In design, execution is everything. By executing solutions with your own hands, you share the workload with your team and create bandwidth to implement those small touches of polish. Some teams would refer to these polish pieces as ‘nice to haves’ and gloss over them. But these little pieces are what make a good thing into a great thing.

A vector Angel that I made.

I recently read an awesome article, Control Core Angel: Alive and Supplied by Keith Schuler, designer @ Gearbox.

In this article, Keith covers a variety of topics. One that stood out to me as relevant was how he executed the solution to his problem of health regeneration: he didn’t write an elaborate story card, attach wires, get it estimated, then hope it came out okay.

Keith sat near his teammates, spoke with them to find out what was already possible and what wasn’t. When Keith discovered that the character implementations of BL1 & BL2 were different, he took it into his own hands to implement the desired outcome.

By executing the design with his own hands, Keith relieved any added workload from a team that was working hard towards a tight deadline. This added bandwidth allowed Keith to add a few touches of polish. Some teams would refer to these polish pieces as ‘nice to haves’ and gloss over them. But these little pieces are what make a good thing into a great thing.