There is no single way to be successful but a few ideas are:
1. keep things as simple as possible - better to work well on simpler things than be broken all the time
2, the team needs to come to consensus on design- not everybody needs to be overjoyed at the decided on design but all need to agree that they will support the building of it.
3. listen to everybody- but defer to the experts (your engineers) for advice in construction. It only makes sense for the people who know engineering to offer the ideas on what or how to build things. The non-experts can include their ideas obviously but the experts should be listened too for the "how to" advice for design and building.
4. Take time to work on building your team. When you have a good team and everybody enjoys being on it the robot building will be much more fun and more productive.
5. Ask for help- there are plenty of us happy to lend a hand or idea. You don't need to do things alone in FIRST
Feel free to drop a line...
WC
