I used to think I had a good eye for detail. After all, I’ve spent hours meticulously restoring images, zooming in on every pixel to make each piece perfect. But taking on a big product design project showed me that there’s an entirely different level of detail—and it was about to test everything I thought I knew about focus and precision.

Going into this project, I was confident. I’d always considered myself a tech-savvy problem solver. Friends even said I was the person they wanted on their team for complex projects. But I quickly discovered that the world of product design required a level of consistency that was both eye-opening and a little humbling.

The first lesson? Consistency is everything—in sizing, image quality, and even formatting. Without it, things start to look messy fast, and let me tell you, the hours spent going back to fix inconsistencies is a sobering experience. I realized that my math skills from my time as a financial analyst were my unexpected secret weapon. Staying precise and methodical was the only way to create designs that looked professional and polished, and that attention to detail became my best ally in design.

But there was another hurdle: my tendency to “check the boxes” and keep pushing forward. When you’re deep in a project, it’s tempting to rush through tasks just to keep things moving. It’s like following the pretty blue line on Google Maps in heavy traffic—sometimes you just want to trust the route and get there as quickly as possible. But here’s the truth: shortcuts rarely pay off in the end. A quick fix can lead to three times the work later, and it’s so much better to get it right the first time. I learned the hard way that trying to speed through only leads to extra hours of backtracking and corrections.

And I’d be lying if I didn’t mention my mentor here, who’s been both my guide and my wake-up call. Just when I thought I’d nailed it, they’d point out something glaringly obvious that I somehow missed. Cue the face-palm moment! Every time, I’d think, “How did I not catch that?”

In the end, this project taught me more than I expected. It wasn’t just about being meticulous; it was about adopting a mindset of precision and patience, learning to slow down, and appreciating that each small detail adds up to the bigger picture.

So, what’s next? I’ll be diving into another major lesson in my next post: the time we thought we were handling a tiny contract—until I realized we were dealing with a major organization. Talk about a wake-up call! Stay tuned for the full story on that one.