Here’s a story of a mistake we only made once… and how we fixed it.
About 12 years ago, we were halfway through the prototype stage of a technical product design and development project. The concept had been properly explored, evaluated, and signed off. It was working—though it had a few minor downsides—so it wasn’t perfect. But we could see a clear path to a finished, solid product.
Then came a new idea from one of the engineers. It seemed simpler. Better. A shiny object!
I wasn’t convinced about switching. But he asked, “What’s wrong with it?”
And… I had to admit that nothing obvious jumped out straight away. So we switched designs.
🚨 Two weeks later—with the CAD almost complete and the timeline now tight—we hit a major, non-obvious, show-stopping flaw.
Oh, shoot.
Lost time. Frustrated client. Two weeks of very long days and 2am finishes for me, catching up. And a lot of kicking ourselves for switching.
What did we learn?
All design ideas need to go through our full 5-step DP-Create conceptual process.
It’s tempting to chase something that seems better mid-project—but without proper evaluation, it’s high risk.
Designs don’t need to be perfect. This is a trap inventors often fall into—going back to the drawing board because “I’ve got a better idea!”—and never actually producing a product.
Clients need something that works well, works reliably, is cost-effective, and gets delivered.
It never says in the brief: “Must be utterly perfect.”
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Done beats perfect.
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Save new ideas for version 2!
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New ideas might be needed during prototyping—but only to solve problems or make improvements, not to completely redesign.
Changing course at this stage is extremely risky—and we would only do it if the chosen concept proved unviable.
But in reality, this never actually happens—because we’ve already done the hard work during concept development to make sure it’s viable.
So we don’t change course. (Not yet, anyway.)
If you need a highly experienced product design team to create fantastic products for you, get in touch with Martyn at:
📩 hello@designandproduct.co.uk
