Reliability in a World That Isn’t

Product DevelopmentSafety DesignBehind the ScenesCOVID BusinessPet Innovation
Written By E. Black

Originally written: 02 November 2020

Designing for Reliability During COVID

Designing for Reliability During COVID

It’s November 2020, and nothing feels reliable.

Shelves empty as soon as supplies arrive. People fill carts with toilet paper, sparking heated arguments in otherwise quiet aisles. Rules change by postcode. Police checkpoints appear where dog parks used to be. Even time feels distorted — days stretch, months collapse.

So we double down on reliability.

Not optimism.

Not speed.

Reliability.

MyHerculead already works — but working isn’t enough. We’re testing how it fails, how it recovers, how it behaves when humans lose balance, when dogs surge, when tension spikes mid-step.

Because systems aren’t defined by their success states.

They’re defined by how gracefully they fail.

And in a world that feels structurally unstable, graceful failure isn’t optional.

E. Black

E. Black — Inventor & Technical Director

E. Black is a multi-disciplinary inventor and Technical Director at The Hartful Company, specializing in practical, safety-driven product design and lean innovation. With over a decade of hands-on prototyping experience — including 69 iterations of a multiple dog walking lead focused on real-world safety and usability — their work bridges industrial precision with everyday problem-solving.

As webmaster and technical architect for The Hartful Company, E. Black also oversees digital infrastructure, optimization, and systems design, ensuring that every product and platform meets rigorous standards of performance, reliability, and user trust. Their work is guided by one principle: innovation should make life safer, simpler, and better — for humans and animals alike.

https://www.thehartfulcompany.com
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