Michael Roller

Failsafe: Latest Article for Product Design Hub

My latest article for Product Design Hub is called Failsafe, inspired by a student who took big risks and eventually failed to finish his chair prototype on time. Through his story, my advice to design students is to take these big risks, albeit with some proper planning in advance, so that they will learn from failure, overcome their fear of it, and understand what it sometimes takes to be successful.

Why are some designers afraid of failure? The truth is that designers are more comfortable with failure than most, but the fear is so deeply ingrained in our society that we must work hard to avoid it. Over at The 99 percent, research analyst Michael Schwalbe says it best: “Ultimately, it’s the ones who barrel through the discomfort, are resilient in the face of failure, and master the last 30% of taking risk who reach the highest levels of performance.”

So as not to steal their thunder, I’ll let you read the rest of the article over at their site. If you enjoy it, I hope you’ll comment and share your thoughts with them. Thanks again to Product Design Hub team for publishing my work and to Max Schlachter for sharing his story.

Tags: design making, failure, furniture, risk taking, student work