Dianna Deeney’s insightful business book Pierce the Design Fog provides best practices for how to improve product design through teamwork.

The book instructs readers on how to collaborate most fruitfully to deliver products with more speed and quality. It outlines methodically how to gather input and capture ideas from teammates before engineering new products, emphasizing that successful products stem from skilled cross-functional teams and not individual creativity.

Grounded in the author’s professional experience as a quality engineer working to develop new products, the book is organized as a guide that begins with the general principles of developing product design as a team. It scales from the conceptual foundations to the in-depth know-how, delving into practical strategies and how to synthesize a team’s shared knowledge into successful products.

Touting systems the author has developed (the ADEPT Team Framework; the Concept Space Model), the book dispenses plenty of practical advice, such as noting that checking in with team members individually instead of during group meetings can ensure everyone is on the same page rather than in their own silos, preventing later corrections. It also emphasizes, among other suggestions, that it’s best to pursue continuous improvement rather than seek perfection during the design process and that arriving at solutions too early can stifle creativity.

The author cites credible sources like the Harvard Business Review through ample footnotes and presents case studies to illustrate her lessons. And while the writing is analytical, it remains accessible, often using bullet points, takeaways, and reflection questions to reinforce its points.

One drawback is that the author lands on some awkward analogies, as when randomly and unnecessarily using different types of bees (the Benefit Bee, the Symptom Bee, etc.) as avatars to distinguish among customer experiences.

Still, this is a savvy business book, useful for designers, engineers, managers, leaders, and other businesspeople tasked with bringing goods to clients or the marketplace.

Also available in hardcover, ebook, and audio book.