Tips on overall robot design procces

[Duke461]

Hi, my name is Ben Carson, and I'm a sophomore on team 461, Westside Boiler Invasion. Technically this is my second year on the team, but i joined the second day of build season for "Breakaway". Unfortunately because of this, I was unable to experience that "first thought" about the game along with some of the design process, partially a result of an extreme lack of knowledge about robots . But this year i've learned tons of new stuff and im almost ready to go for this year's kickoff. Basically what im trying to ask is, from an experienced student/mentor/coach's perspective, do you have any tips or advice as to how to go about the process of analyzing the game and appendages or special features of the robot. I understand this is kind of a vague question so bear with me, but for instance we figured out towards the end of Breakaway hanging was no where near as important as it seemed in the beginning. So what advice could you give to be able to recognize that before it's too late? (besides making a field) Also what do you think is a good time frame/schedule for discussion time, design/CAD time, building time, driving practice time, etc.
Thank you very much and good luck to all the teams out there.