Quality during Design

Hosted by Dianna Deeney

Business Management Education

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Episodes

206

Latest episode

Oct 2026

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EN-US

About the show

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: newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com.

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November 12, 2026Episode 512 min

Why We Jump: Fear

Fear is one reason teams jump from an idea to a solution before they understand the problem. It does not always look like panic. It can look like adding another inspection, building a feature that can be placed on a chart, accepting the answer from the person with the most authority, or avoiding a decision altogether. In this solo compilation episode, Dianna Deeney asks four contributors how fear or uncertainty affects decisions in their areas of work. Their responses show four ways fear can shape a decision before the team fully understands the problem. Contributors Martin Griffiths — Metis Automation and the Manufacturers Make Strides podcast Manufacturing Execution System - Metis Automation Manufacturers Make Strides - Metis Automation Dianna's interview on Manufacturers Make Strides Jake McKee — Principal Conversation Design Consultant Jake McKee | Customer engagement for product teams Slow Down to Speed Up: Jake McKee's Guide to AIX (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts) - Deeney Enterprises Yakira Mirabito — researcher in engineering design and innovation Yakira Mirabito Social Dynamics within Engineering with Yakira Mirabito (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts) - Deeney Enterprises Greg Hutchins — certified enterprise risk manager and founder of CERM Risk Insights linkedin.com/in/greghutchins Your Challenge Choose one current decision and write down four things: 1. What are you afraid will happen? 2. What solution are you tempted to choose? 3. What evidence do you currently have to support that decision? 4. What small step would increase understanding before commitment? Fear can point to a real risk. The goal is not to dismiss it. Investigate what it is telling you before you let it choose the solution. For more highlights, visit the related blog post: deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/s7e5 Subscribe to Quality During Design on your preferred podcast player, and visit qualityduringdesign.com for the podcast library, articles, and other resources. Send us a message Work with Dianna I provide independent quality engineering, product-assurance, and technical-risk support when product or process decisions need experienced outside scrutiny. My work includes: Quality-system and product-development method reviews Technical evidence and standards-based rationale Independent risk and readiness reviews Project-based and fractional quality advisory Start with a 20-minute conversation: https://calendly.com/dianna-deeney/discovery-call Interested in being a guest? If you have a practical perspective on quality, reliability, risk, or product development, email Dianna at dianna@qualityduringdesign.com. Pierce the Design Fog My book explains how cross-functional teams can align around customer needs, clarify design inputs, and make better product-development decisions. Read more: https://piercethedesignfog.com The book was an NIEA Finalist and was reviewed by PDMA. BookLife Reviews described it as: “Great for fans of Tony Fadell’s Build, David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall’s The Product Mindset.” Free resources for subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest for monthly practical highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist ...

October 22, 2026Episode 439 min

Customer Discovery Across Product Stages, with Ashley Phillips

Ashley Phillips joins Dianna to discuss how customer discovery changes across startups, hypergrowth teams, and established products. Customers may surprise a team with new ways to use a product, while the environment around a long-standing product can change enough to make old assumptions stale. Ashley shares examples from Venmo, Groupon, and Aura Frames, and explains why direct customer contact, real prototypes, usage data, and curiosity all matter when teams are deciding what to build next. Key Takeaways Discovery continues after launch because customers can reveal new uses and new product opportunities. Customer expectations can change even when the customer segment appears stable. Hardware products require a different balance between speed, learning, and release risk. Engineers make better building decisions when they get closer to the people using the product. Metrics show that something is happening; customer conversations help explain what is happening and why. Your Challenge Choose one customer assumption your team is relying on. Review one current usage metric, support pattern, or piece of direct customer feedback. Ask whether it confirms the assumption, complicates it, or suggests that the surrounding environment has changed. Then get closer to the source by joining a customer interview, listening to a support interaction, or observing someone using the product. For more highlights, visit the blog post. deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/s7e4 Send us a message Work with Dianna I provide independent quality engineering, product-assurance, and technical-risk support when product or process decisions need experienced outside scrutiny. My work includes: Quality-system and product-development method reviews Technical evidence and standards-based rationale Independent risk and readiness reviews Project-based and fractional quality advisory Start with a 20-minute conversation: https://calendly.com/dianna-deeney/discovery-call Interested in being a guest? If you have a practical perspective on quality, reliability, risk, or product development, email Dianna at dianna@qualityduringdesign.com. Pierce the Design Fog My book explains how cross-functional teams can align around customer needs, clarify design inputs, and make better product-development decisions. Read more: https://piercethedesignfog.com The book was an NIEA Finalist and was reviewed by PDMA. BookLife Reviews described it as: “Great for fans of Tony Fadell’s Build, David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall’s The Product Mindset.” Free resources for subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest for monthly practical highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist ...

