Make many Mistakes but make them Early

Design Leadership
Posted by DT
Oct 05, 2007
(2 comments)

Oh Christmas is fast approaching and I am getting fat. I’m currently stressed and when I’m stressed I eat, and so I get fat, all before Christmas comes. I should exercise instead but I don’t and I digress.

Christmas traditionally is the best time for any company trying to sell products, and at the company I work for it is no different. It it this time that a multitude of different elements all come together so that we can deliver our product to our customer. Marketing materials, quality controls, product buyout, logistical issues, and Industrial Design support to manufacturing, it all comes down to this fourth quarter, and every year its the same.

Regardless of all our best laid intentions and careful planning, Murphy’s Law always rears its ugly head. I have found however the best thing to do is plan for Murphy by doing as many trials as possible to weed out all the potential problems and then some. If there are mistakes, and mistakes will happen, lets make them quickly, make them many, and learn from it.

Making a mistake is not a sign of weakness not something to feel shameful about. I see it as being clever, the earlier you discover a problem, the more reaction time you have to fix it.

This is also no different from concept development during the Industrial Design stage. Get going on your concept, test it, validate it, and make all the mistakes you can make. Then you can feel positive you would save buckets loads of time towards the tail end of the product development program, ie the delivery or realization phase.