But how could a test drive design??

Good question, I'm glad you asked...

Actually, I asked myself during my long a** commute, which gave me a lot of time to reflect.

The weird thing about TDD is that there is no design.

You don't design tests. You write them, one at a time.

This is something that makes TDD difficult. Even after I understood the basics, it was still a challenge to stay with it. I had to stop thinking about how to solve the problem and focus only on how to test the solution.

It's not that I don't think about designs at all, but I'll only design up until the point I know I'll be able to start my first test. This design is focused on high level interactions and the goals of my solution.

When the TDD light bulb went off above my head, my thinking changed to this:
What can I do to make this test as easy as possible to write?

Thats it. Kinda lame looking at it now, but really, thats it. When I focused on testing and that alone, that's all that remained.

If you have difficulty dispelling design noise, pretend you are Harry Potter and have your very own pensieve (that would be pretty cool, no?). Put the thoughts in the pensive. They will be there when you have the focus they deserve (In real life this works well with index cards)

Unless it is a new user story, I throw it out. I don't worry about it, because if I need it, it will happen.

But what if I forget? Are my user stories satisfied? Are my acceptance tests passing? I guess I don't need it.

But I need to refactor my code! Well, I should be doing this all the time! If I didn't have a chance for whatever reason, next time I am in the test, it will be so painful, I'll refactor. I trust myself and my team. When this happens a lot, I need to think about what done means (this is another topic)

How do I make tests easier to write?

When I can't make a test without getting frustrated or overwhelmed with what-ifs or setups, I introduce a mock and encapsulate the behavior. Using that mock just made my life a whole lot easier.

Did I just drive the creation of a new interface? Is there a new interaction that didn't exist because it was the easiest thing? Will my class be more simple because its not doing something too complicated? Will the new class be cohesive because it was created for a specific purpose?

Wow, not only am I creating a new design as I go, but all other things happen because I'm trying to make my life easier.

Anyone else see the beauty here?

Or the power?

When I have a very complicated problem, I break it up organically by test driving. Each part not only makes sense, but is easier to implement because I am able to focus on small pieces. I have instant gratification that each worked on its own, as it was created, without any integration.

Sweet bonus, the solution doesn't do anything extra and I didn't go on any tangents because I didn't want to write extra tests.

Extra sweet -- I spoke to coworkers, took a lunch break, wrote a blog post and had NO fear my momentum or focus would be lost.

Writing tests is more difficult than writing code, but when I focus on making my tests as easy as possible to write, it keeps me in the test, drives my design and simplifies my thinking.