1. Don’t Mistake the Mockup for the Product

As designers, we care about attention to detail in our deliverables. The extra time ensuring dimensions are correct, icons line up along pixels, text lacks typos, and so on is well spent — up to a point. But it gets out of hand when we start to mistake the mock for the product.

Nobody uses your mockups. Let me say that again, because it’s important and I want Medium users to highlight it: Nobody uses your mockups. Your work isn’t done when you hand it off, and the extra effort you spend getting it from great to perfect is not worthwhile. (And if every pixel has to be perfect in order to achieve the right in-product result, focus on your relationship with developers rather than your deliverable.)

A mockup is a description of a plan. If you never execute the plan, the mockup didn’t serve its purpose. If you can execute the plan without doing a mockup, then by all means save yourself the time. Your success is defined by no more, and no less, than your impact on the product itself.