Frameworks, Not Bureaucracy: Building Your Way Out of the Design Fog
Your Quality during Design Digest
Welcome to your February edition of the Quality during Design Digest.
If January was about recognizing the Design Fog, February is about building your way out of it.
This month, we’re diving into frameworks. Not as rigid bureaucracy, but as creative scaffolding that helps teams move faster without losing alignment.
Most teams either over-process everything or reject all structure entirely. Both keep them stuck in the Design Fog.
From YouTube creativity experiments to real-world engineering collaboration tools, we’ll explore how the right structure unlocks better ideas, smoother teamwork, and those critical “soft skills” that make-or-break product development.
Plus, we’ve got a fun worked example: designing an electronic maraca that doesn’t exist yet.
Dianna
Quality during Design has been brought to you since 2021 from Deeney Enterprises and Dianna Deeney. This is the monthly digest sent on the first Friday of the month: gain insights, podcast highlights, and resources for engineering design professionals.
This month’s highlights at a glance:
Introducing February’s Theme – Creativity within Constraints.
January Recap: The Design Fog – Revisit last month's insights on recognizing when you're in the fog and the intentional activities that help you navigate through it.
New Vault Resource: ADEPT Team Framework Infographic – Fresh download in the Swipe File Vault.
Frameworks vs Process – Why the distinction matters
New poll & last month’s poll results – What subscribers are planning (or not planning) for conferences this year, plus our approach to maximizing conference value.
Coming up in February
We explore why frameworks can be helpful: in ideation, co-working, and those necessary ‘soft skills’.
What we can learn from Drumeo’s showcase of bounded creativity, perfectly cataloged in their YouTube series.
How a framework can be a reminder of how to thrive in an engineering environment - I invite a special guest on the show to share.
See a worked example of frameworks built for concept development of an electronic maraca! It doesn’t exist, yet. If it did, what about it would be important to develop? We figure it out and provide answers!
Free for all: Podcast episodes and blogs on deeneyenterprises.com.
What you get as a subscriber:
Substack articles + Q&A participation
Free guides, templates, and vault downloads
Everything organized in the Substack app
January recap
In January, we talked about what the ‘Design Fog’ is: that it’s inherent in all new development activities, not just created by teams. There are intentional and worthwhile activities to do. January’s content was about recognizing when we’re in the fog and knowing what to do to avoid its common pitfalls.
Free Content
🎙️ Podcast Episode: The Design Fog is Derailing Your Project Understand the symptoms of the design fog, including the silent assumptions problem and the premature precision trap. Listen → https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/the-design-fog-is-derailing-your-project/
🎙️ Podcast Episode: Cut Through the Design Fog Listen → The solution isn't more bureaucracy; it’s a shared, intentional structure. https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/cut-through-the-design-fog/
🔍 Strategic Insights: The Real Reason Your Product Launches Late (It’s Not What You Think) A late product launch is almost never caused by the reasons teams assume. It’s born much earlier, in the unseen “design fog” where misalignment, silent assumptions, and premature decisions quietly derail progress. This article shows how to cut through that fog with two practical, repeatable frameworks that help teams align fast, design smarter, and avoid months of wasted effort. This article expands upon the podcast episodes.
New in the Swipe File Vault: The ADEPT Team Framework Infographic
Framework vs. Process: Why the Distinction Actually Matters
I see these terms used interchangeably all the time in engineering organizations. I do it too.
In my Pierce the Design Fog’s glossary, I define the ADEPT Team Framework as “a process for team collaboration during concept development.” But throughout the book, I call it a framework. So, which is it?
The truth is: it’s both. And that’s actually the point.
Here’s what I mean
A process is a prescribed series of steps you follow to get from A to B. It’s sequential, often documented with specific methods, and usually has clear inputs and outputs. Think: your design review process with its required documentation and sign-offs, your change management process with specific approval gates.
A framework is a structure for thinking. It’s a set of principles, phases, or organizing concepts that guide your work without dictating exactly how you do it. Frameworks give you the “what to consider” without rigidly prescribing the “how.”
You already know frameworks, you just might not call them that
Stage-Gate is a framework. It gives you phases (stages) and decision points (gates), but doesn’t prescribe exactly how you do the work within each stage. That’s why different organizations implement Stage-Gate very differently. Some have 3 gates, some have 7; documentation requirements vary wildly. It’s a framework.