October 8, 2026Episode 39 min

Two Ways We Jump: Speed and Certainty

In this solo episode of Quality during Design, Dianna looks at two reasons product development teams jump from a partial understanding of a problem to a committed solution: speed and certainty. Fast prototyping, generative AI, and 3D printing can make building feel harmless, but activity only creates value when it answers a specific question and informs a decision. Certainty can create the same design fog more slowly, when familiar customers, old requirements, or past successes are treated as current evidence without being checked. The practical question is not whether teams should act, but whether their action is connected to learning and whether they are prepared to change course. YOUR CHALLENGE Take one customer assumption your team is relying on and ask: “When was the last time we checked it against current behavior?” Then identify what evidence would cause you to stop, change course, or revisit the solution. RESOURCES Season 7 episode kickoff — Why Do We Jump? About the Moment Before We Commit - Deeney Enterprises Related episode with Ashley Roach — When Building Gets Cheap, Decisions Matter More, with Ashley Roach - Deeney Enterprises For more highlights, visit the blog post: deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/s7e3 Send us a message Work with Dianna I provide independent quality engineering, product-assurance, and technical-risk support when product or process decisions need experienced outside scrutiny. My work includes: Quality-system and product-development method reviews Technical evidence and standards-based rationale Independent risk and readiness reviews Project-based and fractional quality advisory Start with a 20-minute conversation: https://calendly.com/dianna-deeney/discovery-call Interested in being a guest? If you have a practical perspective on quality, reliability, risk, or product development, email Dianna at dianna@qualityduringdesign.com. Pierce the Design Fog My book explains how cross-functional teams can align around customer needs, clarify design inputs, and make better product-development decisions. Read more: https://piercethedesignfog.com The book was an NIEA Finalist and was reviewed by PDMA. BookLife Reviews described it as: “Great for fans of Tony Fadell’s Build, David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall’s The Product Mindset.” Free resources for subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest for monthly practical highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist ...

September 24, 2026Episode 237 min

When Building Gets Cheap, Decisions Matter More, with Ashley Roach

Fast prototyping changes the constraint. When software, AI tools, and other rapid-prototyping methods make it inexpensive to turn an idea into something testable, the challenge is no longer only Can we build it? The harder questions become: What should we build? Who is it for? What evidence do we need? When should we stop tweaking and get it in front of people? Which decisions are reversible—and which ones will lock in future choices? In this episode, Ashley Roach and I discuss how speed can help teams explore ideas, but can also create a new version of the build trap: continuing to improve the thing because building feels productive, before confirming that it is valuable to customers. Ashley shares how he uses AI tools as thought partners, including an example where an AI system challenged him to stop adding functionality and gather more evidence first. We also discuss one-way and two-way doors, innovation inside larger organizations, cross-functional decision-making, and what changes when everyone in a company can become a builder. Key Takeaways: When building becomes cheap and fast, deciding what to build becomes a more important skill. Rapid prototyping can create a build trap if teams keep tweaking instead of testing with real people. Two-way-door decisions can often be made quickly because they are reversible; one-way-door decisions require deeper deliberation. Engineers, product managers, designers, and other specialists may increasingly participate in work outside their traditional roles. A simple opportunity brief can help teams examine whether an idea is worth pursuing before investing further. Your Challenge Before you build or keep refining your next idea, write down: Who is this for? What evidence would show that it is valuable? Is the next decision reversible? If the decision is reversible, consider making it and learning from the result. If it is difficult to reverse, slow down long enough to understand what you are locking in. For more highlights from this conversation, including the Opportunity Brief checklist and extra resources that Ashley recommends, visit the blog post: deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcasts/s7e2 Send us a message Work with Dianna I provide independent quality engineering, product-assurance, and technical-risk support when product or process decisions need experienced outside scrutiny. My work includes: Quality-system and product-development method reviews Technical evidence and standards-based rationale Independent risk and readiness reviews Project-based and fractional quality advisory Start with a 20-minute conversation: https://calendly.com/dianna-deeney/discovery-call Interested in being a guest? If you have a practical perspective on quality, reliability, risk, or product development, email Dianna at dianna@qualityduringdesign.com. Pierce the Design Fog My book explains how cross-functional teams can align around customer needs, clarify design inputs, and make better product-development decisions. Read more: https://piercethedesignfog.com The book was an NIEA Finalist and was reviewed by PDMA. BookLife Reviews described it as: “Great for fans of Tony Fadell’s Build, David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall’s The Product Mindset.” Free resources for subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest for monthly practical highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist ...

