Our new extension has been the cat’s favourite place to be for several weeks now.  She’s refused to move for any reason – hoovering, sanding, cutting and painting leave her cold.  She’s loved tucking herself in between bags of plaster, or atop bumpy piles of tools, or inside empty boxes.

So far, she’s stayed safe.  Over the last week we have cut and laid over 20 square metres of flooring.  She did pretty well at keeping out of the glue we spread down – until the last 1/2 metre.

It was at this point I was grateful to the chemists that designed the glue.  I grabbed her and simply wiped her gluey paws with a wet J-cloth.   Job done, minimal fuss, no repercussions.

It’s a reminder that when you design a product or a service, you have to assume that one day, someone or some thing, who doesn’t know what you know, with no clue about what it is, or what it does, is going to encounter it.   And in that case ‘do no harm’ has to be your watchword.

What would happen if a cat metaphorically traipsed through your nicely laid glue?

Do you even know?