Taste Evaluation

The Taste Problem

Design taste cannot remain tacit. In the age of AI-assisted product development, taste must be encoded as explicit evaluation criteria — operable, auditable, reproducible. Gut feel is the source from which taste criteria are derived; the weighted matrix is the mechanism that makes taste operational.

Key insight: Taste is a fourth lens applied after DVF, not instead of it. An option can be Desirable, Feasible, and Viable — and still fail taste by adding three new concepts to the user's mental model when zero would suffice.

Phase 1: DVF Filter — Primary Triage

Apply IDEO's three-lens filter first. Any option failing two or more lenses is eliminated before taste scoring.