September 10, 2026Episode 16 min

Why Do We Jump? About the Moment Before We Commit

When a project goes off track, we usually look back and say, “We didn’t define the problem, and we jumped.” That sounds like a process breakdown, as if one good checklist or gate approval would have prevented it. But design fog runs deeper than missing process. It’s what’s happening in us. Over the next few episodes on Quality During Design, we’re exploring a quieter question: When we jump to a solution, why? Before we understand the problem, we start building. We skip questioning and investigating, jump the peak of the design diamond, and reach for a solution that feels like progress, but is really an emotional shield against the discomfort of not knowing. It’s the "Ta-Da Flop" waiting to happen. In this Season 7 opener, Dianna Deeney introduces the roadmap for this season's arc: What the "Anti-Jump" looks like: Staying in the fog on purpose to uncover the design inputs that actually matter. Why the jump is so hard to resist: In the moment, jumping doesn't feel like failure—it feels like forward progress. The Three Internal Engines: Speed: When additive manufacturing, digital twins, and AI make building cheap, jumping gets easier. Certainty: When we’re convinced we already know, we stop checking. The Deeper Engine: A more human driver running underneath both, saved for our season finale. The Roadmap: How upcoming guests like Ashley Roach (on the "tweak loop" and one-way vs. two-way doors) connect directly into this framework. Your Practice Question for the Week: When you catch yourself jumping this week, don’t judge it. Just ask: "Did I jump because it was easy to build, or because I was certain I already knew?" Resources Mentioned: Featured Book: Pierce the Design Fog: Develop High-Quality Products Faster Through Team Innovation by Dianna Deeney. Learn more at piercethedesignfog.com. Double Diamond Diagram: Check out the accompanying graphic in the blog post at deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/s7e1 . Subscribe to Quality During Design so you don't miss an episode in this season's arc! Other podcast episodes you may like: Predictive Analytics, Machine Learning, AI, and VR in Design Engineering Stop Being a Witness to Decisions That You Should be Helping to Shape Foundations-Exploring the Problem Space, A Key Principle for Robust Product Design and Project Success The Design Fog is Derailing Your Project Send us a message Work with Dianna I provide independent quality engineering, product-assurance, and technical-risk support when product or process decisions need experienced outside scrutiny. My work includes: Quality-system and product-development method reviews Technical evidence and standards-based rationale Independent risk and readiness reviews Project-based and fractional quality advisory Start with a 20-minute conversation: https://calendly.com/dianna-deeney/discovery-call Interested in being a guest? If you have a practical perspective on quality, reliability, risk, or product development, email Dianna at dianna@qualityduringdesign.com. Pierce the Design Fog My book explains how cross-functional teams can align around customer needs, clarify design inputs, and make better product-development decisions. Read more: https://piercethedesignfog.com The book was an NIEA Finalist and was reviewed by PDMA. BookLife Reviews described it as: “Great for fans of Tony Fadell’s Build, David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall’s The Product Mindset.” Free resources for subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest for monthly practical highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist ...

