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That "fuzzy front end" of product development, where ideas should flourish, often becomes a frustrating quagmire of unfocused brainstorming sessions and competing perspectives. The truth is, traditional brainstorming doesn't work nearly as well as we've been led to believe.

Drawing from research and decades of experience, this episode reveals why teams facing blank flipcharts produce fewer and lower-quality ideas than those using structured approaches. The solution? Visual models and templates—powerful frameworks that channel creativity rather than stifling it. These tools have transformed quality improvement efforts for nearly a century, and they can revolutionize your concept development process too.

You'll discover how a telecommunications company implemented a simple template change that generated 300% more high-quality ideas in a fraction of the time. We explore why activity theory explains the effectiveness of these approaches, and how proper template design aligns team thinking toward customer-focused solutions. Visual models provide the structure teams need to collaborate effectively, maintain focus, and prevent confusion—turning abstract conversations into concrete design inputs.

Whether you're struggling with cross-functional alignment or searching for ways to improve your team's innovative output, this episode offers practical insights to transform your concept development process. The fuzzy front end doesn't have to be chaotic. With the right visual frameworks, you can guide your team toward designing products customers will love.

Ready to elevate your development process? Listen now, then visit qualityduringdesign.com for more resources to implement these approaches on your next project.

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About me
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 optimize their engineering processes and team performance by promoting the use of reliability and quality methods during design. She offers consulting services for managers and directors, training for engineers through the Quality During Design program, and other practical resources.

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Have you ever watched a promising product idea slowly die in the fuzzy space between "great concept" and "actual development"? You're not alone.

The journey from product idea to market-ready solution contains a critical yet often overlooked phase: concept development. This is where cross-functional teams must align their diverse perspectives to create a solid foundation for design. But as many product developers discover, this is precisely where communication frequently breaks down.

In this episode, we dive deep into why cross-functional teams struggle to communicate effectively during early concept development and how to fix it.

By creating collaborative moments, you'll transform how your team approaches concept development. You'll uncover insights that might otherwise remain buried in individual reports, align on priorities more effectively, and build stronger foundations for subsequent development phases.

Join the conversation and share your experiences on the blog. Or send us a text at the link above.

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MONTHLY DIGEST
Subscribe to the free monthly e-newsletter: newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com
Get the short version on Linked-In: Subscribe here.

SELF-PACED COURSE FMEA in Practice: from Plan to Risk-Based Decision Making is enrolling students now. Join over 300 students: Click Here.

About me
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 optimize their engineering processes and team performance by promoting the use of reliability and quality methods during design. She offers consulting services for managers and directors, training for engineers through the Quality During Design program, and other practical resources.

Send us a text

The hidden costs of poor product development can devastate your project timeline, budget, and ultimate market success. Drawing from Dr. Robert Cooper's research, this episode reveals how skipping proper concept development—the critical "fuzzy front end" of product design—leads many teams into a costly "ready-fire-aim" approach.

Most development teams dedicate a mere 16% of project time to concept work, despite evidence showing successful products allocate 75% more resources to these early activities. The consequences? Designs repeatedly scrapped or substantially modified mid-development, wasted engineering hours, multiple unnecessary prototypes, and products that fail to meet customer expectations.

Through practical scenarios and comparative timelines, I demonstrate how proper concept development using Quality During Design methodology can reduce engineering time by 35% and design iterations by 60%. By engaging cross-functional teams early and using visual frameworks instead of multiple physical prototypes, you'll not only save time but develop products with significantly higher chances of market success—up to three times more likely, with 38% higher market share and better customer ratings.

This approach doesn't mean endless planning without action. Rather, it's about focused teamwork that addresses customer needs, use environments, and potential risks before diving into detailed design. The result? More efficient development, stronger team alignment, and products that genuinely solve customer problems. Visit the blog for additional resources to transform your product development process and start creating products others love for less.

Visit the podcast blog.

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MONTHLY DIGEST
Subscribe to the free monthly e-newsletter: newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com
Get the short version on Linked-In: Subscribe here.

SELF-PACED COURSE FMEA in Practice: from Plan to Risk-Based Decision Making is enrolling students now. Join over 300 students: Click Here.

About me
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 optimize their engineering processes and team performance by promoting the use of reliability and quality methods during design. She offers consulting services for managers and directors, training for engineers through the Quality During Design program, and other practical resources.

Send us a text

Ever hit that wall where your creative tank feels bone dry? That moment when you've been grinding away at your projects, head down for so long that when someone asks for innovation, you come up empty? You're not alone.

Creative slumps happen when we get too immersed in our specialized domains. As engineers and designers, we develop expertise through consistent application of familiar tools and techniques. But that same specialization creates mental echo chambers where we recycle the same ideas and follow habitual thought patterns. The result? When innovation is needed most, we feel frustratingly blocked.

The solution lies in cross-pollination – deliberately exposing ourselves to diverse inputs that spark unexpected connections.

This episode explores three strategies to reignite your creative spark:

1. scheduling dedicated exploration time through activities
2. practicing analogy thinking by mapping structures from unrelated domains to your challenges
3. maintaining a cross-pollination journal to capture insights for future reference.

Ready to break through your creative block? Join us for practical techniques to expand your innovative thinking and approach design challenges with fresh perspective. Your next great breakthrough might be waiting in the most unexpected places – you just need to train yourself to look for the connections.

Schedule 90 minutes this week for intentional exploration outside your field, and watch what happens when you allow your mind to wander beyond the boundaries of your expertise.

Visit the podcast blog for more information and links.

**BI-WEEKLY EPISODES**
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**ONLINE COURSE**
FMEA in Practice: from Plan to Risk-Based Decision Making is enrolling students now. Nearly 300 students have taken this course. Join them to start your FMEA journey or take your skills to the next level. Click Here to get started.

**MONTHLY DIGEST**
Subscribe to the free monthly e-newsletter: newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com
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About me
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 optimize their engineering processes and team performance by promoting the use of reliability and quality methods during design. She offers consulting services for managers and directors, training for engineers through the Quality During Design program, and other practical resources.

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Ever wondered if you're wasting resources by setting unnecessarily high confidence levels for your reliability requirements? You're not alone. Many engineering teams default to 95% or 99% confidence without considering the downstream impact on testing timelines and resources.

This episode tackles a question that's been coming up frequently from listeners: how to choose appropriate confidence levels for reliability requirements and test methods. Rather than making arbitrary decisions, I share a practical approach using your existing Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) as a guide. This risk-based method helps you match your confidence levels to the actual risks associated with potential failures.

When you connect your testing strategy to your risk analysis, you create a logical framework for deciding where to invest more testing resources and where you might reasonably accept lower confidence levels. I walk through exactly how to do this by examining the severity of potential failures, the number of possible effects, and what other controls might already be in place. The beauty of this approach is that it leverages work your cross-functional team has already done during FMEA development, providing an objective foundation for your test planning decisions.

For those new to the Quality During Design podcast, this episode exemplifies our philosophy that emphasizes using quality tools early in the development process to make better decisions. Whether you're struggling with reliability testing or just looking to optimize your design process, you'll find practical insights to help you create better products with fewer resources. Subscribe to the podcast, visit qualityduringdesign.com for additional resources, or sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay informed about the latest quality design methodologies.

Visit the podcast blog.

**BI-WEEKLY EPISODES**
Subscribe to this show on your favorite provider and Give us a Rating & Review to help others find us!

**ONLINE COURSE**
FMEA in Practice: from Plan to Risk-Based Decision Making is enrolling students now. Nearly 300 students have taken this course. Join them to start your FMEA journey or take your skills to the next level. Click Here to get started.

**MONTHLY DIGEST**
Subscribe to the free monthly e-newsletter: newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com
Get the short version on Linked-In: Subscribe here.

About me
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 optimize their engineering processes and team performance by promoting the use of reliability and quality methods during design. She offers consulting services for managers and directors, training for engineers through the Quality During Design program, and other practical resources.

