Designing a process or operation to accomodate every possible exception and edge case, looks great on paper but results in bogging down the entire process flow to a slow pace.

The best approcah is to build the operation for the 99% and create exception process for the remaining 1%. The standard operating process must cover all the normal operating conditions. And the exceptions scenarios must have a different defined operating procedure with additional controls and checks.

Imagine a process for rolling out a product change, designed in a way to cover every conceivable risk. This would mean that each feature must go through product review, engineering review, security assessment, legal approval, launch committee and executive sign off.

The result? A change of text on a button from "Submit" to "Continue", would take 3 weeks to ship, as it follows the same process as a backend infrastructure change.

The better operational approach here is to design process flow based on risk and complexity. UI changes can have a lightweight process of review, testing, and release. Changes involving sensitive data, security or regulatory obligations can have a separate process with additional checks.

Don’t slow down the 99% to protect against the 1%.