August 27, 2026Episode 2340 min

The Cracks Between Good Designs, with Mike Fedorov (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

Why do well-designed initiatives keep coming apart when they reach reality? Mike Fedorov , who spent 26 years in supply chain and operations at Mars and Accenture and now co-leads Applied AI Labs , explains that the failure usually isn’t a bad call inside a single design. It’s the coordination layer: the seams between teams, systems, and the data that no one remembers how to work. He walks through a transformation that stalled for months, what AI can actually do to close the gap, and the habits separating the AI programs that work from the 95% that quietly fail. Highlights The coordination layer is where modern design fails, not inside the design. The handoffs, systems, and data in the spaces between teams accumulate more opportunities to break than the parts themselves. The data is always a little wrong. Design for that. Waiting for perfect data is waiting forever; build systems that detect, tolerate, or self-correct small errors instead. AI doesn’t make the call; it should make the call obvious. AI’s job is to watch the data, connect the dots, and put the two or three important things in front of a human who decides. Mike's three rules that work when implementing AI for the coordination layer. Visit the podcast blog for a special infographic from Mike. Send us a message Work with Dianna I provide independent quality engineering, product-assurance, and technical-risk support when product or process decisions need experienced outside scrutiny. My work includes: Quality-system and product-development method reviews Technical evidence and standards-based rationale Independent risk and readiness reviews Project-based and fractional quality advisory Start with a 20-minute conversation: https://calendly.com/dianna-deeney/discovery-call Interested in being a guest? If you have a practical perspective on quality, reliability, risk, or product development, email Dianna at dianna@qualityduringdesign.com. Pierce the Design Fog My book explains how cross-functional teams can align around customer needs, clarify design inputs, and make better product-development decisions. Read more: https://piercethedesignfog.com The book was an NIEA Finalist and was reviewed by PDMA. BookLife Reviews described it as: “Great for fans of Tony Fadell’s Build, David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall’s The Product Mindset.” Free resources for subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest for monthly practical highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist ...

August 13, 2026Episode 2415 min

Decision Room Carry: Why Your Best Decisions Disappear on Monday

A cross-functional team can make what seems like a solid Friday decision, captured in minutes and agreed to in the room. Only then nothing moves on Monday. Drawing on Agnes Carroll’s observation that “no one is carrying it,” the episode argues this decision room carry problem isn’t solved by better documentation or tools like Jira and decision matrices, because an assigned decision is not an authored one. The gap is cognitive: the people who must execute weren’t reasoning, stress-testing, and co-authoring the trade-offs when the decision was made. Using design-for-manufacturing as an example, we explain how Pierce the Design Fog and its ADEPT framework (align, discover, examine, prioritize, teamwork) are designed to create real-time co-authorship so decisions carry into execution, especially in high-consequence product development. Agnes Carroll , Decision Architect for Complexity, Loomworx Studio. Article : "The Decision the Room Will Not Carry" https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/decision-room-carry-agnes-carroll-2sasc/ Studio : https://loomworxstudio.com Design & Quality Snapshot: Services - Deeney Enterprises Blog post for this episode: https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/ decision-room-carry-why-your-best-decisions-disappear-on-monday / Send us a message Work with Dianna I provide independent quality engineering, product-assurance, and technical-risk support when product or process decisions need experienced outside scrutiny. My work includes: Quality-system and product-development method reviews Technical evidence and standards-based rationale Independent risk and readiness reviews Project-based and fractional quality advisory Start with a 20-minute conversation: https://calendly.com/dianna-deeney/discovery-call Interested in being a guest? If you have a practical perspective on quality, reliability, risk, or product development, email Dianna at dianna@qualityduringdesign.com. Pierce the Design Fog My book explains how cross-functional teams can align around customer needs, clarify design inputs, and make better product-development decisions. Read more: https://piercethedesignfog.com The book was an NIEA Finalist and was reviewed by PDMA. BookLife Reviews described it as: “Great for fans of Tony Fadell’s Build, David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall’s The Product Mindset.” Free resources for subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest for monthly practical highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist ...

