Quality during Design

Dianna Deeney

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Quality During Design helps engineers build products people love—faster, smarter, and with less stress. Host Dianna Deeney, author of Pierce the Design Fog, shares practical tools and quality thinking from concept to execution. Subscribe on Substack for monthly guides, templates, and Q&A.

1H AGO

Constraints Unlock Creativity: Why Frameworks Beat Blank Slates in Product Concept Design

Your team keeps brainstorming into a void, producing “meh” ideas that never stick. What if the problem isn’t a lack of creativity but the absence of the right constraints? In this episode: • The Goldilocks principle of team creativity – why no guardrails and too‑many guardrails both kill innovation. • Frameworks unlock, don’t limit, creativity – using the drummers‑without‑drums analogy to show how structured constraints spark breakthrough ideas. • Timing and the Concept Space Model – the sweet spot after business approval but before detailed design, and how to map inputs, process, and outputs to generate high‑quality concepts. Visit the blog post. Ready to apply this to your project? → Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar Want insights like this? → Subscribe to my newsletter: qualityduringdesign.substack.com Learn the full framework: → Get the Book: Pierce the Design Fog ABOUT DIANNA Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

12 min
JAN 22

Cut Through The Design Fog

Early concept development often fails because teams lack clarity and alignment, leading to wasted time and resources. Discover the structured approach needed to cut through the "design fog" and ensure your team is building the right product from the start. In this episode: • The Concept Space Model defines the fundamental questions teams must align on before diving into technical details. • The ADEPT Team Framework provides a five-part method for effective co-creation and structured ideation. • Learn how brainwriting and ensuring common understanding lead to actionable design inputs. Do you want next steps? Are you ready to pierce your design fog? Here is how to get started: Listen to the free podcast series. Get the list at PierceTheDesignFog.comRead the book, Pierce the Design Fog. It contains detailed templates, facilitation guides, and case studies.Work with me. I help teams implement these frameworks. Visit DeeneyEnterprises.comReady to apply this to your project? → Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar Want insights like this? → Subscribe to my newsletter: qualityduringdesign.substack.com Learn the full framework: → Get the Book: Pierce the Design Fog ABOUT DIANNA Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

8 min
JAN 8

The Design Fog is Derailing Your Project

Your team spent six weeks on a feature that got rejected in the demo. Your engineers built a prototype that totally missed the mark. This misalignment is the design fog, and it’s where most product failures are born in the uncomfortable space of the fuzzy front end. In this episode: • Learn why jumping to prototypes introduces fixedness, robbing your team of the chance to define true user requirements. • Understand the symptoms of the design fog, including the silent assumptions problem and the premature precision trap. • Discover how the Concept Space Model and the ADEPT Team Framework act as the rope and torches you need to pierce the design fog and align your team in a matter of hours, not weeks. Subscribe at qualityduringdesign.substack.com so you don’t miss the framework that stops the cycle. Ready to apply this to your project? → Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar Want insights like this? → Subscribe to my newsletter: qualityduringdesign.substack.com Learn the full framework: → Get the Book: Pierce the Design Fog ABOUT DIANNA Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

11 min
12/25/2025

Expected Value Makes Uncertainty Manageable

Ever face a late-stage design decision where your gut says “maybe,” finance says “no,” and the schedule says “hurry”? We unpack a simple way to make those calls with more clarity: using expected value to connect confidence, upside, and downside into one sober view of net benefit. No jargon, no spreadsheets required—just a clear framework that helps you see when a $50,000 test buys real certainty, and when the right move is to ship. Still, numbers don’t get the final say. The goal isn’t to pick the biggest EV; it’s to choose the most balanced, actionable, project-aligned option. If this approach helps you navigate the gray areas between risk and reward, follow the show, share it with a teammate, and leave a quick review so others can find it. Got a decision you’re wrestling with? Send it our way—we’ll feature it in a future breakdown. This blogpost: https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/expected-value-makes-uncertainty-manageable/ Facing a really complicated and nuanced decision? Try this Method to Help with Complex Decisions (DMRCS) Ready to apply this to your project? → Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar Want insights like this? → Subscribe to my newsletter: qualityduringdesign.substack.com Learn the full framework: → Get the Book: Pierce the Design Fog ABOUT DIANNA Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

