June Update: Ask PTDF, PDMA Recognition, and Better Prototyping
Your Quality during Design Digest
June turned into one of the biggest months Pierce the Design Fog has had since the book launched. Pierce the Design Fog received a thoughtful review from PDMA, was named a National Indie Excellence Awards finalist, and I launched Ask PTDF, an AI companion trained on the book. We also wrapped a four-part video series showing PTDF frameworks in action against traditional approaches.
On the podcast, I explored one of my favorite topics: learning through prototypes. Engineering leader Chad Schneider joined me to share stories from the product development trenches.
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 and product development professionals.
This month’s highlights at a glance
📅 Coming in July — Jenny Wanger joins us to share lessons from software. Plus, Quality during Design’s 200th episode!
🚀 PTDF Milestones — Lots of headlines for Pierce the Design Fog, including a new reading companion tool for readers.
📋 June’s Recap — Better outcomes start with better timing. We focused on how early clarity reduces rework, misalignment, and late‑stage surprises.
💡One idea worth sharing this month
Before you build a prototype, ask yourself one question:
What specific question is this prototype supposed to answer?
The fidelity of your prototype does not matter (mock-up, cardboard, drawing) as long as it's the right tool for answering that question, and the answer will meaningfully influence a design decision.
A trap is spending months perfecting a design in secret and unveiling its prototype as a “big reveal.” If the only question you’re trying to answer is “Will everyone like it?” you’re likely to hear people “call your baby ugly.” Buy-in isn’t a specific enough question, and it’s an expensive way to learn. That prototyping time is almost always better spent having more frequent conversations and answering smaller, more focused questions along the way.
Coming in July
I have a great podcast guest to talk about influence without authority. Jenny Wanger has compelling stories and insights - can’t wait for her episode to drop! Plus, I’ll be doing something special for the 200th podcast episode. Stay tuned!
NEW: Ask PTDF - Your AI Study Companion
Pierce the Design Fog is dense by design with frameworks, methodologies, and real-world case studies all layered together. That’s intentional. But it also means when you’re working on a project and need a quick reference, you’re flipping through chapters to find the answer.
I’ve just launched Ask PTDF, an AI chatbot trained on the book’s core concepts and frameworks. It’s built to be a practical companion tool for readers who are actively applying PTDF to their own design challenges. Use it as a quick reference, a sanity check for your approach, or a guide as you work through a design challenge.
It’s not a replacement for the book. Go there for deep methodology and case studies. But, if you own PTDF and you’re applying it to your current project, try asking it a real question. It’s designed to help you think better about your design challenges, not replace your thinking.
Available at PierceTheDesignFog.com → https://piercethedesignfog.com. Look for a heading “For Readers”.
More PTDF Milestones
PDMA Reviews Pierce the Design Fog
The Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) published a review of Pierce the Design Fog, written by Chu Nnodu (Enterprise Product Manager, Ajared Research).
I was happy to see this line:
Most product development books start where requirements already exist. Deeney goes earlier.
That’s exactly the gap I was trying to close. By the time most teams sit down to write requirements, the real decisions (what to build, what to avoid, who it’s actually for) have usually already been made. Often without anyone naming them out loud.
If you want the full review, you can read it here: Read the PDMA review → https://www.pdma.org/page/review-pierce-the-design-fog
Pierce the Design Fog Named Finalist in the 20th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards
Pierce the Design Fog has been named a Finalist in the Business - General category of the 2026 National Indie Excellence® Awards (NIEA). Being named a finalist places Pierce the Design Fog among a small group of standout titles selected from a competitive field.
June’s recap
This month's episodes explored the same question from two angles. First, I looked at why teams ask the wrong questions during prototyping. Then Chad Schneider joined me to show what happens when prototypes are designed to answer learning questions instead of validating assumptions.
🎙️ Podcast Episode: The Most Expensive Question You Didn’t Ask. Prototypes can inject a lot of benefits to new product development. But there are expensive traps. I review the three traps that I see most often. This episode sets us up for the interview with Chad. Listen → https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/the-most-expensive-question-you-didnt-ask/
🎙️ Podcast Episode: What Are You Really Trying to Learn? Chad Schneider on Prototyping with Purpose. We talk about why prototyping is about answering questions before they get expensive. Chad has several interesting stories from the trenches - you’ll walk away with insights. Listen → https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/s3e21/
PTDF Case Studies are a wrap!
Well, this arc of videos is complete. For this series, I created ‘greenlight’ packets for four different design scenarios. I removed the cross-functional team as a variable by using AI Agents. The variable was the process they used for concept development - traditionally performed vs. Pierce the Design Fog methods.
These case studies were PTDF in action on realistic (but fictional) projects.
The results: Both approaches produced viable concepts, but the PTDF teams surfaced more design inputs with richer context before concept selection. Instead of discovering missing information during development, they identified it while they still had the freedom to make better design decisions. Engineering inherited clearer intent, not ambiguous requirements to decipher.
Watch all four in this YouTube series. I show the results first, then use the rest of the video to dig into the details.
A note on where things live
I’m simplifying where I publish content.
On DeeneyEnterprises.com (my home base) I’ll continue to post blogs about podcast episodes, YouTube videos, and articles.
Podcast distribution will continue as normal, as audio-only, on podcast players everywhere plus reliability.fm.
YouTube will be video only, for deep dives or other content that needs video.
LinkedIn will focus on shorter insights and ideas from ongoing work rather than links or reposts.
In any case, if you’re subscribed, you’ll continue to receive the monthly digests where you’re reading them now.
What you won’t see from me is additional Substack posts or podcasts announced on the LinkedIn’s showcase page. ;)
How to engage with me
What's the biggest design decision your team is wrestling with right now? Hit reply or comment below - I read every response.
If your organization is tired of firefighting what could have been prevented, let’s talk. https://qualityduringdesign.com/talk