Arriving and Stopping

As a product designer you should not seek the perfect solution to a problem, but one that is good enough. Perfection isn't possible, so don't waste any time pursuing it. But if you aren't aiming for perfection, how do you know when it's time to stop?

Sometimes you "just know" when it's time to stop. In this version of the design process, you don't always know where you're going, but you somehow know when you've arrived. That's valid—an experienced designer's intuition is hard-earned and shouldn't be dismissed. But if you're continually embarking on design journeys without knowing anything about your destination other than "I'll know it when I see it," you're going to find your process unpredictable and difficult to control. You'll also have a hard time winning people over to your way of thinking.

It's okay to rely on intuition in your design process, but intuition can't stand on its own. You need to support it with a sense of purpose, and honest self-assessment. Instead of meandering through a design problem and hoping you hit upon an answer that feels right, you can be purposeful about what you're trying to accomplish and accurate in assessing your results. Focusing on these things will make you better at identifying stopping points, and help you reach them more directly.

Before jumping into your design tool of choice, take a few moments to write down what you hope to accomplish in the upcoming work block. This goal can be informed by anything but it helps if it's specific and achievable. Write down the first thing you're going to try in order to achieve your goal. This will help you set your intent, and create a criterion against which you can measure the effectiveness of your work.

As you work, make the smallest possible changes you can make that move you in the direction of your intended result. Do one small good thing, and then do another small good thing. Think about why you're doing each thing, and what you hope to achieve by doing it.

Every time you complete a small good thing, pause and assess to what degree the action you took had the intended result. Did it move you closer to accomplishing the goal you set at the beginning of your session? Further away? Or is the difference so small as to be imperceptible? Write down what you tried, as well as your assessment of its effectiveness. And then repeat the process.

That last step, self-reflection, is the most important. You have to be honest and accurate in your assessment because that's the key to knowing when to stop. If the change you made moved you noticeably in the direction of your goal, try to repeat that. If it seems like the change you made moved you in the wrong direction, that's good too. You can reset and try something different. If you repeat the cycle a few times and find that it's getting harder to notice obvious improvements, that's how you know it's time to stop. Knowing when to stop is about being able to reliably identify the point of diminishing returns and react accordingly.

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