I have been helping organizations build and apply principles for several years now. I agree, now more than ever, that we need more principles and other controls to avoid doing harm, and to help guardrail teams from enshittification.
I've started these "Principles for building products that are good for the world" that folks are more than welcome to steal. And I will continue to flesh them out.
It needs to be a thing that is reinforced. Often teams are driven only by optimization.
What I see working on AI and data products is that nobody opens an ethics framework and say, “Let’s apply this principle.” What more likely to happen is someone might conduct analysis and say, “These are the variance in the quality of outputs in the AI.” Then the team discusses what that means. These are the moments where principles might emerge.
Agreed. We're trying out a new Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) method here where each motion has more intentional steps involved. Each motion also has clear RACIs and owners to help build out community of practice areas for each, with the hopes that this increase and clarity in ownership will help in areas like this. I have hope, but it's early...
I appreciate how tangible and impactful you make your point by using examples. Principles are critical for establishing shared context and shared goals. These principles need to be set at organizational and leadership levels to change and shape behaviour. At a team level, share principles can be about getting the job done right. It's about giving ourselves a mental model for decision-making. Thank you for writing.
I tend to see every activity as a way to reach the next decision or proof. Having principles is actually a short hand to connect the differentiation of your product to its mechanics. That’s how I see it.
I saw this post yesterday, and while I totally with the statement—"Guiding principles are a way to crystallize your intentions, conviction, and what lines you won’t cross," I do not see the principles as the decision tools.
The goal of design principles to set up the higher order value and the belief system—for our sentiment, the unsaid rules for how we respond in certain situations, what builds our confidence to use our judgment in the absence of an anchor. Something that gets internalized for our individual and collective will and the joy to work.
The teams I’m a part of use principles as decision tools regularly. They sometimes come out of friction where the team is requested to do something they are uncomfortable with. For instance, “Search is agnostic” was such a principle.
Thank you for writing this - very helpful insight here. Is this something that is generally decided on by the entire team? In your experience who is involved?
In my own experience, there’s alignment from the team around the vision or direction and I’m usually the one that define the principles, like a way to encapsulate our direction in a few commandments. When you work on emergent tech products, you’ll co-create with scientists & engineers and principles often emerge from that. Often the principles come out of research, like how a user describes it to me. Sometimes the principles come from engineering. An engineer described the idea behind “local first” to me and I coined it. Generally PMs and designers are the ones who come up with principles because they are part of the product story. I also will reiterate principles at various presentations.
I have been helping organizations build and apply principles for several years now. I agree, now more than ever, that we need more principles and other controls to avoid doing harm, and to help guardrail teams from enshittification.
I've started these "Principles for building products that are good for the world" that folks are more than welcome to steal. And I will continue to flesh them out.
https://spencergoldade.ca/principles-for-building-products-that-are-good-for-the-world/
It needs to be a thing that is reinforced. Often teams are driven only by optimization.
What I see working on AI and data products is that nobody opens an ethics framework and say, “Let’s apply this principle.” What more likely to happen is someone might conduct analysis and say, “These are the variance in the quality of outputs in the AI.” Then the team discusses what that means. These are the moments where principles might emerge.
Agreed. We're trying out a new Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) method here where each motion has more intentional steps involved. Each motion also has clear RACIs and owners to help build out community of practice areas for each, with the hopes that this increase and clarity in ownership will help in areas like this. I have hope, but it's early...
Universal by Design 🙏🏾
Your principles can also be a guide to most human endeavors -- fairness and accuracy.
Yeah for sure. When companies don’t have defined principles it’s the Wild West.
I appreciate how tangible and impactful you make your point by using examples. Principles are critical for establishing shared context and shared goals. These principles need to be set at organizational and leadership levels to change and shape behaviour. At a team level, share principles can be about getting the job done right. It's about giving ourselves a mental model for decision-making. Thank you for writing.
I tend to see every activity as a way to reach the next decision or proof. Having principles is actually a short hand to connect the differentiation of your product to its mechanics. That’s how I see it.
I saw this post yesterday, and while I totally with the statement—"Guiding principles are a way to crystallize your intentions, conviction, and what lines you won’t cross," I do not see the principles as the decision tools.
The goal of design principles to set up the higher order value and the belief system—for our sentiment, the unsaid rules for how we respond in certain situations, what builds our confidence to use our judgment in the absence of an anchor. Something that gets internalized for our individual and collective will and the joy to work.
I wrote about it today: https://www.vinishgarg.com/the-goal-of-design-principles-for-the-defaults-and-not-the-decisions/
The teams I’m a part of use principles as decision tools regularly. They sometimes come out of friction where the team is requested to do something they are uncomfortable with. For instance, “Search is agnostic” was such a principle.
Thank you for writing this - very helpful insight here. Is this something that is generally decided on by the entire team? In your experience who is involved?
In my own experience, there’s alignment from the team around the vision or direction and I’m usually the one that define the principles, like a way to encapsulate our direction in a few commandments. When you work on emergent tech products, you’ll co-create with scientists & engineers and principles often emerge from that. Often the principles come out of research, like how a user describes it to me. Sometimes the principles come from engineering. An engineer described the idea behind “local first” to me and I coined it. Generally PMs and designers are the ones who come up with principles because they are part of the product story. I also will reiterate principles at various presentations.