Most fatal mistakes in product development do not appear suddenly.
They are present early on — visible, discussable, and often acknowledged.
What makes them dangerous is not their severity, but their timing.
In the early stages, mistakes tend to look harmless.
A tolerance feels acceptable.
A workaround feels flexible.
A compromise feels temporary.
At that moment, fixing the issue seems optional.
Delaying the decision feels reasonable.
And because nothing breaks immediately, the team assumes the risk is under control.
This is where many teams misjudge the situation.
Early-stage mistakes are cheap to fix precisely because nothing has been finalized yet.
No molds are locked.
No supply chains are fixed.
No volumes amplify the consequences.
Ironically, this low cost creates the illusion that the problem itself is small.
The real danger begins when a decision is repeated.
Once a workaround becomes part of the process,
once a compromise is accepted by multiple parties,
once production, tooling, or suppliers are aligned around it —
the mistake stops being a decision and starts becoming a structure.
At that point, correcting it no longer means “fixing a detail.”
It means redesigning molds, renegotiating suppliers, delaying shipments, or absorbing sunk costs.
By the time the loss is obvious, the freedom to change has already disappeared.
Strong teams are not those who avoid mistakes entirely.
They are the ones who treat early uncertainty with seriousness,
who question decisions precisely when they still feel reversible,
and who are willing to slow down while the cost of correction is still low.
In execution, speed should amplify certainty — not replace it.
Because once a mistake is built into the system,
it is no longer a mistake.
It is a permanent cost.