“We’ll Know It When We See It” ——— The most expensive project I ever worked on, the brief was four words: “We’ll know it when we see it.”
I should’ve walked away.
Instead, I said yes. We sketched. We modeled. We prototyped. And every round of feedback moved the goalposts.
The client wasn’t indecisive. They were unclear. And I didn’t push for clarity because I didn’t want to seem difficult.
That was the mistake.
You don’t get clarity by making stuff. You get clarity by asking better questions. By challenging assumptions early. By having the guts to slow things down, before the real time and money get burned.
Now? I never start without alignment. I don’t move until the problem is nailed down.
And I make sure nobody says, “We’ll know it when we see it.”
Need a lesson in how to design your next product?
Ever been stuck in an endless loop of vague direction? How do you handle it?
