Stop relying on gut decisions and define your principles
What do you do when you have to make a decision where there’s no obvious right answer?
It can be paralyzing.
Not only do you have to decide between equally valid options, you have to commit to your decision and be prepared to defend it.
It’s a challenge that products teams deal with every day.
Thankfully, there’s a solution.
First, let me ask you a question: on which side of your car is the gas tank cover?
Why is your gas tank cover on [that] side of the car?
Not every car has the gas tank cover on the same side.
You might imagine the most aesthetically-pleasing location for the gas tank cover is in the middle of the back. Or perhaps it could be hidden altogether, and only revealed when it’s time to fill up.
If we look back on car design through the ages, we can see automobile manufacturers have explored all kinds of design approaches just like those. Many cars would integrate the filler behind the back license plate, or even into the centre of the back hatch, like the Chevrolet Corvette C4.
Others, like the Bel Air, hid it behind a hinged taillight.
Unfortunately, these elegant solutions turned out to be a practically poor idea, as the gas fillers had a habit of busting open and spilling gasoline everywhere and catching fire in even minor fender-benders.
As a result, regulations around gas filler locations evolved to specify in very narrow terms where the filler can be located, in the name of minimizing safety concerns.
Current regulations demand the filler be at the widest part of a car, inboard of any crumple zones, and safe from dripping onto any hot exhaust bits or electrical wiring. This generally means the filler needs to be on one or the other sides of the car, and relatively near the passenger compartment.
Source: Jalopnik
When you account for how these constraints shape today’s car design decisions (not on the back, inboard of crumple zones, and safe from wiring), you’re left with one big decision to make: does the gas tank cover go on the driver’s side, or the passenger’s side?
There’s no right answer to this decision, but the decision still has to be made.
Toyota chose to put the cover on the driver’s side. Volkswagen and Chrysler put it on the passenger side.
How did these companies make their decision?
The website Jalopnik asked these automakers this very question, and heard a variety of answers.
Volkswagen and Chrysler both stated they chose to put the cover on the opposite side of the car from the driver, which inherently places the car between the driver and the rest of traffic while they’re fuelling up, shielding them from other vehicles.
“Volkswagen passenger cars always on the right (passenger) side to keep the filling person away from the street/lane traffic.”
Source: Jalopnik
Toyota, on the other hand, chose to put the tank on the driver’s side, for the driver’s convenience.
“In our case it is based on company policy for customer convenience. In other words, we don’t want the customer to have to walk around [the vehicle].”
Source: Jalopnik
There’s no right answer for this decision. But each company still made the best decision — for them.
How do we make the right decision when there’s no right answer?
When we design the user experience in our products and services, we often find ourselves needing to make these kinds of decisions: decisions where there’s no right answer.
We do the research: we learn everything we can about our users and their context and needs, and we learn about the business and technological constraints that we must operate within, and we apply the lenses of human-centred design to narrow down our problem space.
We craft the architecture: we deeply understand the mental models, flow of information, and how entities can move and change over time.
We apply the heuristics: the basics of inclusive, lasting, and usable visual and interaction design.
Usually, the right decisions become clear. Often, we make these decisions subconsciously, without even realizing that we’re making decisions.
Other times, we stall out. Even after going through all of the requirements, applying the heuristics, and exploring the mental models, there’s nothing that directs us to a clear “right” decision.
When that happens, we have to make the best decision.
Most experiences usually have a series of “best decisions” that ultimately shape the experience.
The strongest experiences stand out, because they’re internally consistent with themselves.
But how do we make these decisions, and make them consistently?
Unfortunately, when individuals and teams are faced with making a decision, they’re all too often left trusting their gut.
The fragility of gut decisions in product design
As we’ve learned from ongoing research into cognitive psychology, when our gut tells us something, we should listen. Cognition and emotion are closely tied.
Whether we’re aware of it or not, we’ve all internalized a set of values and concepts that help us identify what “feels right” when we have to make a decision that has no clear right answer.
