Can "when verb+ing" refer to an activity in the past?

Question

A correct sentence would be: When they were designing the product, they paid attention to...

Is this grammatically correct: When designing the product, attention was paid...

Araucaria - Not here any more. · Accepted Answer

Subjectless preposition phrases using gerund-participles have no tense and can be interpreted as referring to present, past or future time. The time being referenced is understood by reference to the time referred to in the main clause, sometimes in combination with a perfect construction in the  preposition phrase.

Before taking my aspirin, I shall drink a glass of water.
Before taking my aspirin, I drink a glass of water.
Before taking my aspiring, I drank a glass of water.

Robusto · Answer

You have a dangling modifier there. You could fix it by saying

When designing the product, they paid attention to . . .

Just follow the template of your first sentence.

Osama Said · Answer

While they were designing the product,  they paid attention to... (1) correct
They paid attention to ... , while they were designing the product.
(2) correct
That's because we give (while + was/were +v.ing) to the previous action that was interrupted by another action -The newest action takes (when+V2).

Can "when verb+ing" refer to an activity in the past?

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