July 23, 2026Episode 2320 min

From Tools to Teamwork — 200 Episodes of Rethinking Quality during Design

In this milestone episode, Dianna reflects on how the thinking evolved from quality methods to product development processes, to team dynamics, and ultimately to one central idea: Quality during Design happens when teams align early and think together intentionally. In this episode The question that has guided all 200 episodes Why good engineering teams still build products that miss the mark The evolution from tools → process → people → systems The "Design Fog" and why the earliest product decisions matter most What a backyard orchard taught Dianna about product development How brainwriting led to the ADEPT Framework Why the future of quality starts before engineering design begins Featured ideas Design Fog ADEPT Framework Concept Space Model Brainwriting Early concept development Cross-functional alignment Building the right product before building the product right Thank you Whether this is your first episode or you've been listening since 2021, thank you for being part of the Quality During Design community. Your questions, conversations, and willingness to rethink product development have shaped this podcast as much as the ideas shared. Here's to the next 200 episodes. Send us a message Work with Dianna I provide independent quality engineering, product-assurance, and technical-risk support when product or process decisions need experienced outside scrutiny. My work includes: Quality-system and product-development method reviews Technical evidence and standards-based rationale Independent risk and readiness reviews Project-based and fractional quality advisory Start with a 20-minute conversation: https://calendly.com/dianna-deeney/discovery-call Interested in being a guest? If you have a practical perspective on quality, reliability, risk, or product development, email Dianna at dianna@qualityduringdesign.com. Pierce the Design Fog My book explains how cross-functional teams can align around customer needs, clarify design inputs, and make better product-development decisions. Read more: https://piercethedesignfog.com The book was an NIEA Finalist and was reviewed by PDMA. BookLife Reviews described it as: “Great for fans of Tony Fadell’s Build, David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall’s The Product Mindset.” Free resources for subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest for monthly practical highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist ...

July 9, 2026Episode 2238 min

Influence Without the Title, with Jenny Wanger (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

Why do product teams stay misaligned? Jenny Wanger explains the structural problems: efficiency-focused handoff workflows, unclear strategy, and people left cleaning up decisions they didn't help make. She shares tested practices for influencing upstream decisions without formal authority: clarifying strategy through curiosity, bringing the right people in early (pre-mortems work), and publicly recognizing collaborators. Key Takeaways Fire drills and half-finished features often stem from lost customer context in handoff-driven workflows Use curiosity, not criticism, to surface strategy gaps - Interview leaders and highlight missing pieces Run cross-functional pre-mortems early; rank risks by likelihood × impact, not opinion Make others look good publicly (CC their boss); build a reputation as someone worth inviting Timestamps 02:42 The Misalignment Before Picture 05:05 The Handoff Trap 17:00 Strategy Gaps & Curiosity 23:00 Pre-Mortems & Early Involvement 32:00 First Steps Resources Jenny Wanger: jennywanger.com | LinkedIn Your Challenge Pick one: Share a kudos with someone's manager, approach a colleague about a past bottleneck, or volunteer to run a pre-mortem. Send us a message Work with Dianna I provide independent quality engineering, product-assurance, and technical-risk support when product or process decisions need experienced outside scrutiny. My work includes: Quality-system and product-development method reviews Technical evidence and standards-based rationale Independent risk and readiness reviews Project-based and fractional quality advisory Start with a 20-minute conversation: https://calendly.com/dianna-deeney/discovery-call Interested in being a guest? If you have a practical perspective on quality, reliability, risk, or product development, email Dianna at dianna@qualityduringdesign.com. Pierce the Design Fog My book explains how cross-functional teams can align around customer needs, clarify design inputs, and make better product-development decisions. Read more: https://piercethedesignfog.com The book was an NIEA Finalist and was reviewed by PDMA. BookLife Reviews described it as: “Great for fans of Tony Fadell’s Build, David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall’s The Product Mindset.” Free resources for subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest for monthly practical highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist ...

June 25, 2026Episode 2133 min

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 provide independent quality engineering, product-assurance, and technical-risk support when product or process decisions need experienced outside scrutiny. My work includes: Quality-system and product-development method reviews Technical evidence and standards-based rationale Independent risk and readiness reviews Project-based and fractional quality advisory Start with a 20-minute conversation: https://calendly.com/dianna-deeney/discovery-call Interested in being a guest? If you have a practical perspective on quality, reliability, risk, or product development, email Dianna at dianna@qualityduringdesign.com. Pierce the Design Fog My book explains how cross-functional teams can align around customer needs, clarify design inputs, and make better product-development decisions. Read more: https://piercethedesignfog.com The book was an NIEA Finalist and was reviewed by PDMA. BookLife Reviews described it as: “Great for fans of Tony Fadell’s Build, David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall’s The Product Mindset.” Free resources for subscribers Subscribe to the Quality during Design digest for monthly practical highlights, plus access to the Strategic Quality Integration Checklist ...