A lateral path that still pays off.
Food R&D at Tzabar, regulatory affairs at Abbott, project management at Sher, and three years at Intel as a process engineer. In every one of those roles I was the end user of complex enterprise software.
The exposure to many kinds of organizations, production floors, and people is the part I actually carry into design. I'm comfortable talking to engineers, operators, and managers — I've sat in rooms with all of them from the other side.