Let’s start with a simple truth. You don’t walk into a kitchen and start throwing things into a pan. At least, not if you’re serious about cooking. That’s a rookie move, the kind that gets you fired from any real kitchen. Before the first order comes in, every chef worth a damn has their mise en place—their station set, their ingredients prepped, their knives sharp, their tools exactly where they need them.
Mise en place isn’t just a fancy French term. It’s a philosophy. A way of life in the kitchen. “Everything in its place.” Because when the chaos of service hits, when orders are flying in, when the heat is up—there’s no time to scramble. No time to search for the shallots you forgot to dice. You execute, seamlessly, because you prepared relentlessly.
Sound Familiar? It Should.
If you’re designing products—whether it’s software, hardware, an app, or an entire ecosystem—you need mise en place just as much as a chef does. But let’s be honest. Most teams don’t have it.
Instead, they jump into design like a line cook on their first day. Sloppy, unprepared, frantically grabbing at whatever is within reach. They build first, think later.
A half-baked wireframe. A rushed sprint. A prototype built on the flimsiest of user research. Then, somewhere along the way, they realize they forgot something critical—maybe the data doesn’t support the idea, maybe the users actually hate the feature, maybe the tech stack wasn’t ready for it.
So what happens? More scrambling. More wasted effort. More “we’ll fix it in production” nonsense.
That’s how bad products get made. That’s how great teams burn out.
What Mise en Place Looks Like in Product Design
If you want to build something great, not just functional, you don’t start with the “doing.” You start with the prep.
Gather Your Ingredients: Know What You Need Before You Start
Before a chef lights a burner, they’ve gathered everything. Every spice, every vegetable, every goddamn sprig of thyme is ready to go.
Same goes for product design. Before you build, you need:
User Research: What do people actually need? Not what you think they need. What’s their pain point? What’s missing in their world?
Competitive Analysis: Who else is making this dish? How are they serving it? Can you do it better?
Constraints & Resources: What’s your budget? What’s your timeline? What tools and tech are at your disposal?
A Clear Vision: What does success taste like? Define it before you start cooking.
Too many teams try to “figure it out along the way.” That’s not strategy. That’s gambling.
Sharpen Your Knives: Set Up the Right Tools & Systems
A dull knife slows a chef down. Wastes time. Leads to sloppy cuts. It’s the same with design.
If your tools aren’t set up properly—if your design system is a mess, if your collaboration tools are dysfunctional, if your documentation is scattered—you’re sabotaging yourself before you even start.
This is where you ensure:
Your design system is clear, scalable, and easy to work with.
Your dev team is aligned on the tech stack. No last-minute “Oh, we can’t build that” surprises.
Your feedback loops are in place. Design reviews, user testing processes, iteration cycles.
Because when the heat is on, when deadlines are looming, when that client or stakeholder is breathing down your neck, you don’t have time to sharpen your knife. It should’ve been sharp before you started.
Set Your Station: Organize for Flow, Not Just Efficiency
A chef’s station is a well-oiled machine. Every tool is exactly where it should be—not just because it looks nice, but because it minimizes friction.
In product design, your team’s workflow should do the same. Ask yourself:
Is your information architecture clear? Can designers, developers, and stakeholders find what they need without a treasure hunt?
Is communication frictionless? Or are people constantly searching through email chains and Slack threads to figure out what the hell is going on?
Is iteration seamless? Or is feedback a bureaucratic nightmare where ideas go to die?
If your workspace—physical or digital—is chaotic, your process will be, too.
The Service Rush: Why Mise en Place Matters When Sh*t Hits the Fan
Here’s the thing. Everything goes to hell at some point. It’s inevitable.
In the kitchen, tickets start flying in. Someone screws up an order. The fryer dies. The dishwasher quits mid-shift. In design, it’s the same—timelines get cut, stakeholders change their minds, scope creeps like a slow-moving disaster.
But if your mise en place is strong, you don’t panic. You adjust. You handle it because you’ve built a foundation that holds under pressure.
When the time comes to execute, you don’t hesitate. You don’t scramble. You move with precision, like a chef in the middle of a Saturday night dinner rush.
And that’s the difference between amateurs and professionals.
Final Course: Set Yourself Up to Win
The best chefs in the world don’t just cook. They prepare. They create environments where creativity thrives because the fundamentals are solid.
And the best product designers? They don’t just build. They plan.
They do the research before the first design sprint.
They align teams before the first prototype.
They set up clear systems before the chaos of execution.
Because the best work doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because you set yourself up to win before the first ticket even comes in.
So before you start your next big product, ask yourself: Do you have your mise en place? Or are you about to start cooking blind?
Because if it’s the latter, don’t be surprised when the whole thing goes up in flames.
Up Next: "Fail Fast, Adjust, Plate Again – The Art of Iteration"
In the next article, we’re talking about iteration—why great chefs (and great designers) aren’t afraid to scrap an idea and start fresh. Because the best dishes, like the best products, don’t happen on the first try. They evolve.
Until then, keep your knives sharp and your stations clean.
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