Quality during Design Blog

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"Dianna Deeney has launched a podcast that focuses on both the need and the 'how to' include quality and reliability in your design. Both entertaining and thoughtful, the shows are well done and worth subscribing."  

Fred Schenkelberg, founder of Accendo Reliability 

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I like talking with people in product design and the manufacturing industry. Contact me if you're interested in being interviewed and being a guest on the show.

Raise Your Confidence by Strategically Stacking Evidence

Late-stage design just hit a snag-now comes the moment that separates guesswork from great engineering. We walk through a clear, repeatable method to investigate unexpected failures and make high-impact decisions with confidence. Instead of hunting for a perfect test, we set a confidence target and stack multiple forms of imperfect evidence until we close the…

The FMEA Trap: When Risk Analysis Tools Become Risk Theater

Teams often use sophisticated risk tools as security blankets when what they really need is decision clarity.

Stop Risk Theater, Start Real Decisions

We break down why risk analyses often become risk theater and replace them with a simple, practical impact vs likelihood matrix that guides action. From quick wins to high-stakes unknowns, we show how to calibrate effort, buy the right learning, and move with confidence. Transcript Expand Here is the corrected and formatted transcript for a…

Frame It: How to Scope High-Stakes Design Decisions Before You Test Anything

I just published Pierce the Design Fog, which focuses on the early-stage work: getting cross-functional teams aligned on customer needs and experiences and developing clear design inputs. That’s the front end: the fuzzy, collaborative work of defining WHAT to build. But once you have design inputs and start execution, you face different uncertainty: ‘Will this technical…

How to Choose Risk Tools That Actually Help Decisions

If you reach for the nearest “risk” template, it might cause more problems. There are two very different jobs we ask risk tools to do. In this episode, we talk about how to pick the one that actually moves your project forward. identification tools for unknown unknowns (like FMEA and preliminary hazard analysis) that systematically…

Is Your FMEA Worksheet Holding You Back? Tips from the Experts

I want to share four recent episodes from the Speaking of Reliability podcast that delve into FMEA, including three that I had the pleasure of co-hosting with Carl Carlson. These discussions are designed to offer valuable insights for using FMEA to enhance product safety, optimize design, and improve overall risk management. What is FMEA? FMEA…