Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Elementary, Mr. Watson: Design Intent Over Design Speed

I was recently asked a simple but powerful question: Is there anything available to PCB designers today that would be truly advantageous to them that they’re essentially not using? My answer was yes. However, it reminded me of an experience before Christmas one year when I was killing time at the mall. I had wandered into an Apple Store to look around, and I overheard a customer say, “Yeah, I just need a phone.”

The salesperson smiled and asked, “Great, what do you want it to do?”

The customer thought for a moment, and replied, “Just make phone calls.”

Almost cautiously, the salesperson said, “That’s it? No apps? No camera or internet? No bells or whistles?”

“Nope,” said the customer. I just want to make phone calls.”

The salesperson glanced around a store filled with some of today’s most sophisticated consumer technology. Finally, politely but honestly, he replied, “So, you don’t want to use what this thing was designed to do?”

I realized that moment is replayed every day in companies everywhere, especially in PCB design. I’ve seen enough technology cycles to recognize the pattern. ECAD tools have evolved dramatically over the years. Each new generation arrives with real innovation baked in: more intelligence and automation, deeper analysis, and tighter integration. Yet the way those tools are used often lags years behind what they’re capable of. In many cases, designers apply modern ECAD platforms with workflows shaped decades ago, asking today’s tools to do little more than what their predecessors did.

What’s fascinating is that it’s difficult to separate cause from effect. Are ECAD tools driving change in the design process, or are escalating design challenges forcing the tools to evolve? The reality is a feedback loop. As complexity increases—higher speeds, tighter spacing, power integrity demands, thermal constraints, and stricter manufacturing rules—the tools respond with new capabilities. But those capabilities only deliver real value when designers change their intent, not just their workflow.

Designers have access to extraordinary ECAD power today, yet much of it goes unused or underused, and not because of ignorance or laziness. It’s history, habit, and how success has been defined. Most designers learned their craft when ECAD tools primarily served as drafting and routing systems. You placed parts, routed traces, fixed errors at the end, and shipped the board. That approach worked: products were shipped and careers were built. When advanced capabilities—constraint management, signal integrity analysis, DFM checks, lifecycle integration—were added, they were layered on top of those existing workflows rather than replacing them. As a result, many designers still view these features as optional extras instead of foundational design inputs.

Furthermore, there’s also a training gap. ECAD tool education often focuses on where the buttons are, not when and why to use them within the design flow. Designers learn how to enable features, but not how to shape the design from the first schematic decision onward. Under schedule pressure, it feels safer—and faster—to rely on familiar habits than to restructure an entire workflow around tools that promise long-term gains but may slow things down in the short term.

Organizational pressure reinforces this behavior. Many teams still measure success by routing completion, release dates, or first-pass functionality—not by downstream manufacturability, yield, or field reliability. If a board “works,” the deeper capabilities that could have reduced risk, rework, or lifecycle cost never get credit. The tools remain powerful but politely ignored.

There lies the paradox. Designers are surrounded by some of the most capable ECAD platforms ever built, yet they often use only a fraction of their intent-driven potential. The gap isn’t a lack of technology; it’s a lag in mindset, workflow, and how design success is defined.

So, how do we change the paradox—and the paradigm—so designers actually benefit from the power they already have? It starts by redefining what good design looks like. Success can no longer be measured solely by how fast a board is routed or whether it works on the bench. It must include how well the design intent was captured, how few surprises occurred during fabrication and assembly, and how much rework was avoided downstream. When organizations reward decision quality, not just speed, designers naturally begin to use the tools that support better decisions.

The second shift is cultural and educational. Designers need training that emphasizes process and intent, not just tool features—teaching when to use constraints, analysis, and collaboration features, not simply how to turn them on. Leadership must allow designers to slow down early so they can move faster later. When the paradigm shifts from route-first, fix-later to decide-first, execute-once, the paradox disappears, and ECAD tools finally get used the way they were designed.

So, going back to the original question: Is there anything available to PCB designers today that would be truly advantageous to them but they’re essentially not using? Yes. But now we have the proper answer: It isn’t a new feature, a faster router, or another checkbox in the tool. It’s a disciplined, intentional process flow applied consistently and supported by the tools already on their desktops. Modern ECAD platforms are more than capable of enforcing constraints, preserving design intent, validating decisions early, and connecting layout choices to real manufacturing and reliability outcomes. But without a straightforward process, that power remains dormant. When designers define intent first, encode it into the tool, and execute within those guardrails, the software stops being a drafting aid and becomes a design partner. The advantage isn’t the tool itself, but the discipline to use it the way it was meant to be used, every time.

As the new year begins, this is the moment to choose intention over inertia. We are standing on the shoulders of innovation giants, benefiting from decades of advancement and tools built by some of the brightest minds in our industry. These toolsare no longer waiting for the next feature, but for us to rise to their full potential. This is the year to design with clarity, confidence, and purpose: to make critical decisions early, trust a disciplined process, and allow the tools to amplify sound judgment rather than correct late-stage mistakes. Real progress isn’t about working harder or faster. It’s about working wiser. When we change how we think, we expand what’s possible. If we do that together, this year can become the turning point when PCB designers stop chasing the tools and start leading with them.

The most incredible tool you have isn’t the ECAD software on your screen. It’s the innovation, insight, and intent of your own mind that gives those tools their true power.

John Watson is a professor at Palomar College, San Marcos, California.