Working principles · 01—32
Mantras.
Hard-won mantras shaped through experience: building Newicon, working with teams and pursuing personal projects.
Some are original, some are borrowed or adapted from people and companies I admire. They are not commandments. They are prompts: useful ways to challenge an assumption, unlock a conversation or find a better next step.
01—08
Transparency and trust
09—16
Empowerment and growth
- 09.Be the change you seek
- 10.Be a coach
- 11.Give and receive fearless feedback
- 12.Continuous learning
- 13.Fail fast. Be experimental
Change is good
Close mantra ↑To stand still while the world moves is to move backwards. The comfort zone can become the dead zone. Fear of change creates work that is predictable, stagnant and the same as everything else.
A business that wants to make an impact has to evolve and stay ahead. Change creates challenge. Challenge creates learning. Learning creates innovation, longevity and prosperity.
It is rare for a change to irreversibly damage a business, and most changes can be reversed. The larger risk is refusing to change.
- 15.Make fast decisions
- 16.The what, not the who
17—30
Innovation and engineering
- 17.The simple, not the complex
- 18.All requirements are wrong
- 19.Challenge constraints
- 20.Don’t #!@$ the customer
- 21.Pragmatic, not dogmatic
- 22.Use first-principles thinking
- 23.Aim to be less wrong over time
- 24.I don’t know is a superpower
- 25.Build rather than buy core skills
- 26.Ask why, why, why, why, why
- 27.Automate
- 28.Organise around the value stream
- 29.Be bold and break things
- 30.Make it visual
31—32