Homegrown Touch, International Reach
Raised on Midwestern job sites, Chris Barker connects with professional power-tools users and sees their needs turned into products
Chris Barker practically grew up on construction sites.
During Chris’ elementary school years, his father launched a residential development business in Ohio. Chris soon was gathering experiences that now serve him well as someone who develops power tools. A global product owner, he leads a team responsible for the full product-development life cycle of Bosch tools used in construction and carpentry such as routers, drywall construction tools, and cutoff saws. They cover everything from first concepts through the full service life of the final products, used to build homes, businesses, and infrastructure.
So it's pretty handy to have people onboard like Chris whose upbringing gives him a natural understanding of builders' needs. Besides working for his father, he also worked for similar businesses during high school and college. And though he no longer works for the family business, it’s still going strong with his brother, sister, and brother-in-law joining his father.
That gives Chris a ready-made network of friends and family who provide insight as to how tools operate in real-world conditions. During product development, Chris and his colleagues visit construction sites to show workers the latest prototypes of a given tool. Chris' contacts already know him, making it easier to get honest feedback while providing a continuous line of information about their needs and the industry.
"I know a lot of people in the trades I grew up with. I value their feedback tremendously because we're developing products that people use to make a living. I know they're going to tell me whether this is good or this is bad. It's a relaxed environment and I know I won't have to interpret what they're saying."
But Chris didn't go directly from the work sites of his childhood to those of his professional life. The path lay through Europe, and he didn't set out with power tools on his mind. He earned his B.A. studying Spanish and international business in college. Afterwards, he moved to Spain as part of a study-abroad program and met a German woman. Before long, he and his German girlfriend were living in the city of Stuttgart as he pursued a master's of science in international economics and business at a nearby university -- while learning German on the fly.
The university happened to be near Bosch's global headquarters. An internship with the company turned into a full-time job with the power-tools development team. Twelve years later, he returned to the Midwest to support the team's North America market. The woman he'd met in Spain was now his wife, and they arrived with three children in tow.
The combined experiences enable him to serve as a bridge to the customer. Having grown up in the construction business, he feels at ease when visiting work sites, which is a skill all its own. "If you don't know what you're talking about, they're going to call you out. They will smell you coming a mile away. You have to have a willingness to say, I don't know everything."
He also knows it’s not enough to have someone describe how they use a power tool. It needs to be seen in action. Someone may say they hold a router a certain way, but then when they demonstrate it, they end up adjusting their grip or turning the tool or somehow using it in a different way without realizing it. That small difference can have a big impact on product development – and in a way that the worker on the job site will appreciate. Small design tweaks help improve the balance of a tool, the way it feels in the hand, and how it matches up to a variety of use cases. This includes taking into account the harsh conditions in which professional power tools users make their living, such a 110-degree rooftop with heat that stresses people and tools alike.
Knowledge also flows the other way. Workers grow accustomed to using certain tools and have no reason to look for different ones. They may not be aware of the latest advancements until the Bosch team shows up. The changes to cordless power tools stand out as one example. Dramatic improvements in battery technologies have converged with similarly major upgrades in motors and electronics that manage temperature and electrical current.
"Around 10 years ago, things got more powerful, and that increased significantly in the last five years. A lot of guys are surprised when we hand them a prototype. They can't believe how much power this thing has. In some cases, the power is better than their corded predecessors had."
The insights received at these visits are fed back into product development. That adds an extra layer of satisfaction during return visits to job sites when the product hits the market.
"They ask, ‘how is that 12-volt edge router going?’ And we can say that we brought it, here it is. You helped shape it for us. They feel this sense of, 'Wow, I had a say in this.' It humanizes Bosch to see two or three people from product development.
Designing products for the people who use them
