About bb7 Product Design company in Madison, United States
Our cross functional team of experts takes your concepts and ideas on a journey to full commercialization.
bb7 believes in a comprehensive holistic approach to product development. Our approach encompasses masterful research design engineering prototyping product and material testing.
bb7 is a comprehensive design and product development firm with a rich history in innovation and testing. The bs in bb7 come from Bjorksten Labs (founded in 1944) and BIT 7 (founded in 1992) which merged in 2000 to form bb7.
Since then we#39;ve united pioneering research with excellence in engineering and design testing and product commercialization.
Bobs experience in engineering management spans over two decades. For years he worked in the consumer products category including a tenure at Fiskars as the Director of 3D Services. From there he moved to product development consultancies where he has overseen engineering and prototyping departments. His projects have resulted in numerous awards including an IDSA Gold Award for Fiskars Softouch scissors and a Medical Device Excellence Award for Orascoptics Freedom dental loupes.
Bob is an expert at resource management project strategy mechanical engineering and talent retention. He makes sure our mechanical engineering team integrates with other departments to ensure highly functional and visually appealing products. He is a natural people person and loves to interact with our clients and our diverse team.
Ask Him About: Pre-computer engineering and/or his karaoke skills.
Steve Dieter is an accomplished mechanical engineer technical consultant and project manager. He is a veteran of consumer electronic development; his experience includes Electrolux Motorola and Bosch among others. He has honed his capabilities within consumer and commercial electronics enclosures design reverse engineering accelerated life testing and component design. Plus he is a master of CAD software and is a Certified SolidWorks Expert (CSWE).
As bb7s Director of Mechanical Engineering Steve champions the development of feasible and manufacturable solutions for our clients. He helps to foster our multi-disciplinary approach a key to bb7s project success. His favorite types of products are ’Multi-discipline turn-key projects where we are involved in early conceptual work through to manufacturing support.’ One such project was the Leer Ice Merchandiser in which Steve played a pivotal role.
Ask Him About: Building his own house – The framing electrical flooring carpentry and more.
Steve Cantley is originally from the Midwest where he attended Michigan State University and earned his degree in Physics. His early career took him to Texas initially working in the areas of aircraft and semiconductors. He eventually landed in Houston for his dream job – a seat in NASAs Mission Control Center where he was responsible for the International Space Stations electrical power system during the design phase and the first several years of ISS assembly. A veteran flight controller with more than 2500 hours of console support he lived through several spacecraft contingencies developed failure response hardware still onboard today and helped the Program rethink its critical spares strategy.
Upon returning to the Midwest Steve initially joined bb7 in support of the IceCube Antarctic neutrino detector project. During his time at bb7 he has helped create or improve four major Antarctic research tools collaborated on several medical products and implemented a design-oriented ISO-9001/13485-registered quality management system.
Ask Him About: Traditional Japanese calligraphy landscape photography or beekeeping. Or keep it light (or rather black!) and discuss spaghettification.
Curiosity is in Pat Reids nature. His college years at Eastern Michigan University opened the doors for him to explore different majors such as biology radio and TV and business. After his dad finally told him to ’just get a degree and get out’ he raked together the classes he took and graduated with a degree in marketing and communications. Being the quintessential people person sales seemed a natural place for Pats career to start. His first job in sales at Kohler later led to marketing product development and eventually research and development. Pat was also involved with the Wisconsin PDMA organization serving as a past president and having the opportunity to help them on a national level.
Over the span of Pats career he has enjoyed uncovering latent needs for clients and crafting solutions to meet those needs – sometimes achieving major hits! He has been rolling with that momentum at bb7 since 2015 bringing positivity and energy to our Business Development team. Pats role is essentially a mix of ambassador cheerleader nerd herder entrepreneur councilor (he actually has a couch in his office and only charges $150 an hour – what a bargain!) and occasional pit bull.
Ask him about: Competitive sailing on Lake Michigan exploring new foods rivers and trails and his cat who thinks hes a dog.
For more than a decade Holly Anne Burns has been leading cross-functional teams across design disciplines for the consumer medical hospitality real estate entertainment and education industries. Originally from Wisconsin Holly grew up across the globe attending five elementary schools in three states and spending a lot of her childhood in Australia. Holly earned her bachelors degree in Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Masters in Design Management from Pratt Institute of Design in New York City. She spent 8 years developing her career in the Big Apple ultimately working as the Director of Program Management for a brand strategy firm.
Holly brings her leadership experience in program management design branding marketing and new business to bb7. She has spoken at conferences both locally and nationally on the topics of design thinking empathy and innovation. Holly loves working hand-in-hand with clients to make their ideas come to life in ways they may never have imagined. Building strong unified teams is important to her. Holly appreciates and celebrates the diverse perspectives and experiences of her coworkers and clients – its possibly her favorite thing about working at bb7.
Ask her about: Her love of travel bicycling and reading. Also with Holly chocolate works better than flattery..
Schedule a tour to learn more about our success stories watch product development in action and meet our diverse team from artists to rocket scientists.
Think you have what it takes to be among the brightest and the boldest in the industry? Find out about available positions and what its like to work at bb7.
