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What it is: Gaining a clear distinction of what we are choosing to do

When to use it:

When working in larger groups with many perspectives (or throughout your own individual process to feel clear-headed)
When you have leadership reviews
When there are multiple good options (and so you’re at risk of second-guessing yourself later)

How to use it:

Document what it is you are deciding between, and why it is you are choosing one option over another
Capture the alternatives for future reference
Include the types of signals that would make you reconsider / go with a different direction

This works great with

Assumptions map - as you make design decisions, it will help unearth assumptions and hypotheses you are making in choosing specific design details

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What it is: Like all good strategy, it points to a goal or a what, does not dictate or preclude a certain how. The example that makes me go “ooooh I get it” is the principle “something that gets better with time”: one clear answer being leather. Principles do not dictate a solution - they characterize what about the solution must be true for it to work. They are underpinned by strong insights about how people live life today, think about life today.

How to use principles (once we have them):

Bring qual insights into actionable starting points
Be ruthless in culling ideas to hew to closest to principle
Select metrics that signal we were on the right track

Principles can take many shapes... they can be short pithy statements, they can be large posters capturing the essence of moments, they could be succinct adjectives the team rallies around.

This works great with

Brainstorming - Principles give you an anchor point to ideate around
Design decisions - Principles become the measuring stick you can use to gain confidence in choosing one option over another

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