In my experience, many of us in the design profession have perfectionist tendencies. We are often idealistic with high standards for ourselves, our work, and others. There is nothing wrong with striving towards excellence as long as it doesn’t paralyze you. Which, of course, is the fundamental problem with perfectionism — we become so hung up with creating the perfect thing that we plan it, we think about it, but we never do it.

One way to deal with perfectionism is to focus more on the quantity of output rather than quality. If you make a lot, you are more likely to develop something of higher quality. In my photographic work, I certainly know that shooting in quantity yields a richer library from which to build my body of work. The more I shoot, the more I see, the more I understand about my work, the better I get. Successful writers also have similar habits. Write regularly, write a lot, write first, edit later.

I would argue that some design and development processes tend to institutionalize perfectionism and ultimately result in lower quality products. With tight timelines and budgets, it can seem like you have only one chance to get it right. Waterfall models, common in the enterprise or outsourcing, often require that designers deliver complete “perfect” designs to be perfectly executed. Organizational pressures to mitigate risk means teams spend a lot of time planning and validating work which can make it difficult to really explore problems creatively.

A question for you: What tools have you used to combat perfectionism either in yourself or within your organization?