When designing a piece of hardware, what are the general consideration used in your design methodology?

Senior hardware engineers need to be guided by very high-level design criteria when developing pieces of hardware or electronic equipment. These enable the engineers to make design decisions which result in quality products that are easy to use and reliable. The Cisco interviewer will ask this question to confirm that you use the same criteria as their organization. Researching Cisco and its business practices before the interview will help you select the high-level criteria which mirror theirs.