The jump from sample to production is where most of the quiet risk lives.
Specs that felt finished on the table start to move when volume, operators, and calendar pressure show up together. The work is less about inventing a new product and more about protecting the decisions you already made.
A simple habit helps: write down what “good” looks like in the factory’s language — measurements, photos, reject examples — before the line starts. That document becomes the shared reference when someone asks whether a unit is acceptable at 2 a.m.
I write these notes as I work through real launches. More soon.