Engineering rework often comes from unasked questions or using the wrong tool at the wrong fidelity. 

Dianna outlines three common prototyping traps: 

1. the “ta-da” trap, where teams build polished prototypes to impress stakeholders before the concept is stable, anchoring the team to an early solution
2. the “I’m smarter than cardboard” trap, where engineers skip low-fidelity physical models in favor of analysis even when the real question is usability
3. the “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

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If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog 

ABOUT DIANNA
 Dianna Deeney is a product development process strategist with over 25 years of experience in regulated industries. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, where she helps product development teams make better decisions upstream — before costly design mistakes get built in. 

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

If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog 

ABOUT DIANNA
 Dianna Deeney is a product development process strategist with over 25 years of experience in regulated industries. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, where she helps product development teams make better decisions upstream — before costly design mistakes get built in. 

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

If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog 

ABOUT DIANNA
 Dianna Deeney is a product development process strategist with over 25 years of experience in regulated industries. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, where she helps product development teams make better decisions upstream — before costly design mistakes get built in. 

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

If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog 

ABOUT DIANNA
 Dianna Deeney is a product development process strategist with over 25 years of experience in regulated industries. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, where she helps product development teams make better decisions upstream — before costly design mistakes get built in. 

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

If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog 

ABOUT DIANNA
 Dianna Deeney is a product development process strategist with over 25 years of experience in regulated industries. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, where she helps product development teams make better decisions upstream — before costly design mistakes get built in. 

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

If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog 

ABOUT DIANNA
 Dianna Deeney is a product development process strategist with over 25 years of experience in regulated industries. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, where she helps product development teams make better decisions upstream — before costly design mistakes get built in. 

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

If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog 

ABOUT DIANNA
 Dianna Deeney is a product development process strategist with over 25 years of experience in regulated industries. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, where she helps product development teams make better decisions upstream — before costly design mistakes get built in. 

In this episode of 'Quality during Design', we delve into how engineers can avoid mistakes and oversights by managing stress and enhancing performance. 

Host Dianna Deeney interviews Karli Auble, an engineering leader at a global firm in the defense industry. She has unique expertise in systems engineering and positive psychology, with a master's degree in both disciplines.

Karli shares insights on her THRIVE framework, focusing on thoughts, habits, relationships, instincts, values, and environments. She emphasizes the importance of recognizing 'error codes' in our bodies, applying practical tools, and fostering better communication within teams. All with an eye of better engineering outcomes.

Listeners will learn actionable strategies to improve their work.

Visit the podcast blog for more info, including how to contact Karli.

Send us a message

If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog 

ABOUT DIANNA
 Dianna Deeney is a product development process strategist with over 25 years of experience in regulated industries. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, where she helps product development teams make better decisions upstream — before costly design mistakes get built in. 

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.

Send us a message

If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog 

ABOUT DIANNA
 Dianna Deeney is a product development process strategist with over 25 years of experience in regulated industries. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, where she helps product development teams make better decisions upstream — before costly design mistakes get built in. 

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: 

1. Listen to the free podcast series. Get the list at PierceTheDesignFog.com
2. Read the book, Pierce the Design Fog. It contains detailed templates, facilitation guides, and case studies.
3. Work with me. I help teams implement these frameworks. Visit DeeneyEnterprises.com

Send us a message

If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog 

ABOUT DIANNA
 Dianna Deeney is a product development process strategist with over 25 years of experience in regulated industries. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, where she helps product development teams make better decisions upstream — before costly design mistakes get built in.