Parallels between scientific thinking and product design process

There is a fascinating video on YouTube by Veritasium about how scientists reacted to the detection of gravitational waves. The scientist in this case, Rana Adhikari, was very skeptical of this development. He dismissed it initially, then tried to refute it by thinking of all possible ways the data can be manufactured.

Similarly, in the design process, normally designers come up with a few ideas and designs. Then we try to think of the ways the designs could fail. This can be accomplished by user testing, getting different perspectives by getting reviews from more experienced designers and stakeholders. And by thinking (or overthinking) the conditions where the design might fail (edge cases).

In the absence of such stress test, it leads to conspiracy theories, and inefficient designs.