13 min
12/11/2025

Define Kill Criteria to Avoid Zombie Projects

When pursuing aggressive benchmarks, engineers must employ portfolio thinking, running multiple design projects simultaneously. But choosing winners requires a decisive way to eliminate projects that are not feasible to continue innovating, often referred to as a "project killer". In this episode, we analyze Tesla's battery development as a case study. We delve into their use of five clear-cut constraint categories that define failure conditions upfront: the Economic filter, Performance filter, Scalability filter, Resource filter, and System filter. We discuss the challenges engineers face in letting go of projects due to the sunk cost fallacy, where prior investments irrationally influence future choices, leading to the creation of "zombie projects". Learn why defining explicit kill criteria before development begins is a vital, often overlooked exercise that saves resources and ensures rational decision-making. Blog for this episode: https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/define-kill-criteria-to-avoid-zombie-projects/ Episode with Dianna's review of Annie Duke's "Quit": Exploring Product Development and AI Through Literature: Insights from 'Loonshots', 'AI 2041', 'Quit', and "How Big Things Get Done' (QDD Book Cast) - Deeney Enterprises Ready to apply this to your project? → Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar Want insights like this? → Subscribe to my newsletter: qualityduringdesign.substack.com Learn the full framework: → Get the Book: Pierce the Design Fog ABOUT DIANNA Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

13 min
11/20/2025

Confidence is a Dial: Turn It with Evidence, Not Guesswork

We turn late-stage design surprises into a strategic plan by assigning explicit confidence levels, stacking evidence, and using the three-dial model of time, cost, and confidence boost. We show how to work backward from a system test to cheaper steps that drive faster, clearer decisions. • applying the three dials of time, cost, confidence • sequencing with the work-backwards strategy • avoiding overtesting, undertesting, wrong testing • turning confidence into a team communication tool • practical next steps to build the confidence muscle Subscribe to the Substack for monthly guides, templates, and Q&A where I help you apply these to your specific projects. Visit qualityduringdesign.substack.com, or you can get the transcript of this episode and many other podcast episodes at deeneyenterprises.com Ready to apply this to your project? → Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar Want insights like this? → Subscribe to my newsletter: qualityduringdesign.substack.com Learn the full framework: → Get the Book: Pierce the Design Fog ABOUT DIANNA Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

12 min
11/06/2025

Raise Your Confidence by Strategically Stacking Evidence

Late-stage design just hit a snag—now comes the moment that separates guesswork from great engineering. We walk through a clear, repeatable method to investigate unexpected failures and make high-impact decisions with confidence. Instead of hunting for a perfect test, we set a confidence target and stack multiple forms of imperfect evidence until we close the gap. If you’re navigating late-stage product development and want a calm, methodical way to move from 40% to 90% confidence, this framework will help you choose the next best step, allocate limited time and budget, and know when to stop. Join the Substack for monthly guides, templates, and QA where I help you apply these to your specific projects. Visit qualityduringdesign.substack.com. Show notes Ready to apply this to your project? → Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar Want insights like this? → Subscribe to my newsletter: qualityduringdesign.substack.com Learn the full framework: → Get the Book: Pierce the Design Fog ABOUT DIANNA Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

9 min
10/23/2025

Stop Risk Theater, Start Real Decisions

We break down why risk analyses often become checkbox theater and replace them with a simple, practical impact vs likelihood matrix that guides action. From quick wins to high-stakes unknowns, we show how to calibrate effort, buy the right learning, and move with confidence. Join the Substack for monthly guides, templates, and QA where I help you apply these to your specific projects. Ready to apply this to your project? → Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar Want insights like this? → Subscribe to my newsletter: qualityduringdesign.substack.com Learn the full framework: → Get the Book: Pierce the Design Fog ABOUT DIANNA Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

14 min

Quality During Design helps engineers build products people love—faster, smarter, and with less stress. Host Dianna Deeney, author of Pierce the Design Fog, shares practical tools and quality thinking from concept to execution. Subscribe on Substack for monthly guides, templates, and Q&A.

Creator

Dianna Deeney
Years Active

2021 - 2026
Episodes

189
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2026 Deeney Enterprises, LLC
Show Website

Quality during Design