Title: Why writing about concepts before you start sketching will win you money, respect, or well, at least warm fuzzy feelings

A product is, at its heart, a collection of ideas linked together in a greater whole. Like a building's foundation we want the core ideas to be sound and mutually supportive. Design processes don't address these core ideas adequately, often resulting in awkward experiences.

My talk is a brief introduction to the practice of concept design. The talk was originally titled "Why writing about concepts before you start sketching will win you money, respect, or well, at least warm fuzzy feelings". When done well and included at the beginning of a project, concept design has the potential to avoid major changes in design, thus saving money and frustration. It's up to you to convert that into direct benefits to yourself.

For more information, check out the work Daniel Jackson at MIT has done to define and establish concept design with his students, in particular Santiago Perez De Rosso.

Paper: Towards a Theory of Conceptual Design for Software Paper:What’s Wrong with Git? A Conceptual Design Analysis Talk: SATURN 2016 Keynote: Rethinking Software Design

You can take a look at the slides or watch the video: