Quality during Design

Dianna Deeney
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Careers
  • Updated fortnightly

Quality during Design is the podcast for engineers and product developers navigating the messy front end of product development. Each episode gives you practical quality and reliability tools you can use during the design phase — so your team catches problems early, avoids costly rework, and ships products people can depend on. You'll hear solo episodes on early-stage clarity, risk-based decision-making, and quality thinking, along with conversations with cross-functional experts in the series A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts. If you want to design products people love for less time, less cost, and a whole lot fewer headaches — this is your place. Hosted by Dianna Deeney, consultant, coach, and author of Pierce the Design Fog. Subscribe on Substack for monthly guides, templates, and Q&A.

  1. What Are You Really Trying to Learn? Chad Schneider on Prototyping with Purpose (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

    25 Jun

    What Are You Really Trying to Learn? Chad Schneider on Prototyping with Purpose (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

    The episode features Chad Schneider, CEO and founder of Root3 Labs, discussing prototyping as a discipline focused on answering specific questions to reduce technical, schedule, and market risk.  He explains that prototypes need not resemble the final product, citing examples like using a cardboard mockup to verify hand access for connectors and 3D-printed sizing models to understand surgical constraints.  Chad describes managing complex, time-constrained projects by rigorously evaluating requirements as needs versus wants. He uses quick calculations and low-fidelity prototypes to resolve unknowns early — when changes are cheap — rather than waiting for expensive tooling decisions to reveal them.  He also shares a hospital device concept that was canceled after observing nurses (who immediately removed the cable-concealing covers the team had designed) framing 'killing' the project as a win.   Key takeaway: before you build, write down the question you're trying to answer, then find the lowest-resolution way to answer it. For more highlights, visit the blog post. 00:00 Start With The Question 01:22 Meet Chad Schneider 02:25 What Root Three Builds 04:46 Prototype Means Question 06:25 Why Skipping Costs More 07:17 Cardboard Box Prototype 09:27 Managing Deadlines And Needs 13:47 Risk Based Prototyping Culture 21:48 User Feedback Can Kill Projects 30:47 Final Takeaways And Challenge Send us a message Work with Dianna I help product development teams build quality into the front end when it's cheap and easy, not late when it's expensive and painful. Book a 20-minute discovery call with Dianna's calendar. Whether you're navigating the "fuzzy front end" of product development and want to explore a workshop or advisory partnership, or you'd like to be a guest on this podcast. You'll leave with a summary, relevant resources, and a clear path for next steps within 24 hours.  Pierce the Design Fog (piercethedesignfog.com): my book on aligning cross-functional teams, defining clear design inputs, and accelerating product success. NIEA Finalist Award, reviewed by PDMA.  Connect with me: I'm most active on LinkedIn.  Free Resources for Subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest — https://newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com — for monthly actionable highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist (a free self-assessment download) and my Swipe File Vault.

    33 min
  2. The Most Expensive Question You Didn't Ask

    11 Jun

    The Most Expensive Question You Didn't Ask

    Engineering rework often comes from unasked questions or using the wrong tool at the wrong fidelity.  Dianna outlines three common prototyping traps:  the “ta-da” trap, where teams build polished prototypes to impress stakeholders before the concept is stable, anchoring the team to an early solutionthe “I’m smarter than cardboard” trap, where engineers skip low-fidelity physical models in favor of analysis even when the real question is usabilitythe “validation theater” trap, where teams default to expensive, validation-level rigs before confirming they’re asking the highest-risk, right question. All three share a root cause: jumping from idea to build without defining what must be learned and the appropriate fidelity.  She invites listeners to subscribe for a future episode on prototyping done well. 02:08 Trap 1: The 'ta-da' trap 04:19 Trap 2: The "I'm smarter than cardboard" trap 05:43 Trap 3: The "validation theater" trap Send us a message Work with Dianna I help product development teams build quality into the front end when it's cheap and easy, not late when it's expensive and painful. Book a 20-minute discovery call with Dianna's calendar. Whether you're navigating the "fuzzy front end" of product development and want to explore a workshop or advisory partnership, or you'd like to be a guest on this podcast. You'll leave with a summary, relevant resources, and a clear path for next steps within 24 hours.  Pierce the Design Fog (piercethedesignfog.com): my book on aligning cross-functional teams, defining clear design inputs, and accelerating product success. NIEA Finalist Award, reviewed by PDMA.  Connect with me: I'm most active on LinkedIn.  Free Resources for Subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest — https://newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com — for monthly actionable highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist (a free self-assessment download) and my Swipe File Vault.

    8 min
  3. Local LLMs: Where to Actually Start, with Vincent Deeney (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

    28 May

    Local LLMs: Where to Actually Start, with Vincent Deeney (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

    Most of the social conversation around AI is aimed at business owners and programmers, but if you’re an engineer or quality professional, you might be wondering how to actually use these tools to help with your own work processes or information pools. While many people are waiting for their company to provide an AI strategy, there is a way to start building your own private "AI intern" today without being a coder or a programmer. In this episode, I’m joined by technologist Vincent Deeney to discuss the practical side of running Large Language Models (LLMs) locally on your own hardware. We move past the hype to talk about how "playing" with these models is actually a high-level form of learning that can help you bridge technical gaps and soar in your productivity. Vincent introduces a mental model for your personal development: the "Senior Engineer vs. Intern" workflow. You’ll learn how to use elite frontier models to help you architect complex concepts, then hand that plan over to a local model to execute the repetitive, data-heavy tasks.  Whether you want to automate your morning research or just understand the "why" behind AI behavior, this episode is your guide to becoming a more capable, AI-literate professional. We don't just talk about AI - we give you a roadmap to start executing on your own. Listen in and visit the podcast blog for extra resources: https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/s3e20 Send us a message Work with Dianna I help product development teams build quality into the front end when it's cheap and easy, not late when it's expensive and painful. Book a 20-minute discovery call with Dianna's calendar. Whether you're navigating the "fuzzy front end" of product development and want to explore a workshop or advisory partnership, or you'd like to be a guest on this podcast. You'll leave with a summary, relevant resources, and a clear path for next steps within 24 hours.  Pierce the Design Fog (piercethedesignfog.com): my book on aligning cross-functional teams, defining clear design inputs, and accelerating product success. NIEA Finalist Award, reviewed by PDMA.  Connect with me: I'm most active on LinkedIn.  Free Resources for Subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest — https://newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com — for monthly actionable highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist (a free self-assessment download) and my Swipe File Vault.

    36 min
  4. The Knowledge Your Team Has That Nobody's Using

    14 May

    The Knowledge Your Team Has That Nobody's Using

    Late-breaking insights in product development aren’t caused by negligence but by a lack of structure that pulls existing team knowledge into concept discussions early, when changes are cheaper.  Dianna describes an experiment running three product briefs (solar post-installation support, a portable oxygen concentrator, and a field lettuce harvester module) through traditional versus structured concept development.  Both produced credible outputs, but the structured method added context: linking each design input to a specific use-process failure or targeted benefit, its severity or importance, and a clear acceptance condition. Engineering inherits clarity rather than having to guess intent.  Dianna proposes a three-question filter (who fails, how severe/important, what “done” means) and challenges listeners to apply it to one current design input.  Visit the YouTube series showing side-by-side results: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTtGpfRyyNcZ9qMVL2HmWA7heE3Idyfbt Send us a message Work with Dianna I help product development teams build quality into the front end when it's cheap and easy, not late when it's expensive and painful. Book a 20-minute discovery call with Dianna's calendar. Whether you're navigating the "fuzzy front end" of product development and want to explore a workshop or advisory partnership, or you'd like to be a guest on this podcast. You'll leave with a summary, relevant resources, and a clear path for next steps within 24 hours.  Pierce the Design Fog (piercethedesignfog.com): my book on aligning cross-functional teams, defining clear design inputs, and accelerating product success. NIEA Finalist Award, reviewed by PDMA.  Connect with me: I'm most active on LinkedIn.  Free Resources for Subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest — https://newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com — for monthly actionable highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist (a free self-assessment download) and my Swipe File Vault.

    11 min
  5. Beyond the Pipeline: Rethinking Engineering Careers with Cassie Leonard (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

    23 Apr

    Beyond the Pipeline: Rethinking Engineering Careers with Cassie Leonard (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

    The episode features Cassie Leonard—former aerospace technical leader, executive coach, and author of STEM Moms and Beyond the Pipeline—explaining why the traditional linear “pipeline” model of engineering careers is constricting and mislabels non-linear moves as failure.  Drawing on expectancy-value theory, she presents an ROI-style equation for decisions: attainment, intrinsic, and utility value divided by effort, loss of valued alternatives, and cost of failure, illustrating it with her choice to leave a Fortune 100 role and start her coaching business.  This conversation applies the framework to individual confidence and authenticity, leader strategies for retention and recognition (including “rock stars” vs. “superstars”), and cross-functional empathy when trade-offs arise.  See more about Cassie at ELMMcoaching.com. Visit the blog post for more: https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/s3e19/ Send us a message Work with Dianna I help product development teams build quality into the front end when it's cheap and easy, not late when it's expensive and painful. Book a 20-minute discovery call with Dianna's calendar. Whether you're navigating the "fuzzy front end" of product development and want to explore a workshop or advisory partnership, or you'd like to be a guest on this podcast. You'll leave with a summary, relevant resources, and a clear path for next steps within 24 hours.  Pierce the Design Fog (piercethedesignfog.com): my book on aligning cross-functional teams, defining clear design inputs, and accelerating product success. NIEA Finalist Award, reviewed by PDMA.  Connect with me: I'm most active on LinkedIn.  Free Resources for Subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest — https://newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com — for monthly actionable highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist (a free self-assessment download) and my Swipe File Vault.

