Being an Engineer

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Chad Walters is an experienced product design leader with more than two decades of experience developing complex products across healthcare, life sciences, aerospace, defense, and commercial markets. As the first industrial designer at a major engineering-focused design center in the Raleigh-Durham area, Chad helped establish and grow a strong user-centered design presence within an organization traditionally driven by engineering and manufacturing excellence.
Throughout his career, Chad has led multidisciplinary teams in the development of products ranging from large-scale interactive vending systems like the Coca-Cola Freestyle to advanced surgical robotics platforms and handheld CPR coaching devices. His work goes far beyond surface-level aesthetics — focusing on defining product behavior, reducing usability risk, and ensuring that form, function, and brand identity work together to support both user needs and business outcomes.
A passionate mentor, Chad has also served as a long-time Product Development Advisor to biomedical engineering and entrepreneurship students at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. In this role, he guides multidisciplinary student teams through the realities of product development — helping them structure teams, build compelling business cases, refine investor pitches, and understand the importance of being the best storytellers in the room.
Earlier in his career, Chad led design teams developing aftermarket performance components for Audi, Volkswagen, and Porsche vehicles at APR, LLC, where he combined engineering rigor with brand storytelling and public-facing product launches. He began his professional journey designing avionics control systems at Archangel Systems, Inc. and contributed to professional-grade kitchen equipment development at Viking Range, LLC — experiences that shaped his ability to bridge mechanical engineering, user interface design, and human-centered product strategy.
Chad holds a degree in Industrial Design from Auburn University and an associate’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Wallace Community College. His career reflects a rare blend of technical fluency, design leadership, and deep empathy for end users — all aimed at creating products that perform at the highest level while genuinely improving the human experience.

LINKS:
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadwaltersid/
Aaron Moncur, host
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The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.us
Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

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Mustafa Poonawala is a globally recognized leader in medical device and diagnostics innovation, known for his ability to translate strategy into execution across R&D, clinical operations, and portfolio management. Over a career spanning more than two decades, he has built and led world-class engineering and program teams, guided products from early development through regulatory approval, and driven large-scale organizational transformation in highly regulated environments.
Currently, Mustafa is the CEO of DynaMill Research, a specialized Clinical Research Organization focused on helping diagnostics companies dramatically reduce cycle times and improve cost predictability. DynaMill’s approach blends agile program management, end-to-end digital clinical workflows, predictive enrollment strategies, and deep partnerships with multi-site clinical networks. The goal is simple but ambitious: help diagnostic innovations reach patients faster without sacrificing rigor or quality.
In parallel, Mustafa is Managing Partner at Steps Program Management, where he has spent nearly a decade advising organizations on agile transformation, PMO maturity, and portfolio optimization—particularly within medical device R&D. His work emphasizes lean, value-driven processes, difficult prioritization, and delivery predictability, all grounded in real-world execution rather than theory.
Previously, Mustafa held senior leadership roles at BD, Hospira, OBS Medical, and Boston Scientific. His experience spans implantable and disposable devices, complex electromechanical systems, software and cybersecurity for safety-critical systems, and large-scale diagnostics portfolios exceeding billions of dollars in revenue. With a PhD in Software Engineering focused on safety-critical systems, Mustafa brings a rare blend of deep technical rigor, business acumen, and servant leadership to every challenge he tackles.
LINKS:
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustafap
Guest website: https://dynamillcro.com
Aaron Moncur, host
Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.us
Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

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Join us April 23, 2026 at 9AM Pacific
 
Great engineering alone does not guarantee product success.
Achieving product-market fit—ensuring that a product truly meets user needs and expectations—requires integrating market insights, usability considerations, and business goals into the development process.
But how can engineers quantify something that often seems subjective?
In this PDX Webinar, Arne Lang-Ree, Chief Design Officer and Cofounder at Spanner, will demonstrate how product-market fit can be transformed into a practical engineering objective.
Drawing on real-world tools and frameworks developed at Spanner, this session will show how teams can systematically evaluate user needs, prioritize design trade-offs, and make decisions that improve the likelihood of market success.
Topics covered include:
• Why Product-Market Fit is an Engineering Challenge
• Turning Market & User Needs into Engineering Constraints
• Tools & Frameworks for Measuring Product Success
• Interactive Q&A and Application to Your Projects
This session is designed for engineers, product developers, and technical leaders involved in bringing new products to market.
Sign up here
Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.us
Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

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In this final episode of the three-part series on accelerating the speed of engineering, Aaron Moncur and Brad Hirayama zoom out to focus on the organizational and cultural levers that compound over time.
While earlier episodes explored how individuals and teams can move faster, this conversation tackles the bigger picture—how companies structure their environments, decision-making, and culture to consistently deliver results.
They break down practical strategies like vertically integrating key capabilities to reduce dependency on vendors, staying close to the production floor to improve decision-making, and building psychological safety so teams surface problems early instead of hiding them. The discussion also highlights the power of informal communication, mentorship in onboarding, and creating reusable systems that prevent engineers from solving the same problem twice.
One of the most impactful themes centers around defining ROI early—and having the discipline to pivot or stop projects when the “juice isn’t worth the squeeze.” Through real-world examples, Aaron and Brad show how even well-intentioned engineering efforts can go off track without clear constraints and alignment.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway? The fastest engineering teams aren’t just technically strong—they excel at communication, trust, and culture.
If you’re looking to build a team that moves faster, makes better decisions, and delivers meaningful results, this episode brings together 21 actionable lessons from across the entire series into one powerful conclusion.
 Aaron Moncur, host
Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.us
Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

Send us Fan Mail
In part two of this three-part series on accelerating the speed of engineering, Aaron Moncur and Brad Hirayama shift the focus from individual habits to team workflows. Drawing from patterns that have surfaced across 300+ Being An Engineer interviews, they explore how better systems can help teams move faster from idea to hardware to validation. 
Brad and Aaron dig into practical ways to reduce wasted time and avoid preventable mistakes: defining requirements clearly, validating what actually matters, prototyping early, running strong design reviews, using checklists, testing options in parallel, involving manufacturing sooner, and centralizing project data so engineers can spend less time searching and more time building. Along the way, they share real stories from quoting automated equipment, catching costly design flaws, improving drawing quality, and avoiding production headaches. 
This episode is packed with actionable insight for engineers, engineering leaders, and product teams who want to streamline development without sacrificing quality. If you care about building better products faster, this conversation offers a clear playbook for improving the workflow behind the work. 

Aaron Moncur, host 
Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.us
Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus