In an ideal world we'd have unlimited resources and all the time we need to probe a design before testing pulls it apart. In the real one there's ‘real-time design’, agile, timelines and budgets — and a design that survives it needs a plan.

Thinking it out loud

Benjamin Franklin said, ‘If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.’ For design, that means mapping the whole process into well-defined timescales, standing up with a sound plan that maps the design budget to the deadlines, and syncing with development and product so design is considered first, not last.

Knowledge beats guessing at every stage. If you know the budget and the timescale, planning is about suggesting the right methodology for them — and having a plan B, C and D, because price points and levels of design change the picture. Words like ‘just’ and ‘a few’ are the ones to fear. Treat them as innovation triggers, not hurdles.

Then, the estimate

A good estimate comes from experience, not from tenure. It only needs to be close to the actual, and it should be split by the phases of design: ideation and research, implementation, and proofing. Every phase shares the same constraints — budget, time, the deadline, how complete the information is, people, conflicting projects, tools, and legal requirements.

There will always be an emotional component that pulls the design both ways. But with a process in place, the chances of success go up — and innovation can run alongside it.

*Originally published in The Startup on Medium.*

Read the full piece

This note is a summary. The full essay — with the research, the sketches and the reasoning — lives on Medium at medium.com/@amitchotia9.

Physics taught me you don't get to call it right until it's proven. Most of what I write is me trying to show the working.