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
Continuous learning
Close mantra ↑The world changes quickly and technologies come and go. We must keep learning to stay ahead and recognise new opportunities.
Teach each other what you discover and how it works. This is true for both the organisation and the individual. If you are not learning, you are moving backwards.
Learning compounds and stacks, making future learning faster.
- 13.Fail fast. Be experimental
- 14.Change is good
- 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