how do i balance product and customer feedback

Once a product hits the shelves, that is where you get the right feedback. Design is okay, design is good, but the dial is not correct, the button is not pressing, the hinge is not good. Those things make you feel that design is not the only thing in the world.

You need to work with your other team players. You need to help them get better. And you need to make sure that whatever you do works in their favor too. Because if you make everyone's life difficult, how will you create a product?

And then there is this other thing. You can design something beautiful, give it a silver lining, make it look incredible. But sometimes a 5% cashback changes everything. The entire dynamic shifts. You suddenly feel disempowered from a design standpoint, because you cannot pull a user through design alone.