Jelena Racković · · 2 min read · Mindset
Changing my mind on purpose: why being wrong early is cheaper
Early in a project, I almost always fall in love with an idea. A structure, a visual direction, a clever way of solving the main problem. That is fine; ideas need some affection to survive their first draft. The danger comes later, when the idea stops working and I, or the team, keep defending it anyway because changing course feels like admitting failure.
The cost of holding on
A wrong idea is cheap when it is a sketch. It becomes expensive once it has turned into screens, components, code and a promise to a client. The longer a team defends it, the more it costs to let go, and the stronger the temptation to keep going. Many projects I have seen go wrong did not fail because of a bad first idea. They failed because nobody felt able to drop it.
Plan the moment to change your mind
So I build changing my mind into the process. At certain points, after the first prototype and after the first round of real feedback, I deliberately ask whether the direction still holds. Not whether it can be defended, but whether, knowing what we now know, we would choose it again. If the answer is no, we change course, and it is treated as a planned step rather than an embarrassment.
Make it safe for the team
This only works if it is safe. If changing direction is seen as a failure, people will hide doubts until it is too late. I try to model the opposite, saying openly when I was wrong and thanking whoever pointed it out. Once a team sees its lead change their mind without drama, they start doing the same, and problems surface while they are still small.
Strong opinions, lightly held
I still have strong opinions, and I still fall for ideas. But I hold them a little more loosely than I used to. Being willing to be wrong early is not a weakness in a designer. It is one of the cheapest ways to make sure the final product is right.
Is your design system starting to fade?
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