[cadandcookies]

I'll answer both the title question and the OP's question.

1: Is CAD essential to all teams?

No. Not even close. CAD is a great tool, but you can run a successful FRC team (and build a competitive FRC robot) without CAD.

2: Is CAD the next needed step in order for us to become successful?

Possibly. I think it can be hugely valuable for a team to learn CAD, whether you have mentors in it or not. Be aware that you are in for a slog if you don't have any mentors coming into learning CAD-- when you are learning CAD, you are learning a new language, one that translates your thoughts into shapes on a screen instead of words on a page or audio signals. If you don't have someone who already speaks that language, you are going to figure out a lot of stuff on your own. Like others have mentioned, you're looking at a couple of years to really integrate CAD into your team, especially if not everybody is on board. Don't be afraid to design only parts or subsystems of your robot first-- you don't need to just jump into the deep end.

Best of luck in your future seasons.

Also, ff you choose to learn Creo, feel free to PM me with any questions. While I'm not a professional engineer, I am pretty good at using and teaching Creo for FTC and FRC (by the way, this is a standing offer to just about anyone-- I'm not a complete expert, but designing stuff in Creo is a hobby of mine, so I know a decent bit).