pressure,
and curing time at two levels each. DOE shows which factors and
combinations have the greatest effect, helping you select the best
settings with fewer tests than changing one factor at a time.
F. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
Fault Tree Analysis is a top-down method used to identify the causes and
combinations of events that could lead to an unwanted outcome.
G. Reliability analysis
A reliability analysis evaluates whether a product or system will perform its
required function for a specified time under stated conditions
H. Tolerance analysis
A tolerance analysis determines how variations in component dimensions affect
the fit, function, and performance of an assembly.
I. Design for asambly
A DFA analysis evaluates a product design to make assembly simpler, faster,
less expensive, and less prone to errors.
J. Design for Afternarket
A Design for Aftermarket analysis ensures that a product is easy and cost-
effective to service, repair, upgrade, and support after it has been sold.
K. Design for Scrapping
A Design for End-of-Life analysis ensures that a product can be safely
dismantled, reused, remanufactured, recycled, or disposed of when it is no
longer needed.
I repeat: the design quality tools are:
A. Design Risk Analysis
B. Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
C. Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA)
D. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
E. Design of Experiments (DOE)
F. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
G. Reliability analysis
H. Tolerance analysis
I. Design for asambly
J. Design for Afternarket
K. Design for Scrapping
Systems Engineering
The most important components of systems engineering are:
1. Stakeholder needs - Understanding what customers, users, operators, and
other stakeholders need from the system.
2. Requirements engineering - Turning those needs into clear, measurable,
realistic, and traceable requirements.
3. System architecture and design - Defining the system's structure,
components, interfaces, and how everything works together.
4. Integration - Combining hardware, software, people, processes, and data into
one functioning system.
5. Verification and validation –
Verification: Did we build the system correctly?
Validation: Did we build the right system?
6. Risk management - Identifying technical, financial, safety, schedule, and
operational risks and reducing their impact.
7. Configuration and change management - Controlling system versions and
evaluating the effects of changes.
8. Life-cycle management - Considering the entire system life cycle: concept,
development, production, operation, maintenance, and disposal.
9. Technical management - Managing cost, schedule, resources, performance,
quality, and technical decisions.
10. Traceability and documentation - Connecting stakeholder
needs to requirements, design decisions, tests, and final results
The central idea is to manage the whole system, including the relationships between its parts, rather than optimising each component separately.
The more complex a solution is the more Systems Engineering needs to be performed on a detailed level
A not so complex solution Systems Engineering needs to be performed on an overview level
Using systems engineering is especially important when the design is physical combined with digital which is more and more the case.
The two different worlds need to seamlessly work together
Problems to address
- Prerequisites and targets not completed and well-defined
- Requirements and targets not balanced between stakeholders
- Requirements not measurable and prioritised
- Concept seleand targets action not balanced with requirements and targets
- Late changes creating loop backs and delays
Benefits
- Stakeholder needs are met
- Well-defined/balanced Quality, Delivery, Cost and Feature (QDCF) targets
- Systematic design of complex systems with multi-faceted interactions
- Proactive system design focus avoiding loops and delays
Targets
A target is a specific result you want to achieve.
To be able to define good targets one needs to have a relevant knowledge about both the customer and customer needs
- You can see the targets as a breakdown of the customer needs
- Secure that all functions are covered
How to work with Targets:
1. Set Clear and SMART Targets
2. Align with Strategy and Purpose
3. Break Down into Team and Individual Goals
4. Monitor Progress Regularly
5. Use Targets to Drive Improvement
1. Set Clear and SMART Targets
- The Targets need to beSMART
- Specific - The target must be clear and well-defined,
answering what, why, and how.
- Measurable - It should include criteria to measure
progress and success (e.g. numbers, percentages, milestones).
- Accepted , Achievable (or Attainable):
-The target should be realistic and possible
to accomplish with available resources.
- Realistic , Relevant:
- The target must align with broader objectives, ensuring it matters to the
business, project, or individual.
- Time limited,Time-bound:
-It must have a deadline or timeframe for completion.
2. Align with Strategy and Purpose
- Targets should support the overall business objectives and not conflict
with each other.
- Communicate why the target matters to increase commitment.
3. Break Down into Team and Individual Goals
- Divide high-level targets into smaller goals by team or function.
- This makes them actionable and trackable across the organisation.
4. Monitor Progress Regularly
Use dashboards, KPIs, or progress reports.
Hold regular check-ins (e.g. weekly, monthly) to:
- Identify blockers
- Adjust if needed
- Celebrate wins
5. Use Targets to Drive Improvement
Treat targets as tools for learning and performance, not just control.
Encourage innovation and initiative in how teams reach
their targets
Work with:
- Make targets visible to increase ownership.
- Link to rewards or recognition (where appropriate).
- Stay flexible – adjust if major changes occur.
Planned are 4 workshops during Oktober 2026
No cost for participating
No limit in numbers attending the meetings
Visualisation and Communication
12/10 2026
09.00-09.30
17.00-17.30
Knowledge Management
19/10 2026
09.00-09.30
17.00-17.30
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