Design Debt: How Much Do You Have?

For most jewelry designers, the primary focus on their work is on creating pieces which are beautiful and desirable. The focus is on effectiveness. But as a business, you have to repeatedly ask yourself, But At What Cost? That is, you need to think about efficiencies in the design and production processes, if you are to make a sufficient profit and survive and thrive as a business.

Design Debt: Something Serious Which Needs To Be Managed

In more jargoned, but eye-opening, language, things the jewelry designer can do to increase efficiency will also reduce what is called Design Debt.

Design Debt refers to all the inefficiencies in your design and production processes which add more time and effort to what you are trying to accomplish, as you are designing or producing any piece of jewelry. Design Debt continues to accumulate and increase as a project matures over time. Even after the designer has relinquished the project to the client, Design Debt will continue to accumulate if the designer fails to deal with it head on.

Design Debt includes things like…

• Taking too much time to meet your goals
• Having to do too much research or experimentation when figuring out how to proceed
• Spending too much…