The importance of a principles-first mindset
Disclaimer: For this article I wanted to experiment with Chat-GPT3, so I generated a few first drafts using the tool and edited from there. I will adorn any exact phrases that were a direct lift from Chat-GPT3 in an underline.
At HackerOne we live by our principles. We not only have design principles, but engineering principles, customer remediation principles, and even leadership principles. But, why? What is the importance of having principles? Why should one do all the hard work in creating and evangelizing principles? Let's explore.
What are principles?
Principles are a set of beliefs or values that guide behavior and decision-making. In product design, principles help teams make decisions that are aligned with the overall mission and values of the company.
Principles are an alternative to rules, as adhering to rigid rules can stifle creativity and hinder innovation, but principles can act as guard rails or welcomed constraints, making sure the efforts stay on course.
To read some examples of some great companies’ principles, check out this helpful site.
It's also worth noting that principles are a tool that come secondary to company mission, product vision and product strategy. A strong product team must have all of that in place as well, which principles are no replace for. Additionally, principles at a company level are often called 'Company Values' but at their core company values are also a type of principle.
What can principles do for your team?
Doing the work to create principles will certainly have these positive effects:
Let's go through them 1 by 1.
1 - Easier & faster prioritization
When faced with conflicting short-term priorities possibly from different stakeholders, principles can be an extra tool for prioritization. How many times have you run an impact to effort, or a 'everyone can spend $2 on an idea' or [insert your prioritization method of choice] only to be left with needing a tie breaker, or still feeling uncertain about which idea came out on top. Principles are a great ingredient to add to the mix to help decide things like - which flow or design to build, which feature or problem statement to pursue, which velocity task to pick up, which skunkworks team to give more resources to. Next time you're faced with these decisions, ask yourself, 'What do our guiding principles tell us?'
2 - Stronger consistency
At most mature product organizations, there is at least a design language system in place, because the company knows that having a toolbox full of pre-built molecules/atoms makes building faster and more consistently. Principles do the same. Once a set of principles are evangelized throughout the org, they drive everyone towards more narrowly focused consistent thinking.
Take Apple as an example. Apple's design principles include simplicity, clarity, and elegance. These principles are reflected in every product they create, from the iPhone to the MacBook. How many times do you think an Apple design team looked at a mockup and said, 'it's not simple enough' and the design team iterated over and over until the simplicity upheld the Apple principle's standards.
3 - Overall faster communication
Principles create shorthand and speed up communication because they become catch phrases that sneak into everyday conversation. Just the other day at HackerOne, I was given a final feature to QA from an engineer, but it was using an outdated version of our DLS. When asked about that, they said ‘Well this is the way the page already was. I’m only adding this small component.’ And instead of having to explain the importance of consistency and the behavioral psychology of the user on this page, etc etc, all I had to do was quote our engineering principle, ‘Leave it better than you found it.’ And we both knew what that meant.
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4- Feature differentiation
Principles can guide future ideation towards true market differentiation for your product. An employee who’s ambitious could think, ‘Hey, if we care so much about X principle, we should probably have a feature that does Y.’ And that is how market differentiation is done.
For example, Airbnb has a principle "design for belonging." They understand that one of the most significant benefits of travel is the feeling of being connected to a community or culture that is different from one's own. Given this principle, the designers are invited to create experiences that promote interaction and encourage guests to feel like they are part of a community. This principle has guided them to create features like the "host recommendations" section, which helps guests connect with local hosts who can offer tips and suggestions for experiencing the local culture.
Principles at HackerOne
HackerOne loves principles, and we have a lot of them. Without going into too much detail, here are a few.
2. Product Design Principles - and they even come in this gorgeous packaging!
3. Engineering Principles
4. Incident Response Principles
5. Leadership Principles
Thanks for reading. I hope this inspired you to work with your team or organization towards a 'principles over rules mindset.'