Agile is a framework. It gives you principles and ceremonies, but teams adapt how they execute. That’s why you have Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, and dozens of other implementations. They’re all working within the Agile framework but with different specifics.
But here’s the key: Within Stage-Gate, you might have very specific processes. ”Our Gate 3 review requires these 7 documents in this format, reviewed by these 5 people.” Within Agile, your team might have a specific process for daily standup. ”Every morning at 9am, these 3 questions, under 2 minutes each.”
Frameworks contain processes. Processes live inside frameworks. Just like ADEPT.
ADEPT lives in the middle ground
Align-Discover-Examine-Prioritize-Teamwork gives you a repeatable sequence, but within each phase, you have flexibility in how you execute:
Align on a goal for your meeting—but you choose how
Discover ideas—I promote brainwriting, but other discovery methods work too
Examine those ideas for common understanding—format is flexible
Prioritize through multi-voting or rating scales—you pick what fits
Teamwork follow-up like notes and tracking—you decide your documentation approach
And here’s the framework flexibility in action
Sometimes ADEPT looks like A-DEP-DEP-T—you Align once, then cycle through Discover-Examine-Prioritize multiple times for items related to the same goal using the same priority criteria.
Sometimes it’s A-DDD-EPT—you need multiple discovery prompts before you’re ready to examine and prioritize.
If ADEPT were a rigid process, that adaptability wouldn’t be possible. But because it’s a framework, you can flex the sequence to match what your team actually needs in the moment.
Yet I also provide specific instructions
In the book, I walk through activities with clear steps: “follow these steps to use the ADEPT Team Framework for X exercise.” That sounds like a process. And it is, for that specific exercise. You can have processes within a framework.
Think of it this way: ADEPT is the framework, or the overall structure and principles. Within it, you might follow a specific process for ideation, or a specific process for multi-voting. Those are repeatable, prescribed steps. But the framework tells you when to use them and gives you permission to adapt when needed.
The visual frameworks you use within ADEPT are pure framework territory:
The Concept Space Model helps you map possibilities
The Benefit-Impact Template organizes customer evaluation
The Symptom-Impact Template structures problem analysis
Process Flowcharts capture use processes
These are thinking tools, not step-by-step instructions.
The mistake I see most often?
Teams either over-process everything (47 prescribed steps for ideation that kill innovation) or reject all structure because “processes are bureaucratic” (chaotic meetings where nothing sticks).
The Design Fog lifts when you find the middle ground: enough structure to create rhythm and shared expectations, enough flexibility to adapt to what each project actually needs.
So, is ADEPT a process or a framework?
It’s a framework that contains processes and adapts like a framework should. The distinction matters because teams misuse both when they don’t understand the difference.
Call it what you want but be intentional about how you use it. Make sure your team understands when to follow prescribed steps and when to adapt guiding principles. That clarity is what actually lifts the Design Fog.
Conversations
Fred and I cover a few more topics on the “Speaking of Reliability” Podcast.
SOR1145, Standard Reliability Methods: We discuss the immense value of creating a common touchstone for an org: a “cliff notes” version of a Design for Reliability manual. https://accendoreliability.com/podcast/sor/sor-1145-standard-reliability-methods/
SOR1146, Customer Expectations: We discuss the critical role of customer expectations in determining product reliability requirements. https://accendoreliability.com/podcast/sor/sor-1146-customer-expectations/
Tune in later in the month for some interesting conversations between me and Mojan on “Speaking of Reliability”.
How to engage with me
New polls
Here’s what the 2025 data shows: Quality is losing strategic ground in most organizations. But I want to know YOUR reality.
These quick polls will help me understand the current state across different organizations. Results will be shared in an upcoming article about why some companies are thriving while others struggle.
Please choose, then consider forwarding to colleagues to add their choices!
Last month’s poll: What’s on your 2026 event list?
Last month I hosted a poll on the newsletter and social. I asked what conferences you were looking to go to this year.
It appears that most of you are not planning to go to any of those big conferences this year! I understand that many businesses are getting ‘tighter’ on their allowances for these activities, so it may be a lack of support rather than a disinterest.
Fred and I talked about the value of attending conferences. They’re more worthwhile if you go with a plan. Click the link to listen or read the show notes where we outline our recommended approach. It’s “Speaking of Reliability” podcast episode 1033. SOR1033 Conference Value
If you’re not sure if it’s worth it, or if you want to make a case to go - listen to this episode for ideas. If you’ve got some advice, please share it in the comments!