Send us a text

As a Generation X engineer, I've watched design processes evolve from manual drafting kits and hand-derived equations to sophisticated CAD systems powered by artificial intelligence. What fascinates me most isn't the replacement of skills but their enhancement. The engineering fundamentals I learned decades ago haven't become obsolete. They've become more powerful when paired with AI and machine learning tools.

Today's design engineers have unprecedented autonomy. Tasks that once required specialized computing power and expertise are now accessible through AI-enhanced software. This democratization of advanced capabilities doesn't diminish the value of engineering judgment; it amplifies it. Understanding the underlying principles remains crucial for effectively leveraging these powerful tools.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the pace of technological change in engineering design, start with foundational machine learning and AI prompts. Take a course that is an overview of how it works (I doubt you'll need to learn to code). From there, focus on applications most relevant to your work. Start with the software tools you already use for engineering. Is there an option to enhance it? Critically think about the assumptions and models it's using and always evaluate the result.

Text me about how you're incorporating AI into your design processes or what concerns you have about adopting these new tools.

Visit the podcast blog for a graphic about AI hierarchy, ideas of how to use AI in different steps of product development, and my extra thoughts about this topic.

**BI-WEEKLY EPISODES**
Subscribe to this show on your favorite provider and Give us a Rating & Review to help others find us!

**ONLINE COURSE**
FMEA in Practice: from Plan to Risk-Based Decision Making is enrolling students now. Nearly 300 students have taken this course. Join them to start your FMEA journey or take your skills to the next level. Click Here to get started.

**MONTHLY DIGEST**
Subscribe to the free monthly e-newsletter: newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com
Get the short version on Linked-In: Subscribe here.

About me
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 optimize their engineering processes and team performance by promoting the use of reliability and quality methods during design. She offers consulting services for managers and directors, training for engineers through the Quality During Design program, and other practical resources.

Send us a text

Good reliability requirements are going to drive our design decisions relating to the concept, the components, the materials, and other stuff. So, the moment to start defining reliability requirements is early in the design process. But, what makes a well-defined reliability requirement? There are five aspects it should cover: do you know what they are?

We'll describe what makes a good reliability requirement and examples of common (but not good) requirements.

Visit the podcast blog for links to reliability engineering articles and sites about "No MTBF".

**BI-WEEKLY EPISODES**
Subscribe to this show on your favorite provider and Give us a Rating & Review to help others find us!

**ONLINE COURSE**
FMEA in Practice: from Plan to Risk-Based Decision Making is enrolling students now. Nearly 300 students have taken this course. Join them to start your FMEA journey or take your skills to the next level. Click Here to get started.

**MONTHLY DIGEST**
Subscribe to the free monthly e-newsletter: newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com
Get the short version on Linked-In: Subscribe here.

About me
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 optimize their engineering processes and team performance by promoting the use of reliability and quality methods during design. She offers consulting services for managers and directors, training for engineers through the Quality During Design program, and other practical resources.

Send us a text

We dive deep into the intricate relationship between supplier agreements and product quality, highlighting the essential aspects to consider when partnering with suppliers. Quality in design is not just a checkbox; it requires clear communication and collaboration.

• Exploring the challenges of designing custom components
• Discussing the different types of supplier agreements
• The importance of defining and measuring quality expectations
• Navigating multiple vendors in the supply chain
• Developing a quality plan for effective collaboration

If you like these topics, please visit qualityduringdesign.com and sign up for the newsletter.

Visit this podcast blog.

You might like this episode, too: Supply Chain Management during Design, with Kevin Bailey (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts) - Quality During Design

**BI-WEEKLY EPISODES**
Subscribe to this show on your favorite provider and Give us a Rating & Review to help others find us!

**ONLINE COURSE**
FMEA in Practice: from Plan to Risk-Based Decision Making is enrolling students now. Nearly 300 students have taken this course. Join them to start your FMEA journey or take your skills to the next level. Click Here to get started.

**MONTHLY DIGEST**
Subscribe to the free monthly e-newsletter: newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com
Get the short version on Linked-In: Subscribe here.

About me
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 optimize their engineering processes and team performance by promoting the use of reliability and quality methods during design. She offers consulting services for managers and directors, training for engineers through the Quality During Design program, and other practical resources.