    34 min
  6. The Quiet System: Why Your Lessons Learned Aren’t Sticking

    9 Apr

    The Quiet System: Why Your Lessons Learned Aren’t Sticking

    Your team keeps solving the exact same problems project after project. What if the issue isn't careless execution, but a reactive system designed to hide failures rather than learn from them?  In this episode: • Discover how protective, reactive systems create "quiet" organizations where vital failure data gets buried instead of shared. • Learn the three essential shifts high-performing organizations use to turn lessons learned into strategic, upstream inputs. • Understand why the pendulum swing toward over-constrained, paperwork-heavy processes is just another system design failure. Ready to stop the cycle of repeating mistakes? Download the strategic quality integration checklist via the Quality During Design newsletter, or book a free 20-minute clarity call at qualityduringdesign.com/talk to map out your next best move. Send us a message Work with Dianna I help product development teams build quality into the front end when it's cheap and easy, not late when it's expensive and painful. Book a 20-minute discovery call with Dianna's calendar. Whether you're navigating the "fuzzy front end" of product development and want to explore a workshop or advisory partnership, or you'd like to be a guest on this podcast. You'll leave with a summary, relevant resources, and a clear path for next steps within 24 hours.  Pierce the Design Fog (piercethedesignfog.com): my book on aligning cross-functional teams, defining clear design inputs, and accelerating product success. NIEA Finalist Award, reviewed by PDMA.  Connect with me: I'm most active on LinkedIn.  Free Resources for Subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest — https://newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com — for monthly actionable highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist (a free self-assessment download) and my Swipe File Vault.

    9 min
  7. Shannon Cummings on Why Marketing Should Be in the Room Before the First Prototype (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

    26 Mar

    Shannon Cummings on Why Marketing Should Be in the Room Before the First Prototype (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

    Your team keeps building the wrong thing, despite great effort. What if the problem isn’t execution. It’s the fog you’re navigating in? We speak with Shannon Cummings, a seasoned product and marketing strategist who’s spent his career bridging the gap between Marketing, Product, and Engineering. He’s launched life-changing medical devices, cut development time in half, and done it all by bringing marketing into the room before the first prototype.  In this episode: • Why product development fails when marketing is an afterthought • How early customer insight—not prototypes—should drive design • The real power of cross-functional alignment (and how to make it happen) • A proven process to keep teams united, focused, and customer-obsessed from day one Show notes and links: https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/s3e18/ Send us a message Work with Dianna I help product development teams build quality into the front end when it's cheap and easy, not late when it's expensive and painful. Book a 20-minute discovery call with Dianna's calendar. Whether you're navigating the "fuzzy front end" of product development and want to explore a workshop or advisory partnership, or you'd like to be a guest on this podcast. You'll leave with a summary, relevant resources, and a clear path for next steps within 24 hours.  Pierce the Design Fog (piercethedesignfog.com): my book on aligning cross-functional teams, defining clear design inputs, and accelerating product success. NIEA Finalist Award, reviewed by PDMA.  Connect with me: I'm most active on LinkedIn.  Free Resources for Subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest — https://newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com — for monthly actionable highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist (a free self-assessment download) and my Swipe File Vault.

    36 min
  8. Stop Being a Witness to Decisions That You Should be Helping to Shape

    12 Mar

    Stop Being a Witness to Decisions That You Should be Helping to Shape

    Have you ever walked into a meeting (design review, planning session, phase gate) only to realize the decision was already made? That the discussion was just theater, not dialogue? You weren’t there to shape the outcome. You were there to witness it.  If that’s happened to you, you’re not alone. In this episode, Dianna explores why this happens, why it feels so frustrating, and most importantly how to fix it.  In this episode: • Design reviews are often theater because of the system: decisions are made before the meeting, not during • Real influence happens upstream, not in the formal meeting • Three practical steps to shape decisions before they’re locked in  Stop waiting for your moment to shine. Start shaping the moment before it happens. Share this with someone who’s been a witness too many times. Visit the blog post for additional notes and transcript: https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/stop-being-a-witness Send us a message Work with Dianna I help product development teams build quality into the front end when it's cheap and easy, not late when it's expensive and painful. Book a 20-minute discovery call with Dianna's calendar. Whether you're navigating the "fuzzy front end" of product development and want to explore a workshop or advisory partnership, or you'd like to be a guest on this podcast. You'll leave with a summary, relevant resources, and a clear path for next steps within 24 hours.  Pierce the Design Fog (piercethedesignfog.com): my book on aligning cross-functional teams, defining clear design inputs, and accelerating product success. NIEA Finalist Award, reviewed by PDMA.  Connect with me: I'm most active on LinkedIn.  Free Resources for Subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest — https://newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com — for monthly actionable highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist (a free self-assessment download) and my Swipe File Vault.

    12 min
See All (198)

About

Quality during Design is the podcast for engineers and product developers navigating the messy front end of product development. Each episode gives you practical quality and reliability tools you can use during the design phase — so your team catches problems early, avoids costly rework, and ships products people can depend on. You'll hear solo episodes on early-stage clarity, risk-based decision-making, and quality thinking, along with conversations with cross-functional experts in the series A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts. If you want to design products people love for less time, less cost, and a whole lot fewer headaches — this is your place. Hosted by Dianna Deeney, consultant, coach, and author of Pierce the Design Fog. Subscribe on Substack for monthly guides, templates, and Q&A.

Information

  • Creator
    Dianna Deeney
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    198
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Deeney Enterprises, LLC
  • Show Website
    Quality during Design