Five principles that guide how I work
After years of running value workshops for teams, I turned the lens on myself. These five principles aren't aspirations – they describe what drives me.
I’ve run value-based workshops for my teams a couple of times. They’re a good way to find common ground – what matters to all of us, what we can stand behind. The process always brings good discussions, laughter, and some tough choices. Going from an abundance of values down to ten, then five, then a combined three to five for the team forces clarity. It’s almost like refining a backlog.
But team values tend to land on single words. Trust. Courage. Quality. They mean more than the word itself, but they stay abstract. When I recently read about a product I admire and landed on a page describing their principles, I started thinking about my own. Not values as words, but principles as descriptions of how I actually work. What keeps me going. What keeps me inspired. How I operate when things get complicated.
Understand the real problem first. Most problems aren’t what they first appear to be. This happens constantly – we jump to fix a problem without understanding the real need. A user might ask for a button to copy something, but what they actually want is for it to happen automatically. And more often than not, the real problem isn’t even technology. It’s people and organisations.
Know what good looks like. It’s easier to build quality of you can recognize it. Having a designer mindset, without thinking about tools or processes, has helped me shape world-class products together with teams. The medium has evolved – from graphic design to digital products to design systems. At the core: a curiosity and eye for detail that has stayed the same.
Do the right things. The hard part isn’t picking what to do. It’s accepting what you won’t. A common pattern is teams starting new things before finishing – really finishing – the previous job. The solution is often simple: clarity. It’s easy to confuse work in progress with getting things done. Changing this often results in finishing more than before.
Value the people around you. Trust is built in small honest moments. I’ve sat through enough team retros to know that the teams that work well aren’t the ones with the best processes. They’re the ones where people trust each other enough to say what they actually think, and more importantly dare to fail. We all have a part in building that trust.
Be open-minded about the future. You can make all the plans in the world, but if you never ship there is no value created. Shipping gives an opportunity to listen and learn. But there is a balance, believe in your vision, product and ideas – and listen to your users. I keep coming back to the why, what, when.
Five principles that aims for high quality, design driven, shippable and lovable products. Principles I tend to take with me outside of work as well.