Rethinking Hardware: Agile Lessons from Dr. Lucas Fraile

In software, agile methods are the standard. In hardware? Not so much. Yet at companies like Tesla, agility isn’t just for coders it’s reshaping how machines are built. Dr. Lucas Fraile, a senior powertrain engineer at Tesla with deep experience in aerospace, rail, and robotics, offers a compelling look at what agile hardware development actually looks like in practice.

Rapid Iteration in Hardware Is Real

The stereotype of hardware development is slow, rigid, and risk-averse. Dr. Fraile’s experience at Tesla tells a different story. He describes how the company leverages over-the-air (OTA) updates to improve vehicle performance on the fly. “We can deploy something on Monday and by Wednesday we already have reports from all around the world,” he says.

Compared to the satellite or rail industries where full design cycles can take years this is a radically different tempo. Tesla’s approach lets engineers collect real-world feedback almost instantly and make product decisions based on real customer experience, not delayed test data or long-term forecasts.

MVP Thinking for Engineering Validation

One of Dr. Fraile’s most interesting insights is his take on the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). While business leaders often define MVP as the first version you can sell, Dr. Fraile uses the term differently. For him, an MVP is an internal proof-of-concept, something to validate a technical direction and earn buy-in from other engineers or decision-makers.

For example, while designing braking systems in the rail industry, his MVP wasn’t a production-ready product. It was a modular test platform to evaluate different types of brakes and control systems. This prototype wasn’t for customers; it was a strategic artifact to guide design and focus engineering resources. AGILE in this sense means testing assumptions early and building shared confidence across teams.

Cross-functional Collaboration as the Engine of Agility

Dr. Fraile emphasizes that agile hardware development depends on coordination across disciplines mechanical, electrical, and software. In one project, he led a cross-functional team and used Asana boards to map out dependencies and bottlenecks. By sitting down with each team member and asking about pain points, he discovered workflow improvements that cut production timelines by several days.

This kind of design leadership, part technical, part empathetic, is crucial to agility. Dr. Fraile didn’t just assign tasks; he created systems where each contributor understood how their work unlocked progress for others.

Agility Is a Mindset, Not Just a Method

What sets Dr. Fraile apart is not just his skill set, but his systems-thinking mindset. Agile hardware, as he practices it, isn’t about copying Scrum or sprint cycles; it's about short feedback loops, internal validation, and fast, coordinated decision-making across teams. Whether it’s a brake system for trains or torque algorithms for Teslas, his work shows that agility in hardware is not only possible, it's necessary.

In today’s competitive engineering landscape, the real edge lies in how quickly and confidently teams can learn. For hardware engineers, that starts by thinking a little more like software teams and building with adaptability in mind.