Creativity and those who embrace it are often seen as a challenge to handle. As seasoned product designers, we understand the pressure of meeting tight deadlines and delivering projects quickly. With over 25 years of real product design experience, we’ve helped launch thousands of products and we’re excited to share our top 5 tips to speed up the design process.
It’s essential to communicate your ideas clearly with specific defined outcome goals in mind. Evaluate your ideas against user-driven criteria to ensure they are well-grounded. Leaving space for creativity is important, however, setting clear goals is key to avoiding aimless wandering and maximising productivity.
So instead of a brief which states “Design me the best Tin opener in the world”
Be more specific. “Design me the best Tin opener in the world, which can be used with one hand, not leave sharp edges and cost less than $5.
This leaves plenty of room for creativity, whilst clearly giving criteria creating a framework from which designers can work.
Creativity is a tricky thing to manage. It’s a bit like trying to decide on a meal for a Saturday night – you know you want to eat, but the endless options can be overwhelming. Too much control can squash creativity, while too little can result in missed deadlines.
Imagine the creative process as planning a meal. You start with some basic parameters, like whether to eat in, eat out, or cook. From the early stages, you’re already thinking about the end result.
If you prefer to eat out but can’t decide on a specific restaurant, it’s like heading into town to see what’s available. However, if you over-manage this step by calling every restaurant, checking menus in detail, and getting side-tracked with unnecessary tasks like checking your bank balance or filling up the car, you end up wasting time. On the other hand, not enough direction can leave you aimlessly playing on the swings in the park, without actually satisfying your hunger.
Just like finding the right balance in choosing a meal, managing creativity involves setting some initial guidelines without getting lost in unnecessary details. It’s about giving creativity the space to flourish while still making progress towards your end goal.
Making the correct decisions in a timely manner. Sitting on decisions are probably the largest delay factor in any new product development process. Although it can feel like a lot of pressure to make correct decisions, remember that a good design process will be an exploration, and the best products are typically born from a few dead ends and wring turns.
Think of decision making as a traffic light.
Testing your idea is essential when it comes to saving time and money. Testing helps you validate your assumptions and identify potential flaws before launch. Gathering feedback from your target audience can gain valuable insights into their needs and preferences, allowing you to refine your idea and make it more appealing. As well as helping you assess the feasibility of your idea and identify any challenges you may encounter during implementation. Ultimately, taking the time to test your idea increases your chances of success and reduces the risk of costly mistakes.
Understanding your customer’s needs, pain points, and desired features upfront, avoids building products or features that no one wants. Direct feedback allows you to prioritize development efforts on the most impactful aspects of your product, reducing wasted time on unnecessary or misdirected work. Incorporating customer feedback throughout the development cycle also minimises the need for costly rework further down the process, identifying potential issues early, leading to a more efficient and targeted development process.
Tired of slow development cycles? Get a free quote and discover how we can optimize your development timeline.
