Your team keeps building the wrong thing, despite great effort. What if the problem isn’t execution. It’s the fog you’re navigating in?

We speak with Shannon Cummings, a seasoned product and marketing strategist who’s spent his career bridging the gap between Marketing, Product, and Engineering. He’s launched life-changing medical devices, cut development time in half, and done it all by bringing marketing into the room before the first prototype.

In this episode:
• Why product development fails when marketing is an afterthought
• How early customer insight—not prototypes—should drive design
• The real power of cross-functional alignment (and how to make it happen)
• A proven process to keep teams united, focused, and customer-obsessed from day one

Show notes and links: https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/s3e18/

If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Want insights like this?
→ Subscribe to my newsletter: qualityduringdesign.substack.com

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog

ABOUT DIANNA
Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

Have you ever walked into a meeting (design review, planning session, phase gate) only to realize the decision was already made? That the discussion was just theater, not dialogue? You weren’t there to shape the outcome. You were there to witness it. If that’s happened to you, you’re not alone.

In this episode, Dianna explores why this happens, why it feels so frustrating, and most importantly how to fix it.

In this episode:
• Design reviews are often theater because of the system: decisions are made before the meeting, not during
• Real influence happens upstream, not in the formal meeting
• Three practical steps to shape decisions before they’re locked in

Stop waiting for your moment to shine. Start shaping the moment before it happens. Share this with someone who’s been a witness too many times.

Visit the blog post for additional notes and transcript: https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/stop-being-a-witness

If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Want insights like this?
→ Subscribe to my newsletter: qualityduringdesign.substack.com

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog

ABOUT DIANNA
Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

In this episode of 'Quality during Design', we delve into how engineers can avoid mistakes and oversights by managing stress and enhancing performance.

Host Dianna Deeney interviews Karli Auble, an engineering leader at a global firm in the defense industry. She has unique expertise in systems engineering and positive psychology, with a master's degree in both disciplines.

Karli shares insights on her THRIVE framework, focusing on thoughts, habits, relationships, instincts, values, and environments. She emphasizes the importance of recognizing 'error codes' in our bodies, applying practical tools, and fostering better communication within teams. All with an eye of better engineering outcomes.

Listeners will learn actionable strategies to improve their work.

Visit the podcast blog for more info, including how to contact Karli.

If your team is still catching problems too late — let's talk.
→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendar

Want insights like this?
→ Subscribe to my newsletter: qualityduringdesign.substack.com

Get the full framework.
→ Pierce the Design Fog

ABOUT DIANNA
Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.