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
Transparent by default
Close mantra ↑Modern office communication tends to happen through email, which is private by default. It is the wrong way around.
Default to transparency. Make communication open and available to everyone whenever possible. Sharing information builds trust and responsibility throughout a company.
There is no use putting up a corporate veneer. People want to see real people doing real, useful work. Working openly takes effort and the tools are still imperfect, but transparency should be the starting point.
- 02.Leave politics to the politicians
- 03.Be responsible, be free
- 04.Perception is reality
- 05.Questions are the answers
- 06.Be positive
- 07.The session musician
- 08.Toxic behaviour
09—16
Empowerment and growth
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