Principles For Designing Better Products

“It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work” by J. Fried and DDH

As a general rule, to build something great is not about more hours and resources thrown at a problem, but less bullshit.

I tended to believe that with all technological advancement, we will work less, smarter and better. But with years it seems that we add more mass to our process and decision making which in the end is reflected on our products or services.

We have more and longer meetings. Bigger teams. More complicated processes. More time and resources spent. On a yearly basis, we get more management tools and hacks. We preach simplicity but forget how to build a useful and usable product. We want innovation, but we keep rigid roadmaps that can’t be changed. People want to contribute with great ideas but all they end up doing is pick up another ticket from Jira. And with all of that, we get more and more waste. But there is a better way of designing and building, one which has less mass.

Recently I had the pleasure to finish another book by the guys from Basecamp, It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, in which they share a lot of practical and “mentally sane” knowledge and practical advice on how to run a company, manage a product & teams and other details. The way they build Basecamp can be an excellent example for anyone aspiring to create a good product and company.

I personally share a lot of their philosophy, and their book is a good reminder of how to design a great product. Here are four principles we can all use to design, manage and build better products:

1. Think an idea through

Usually, when people come up with new ideas (in our case for a product) they schedule a meeting, invite the decision makers, present the idea, and if nobody interrupts that person along the way in the first 2 minutes and everybody gets super excited about the idea, then they will work on it. But it is not always the case. Usually, someone jumps in in the…