Teams that work closely together may align on a similar set of unspoken internal values that help them make these gut decision together, or they might look to a leader who they rely on to make those kinds of decisions on behalf of the team.
But we can’t rely only on gut decisions.
When culture shifts as people leave or join the company, or as the competitive or societal landscape changes, or as new priorities come down from on high, these internalized values easily ebb and flow.
Before long, inconsistencies and contradictions begin to surface in the product experience.
Relying on gut decisions is a fragile way to work.
Gut decisions at scale
Take another look at what the car makers had to say.
Volkswagen, a brand known for their commitment to safety, chose to put the fuel cover on the passenger side, to “keep the filling person away from traffic.”
Toyota, a brand known for their commitment to convenience, chose to put the fuel cover on the driver’s side, because they “don’t want the passenger to have to walk around the vehicle.”
Did either of these brands make the wrong decision?
No.
But even when their team didn’t have a clear “right” decision, they had a clear “best” decision.
Their decisions were the right decision — for them. Because they knew their principles.
Principles help us make the best decisions
We have to define and apply our principles.
Principles help us to express our shared vision and values. Good principles are simple, broadly applicable, and capture what is most important to both our business and our users.
Principles give our team direction, help us to resolve ambiguity, and give each member of the team confidence in their ability to make the best decision when the time comes to make a decision.
Principles give us a path for embracing and applying inclusivity, sustainability, and ethics in our work.
Principles at the brand level
Principles can be defined at the brand level, creating a set of principles that are shared by an entire company.
Southwest, one of the most-liked airlines in the world, embraced the idea of “love” as one of their core brand principles, and put people and their employees first.
Today, their brand values are captured as “the Southwest Way:”
Live the Southwest Way
Warrior Spirit
Servant’s Heart
Fun-LUVing AttitudeWork the Southwest Way
Safety and Reliability
Friendly Customer Service
Low CostsSource: Southwest
Employees are encouraged to make decisions guided by these shared principles. And it works: as Brand New reports, while “other airlines have suffered bankruptcies and layoffs, Southwest has remained profitable for 41 consecutive years.”
Principles at the product level
Principles can also be defined at the product and team level, creating a set of values that guide a single product or discipline.
My own team at Marley Spoon is in the midst of a re-imagination of our mobile app, and we set out to define our own principles together to guide our work.
These are our principles:
Treasure time. We help people enjoy cooking and to try new things, while spending their time on the things they enjoy. When the app fits in, it must be a purposeful use of time.
Users in control. Minimise uncertainties, prevent surprises, and reduce the mental load of decision-making to give people control over their experience.
Everyone can cook. Our products are used by a worldwide community of all abilities. Anticipate the stress cases and design for inclusion so that everyone can cook.
Fits like the perfect kitchen. Like the perfect kitchen, everything has its place and time: everything’s easy to find, intuitive, and supports the task at hand.
Trustworthy. Trust must be earned, and it’s reciprocal: for people to give us their trust, we must give them transparency.
We’re not alone.
Some of the best product teams in the world work together to define, capture, and share their principles.
Take Airbnb:
Unified: Each piece is part of a greater whole and should contribute positively to the system at scale. There should be no isolated features or outliers.
Universal: Airbnb is used around the world by a wide global community. Our products and visual language should be welcoming and accessible.
Iconic: We’re focused when it comes to both design and functionality. Our work should speak boldly and clearly to this focus.
Conversational: Our use of motion breathes life into our products, and allows us to communicate with users in easily understood ways.
When to use brand and product principles
Sometimes, brand and product principles are interchangeable. If your company only has one product, it should probably have a shared set of principles.
Other times, a company may have many products. When this is the case, the company should probably have a unifying set of brand principles that guide the company as a whole and unite their products, as well as product-specific principles tailored to individual product contexts.
There’s no one-size-fits-all — you need to find the right principles for you and your team, together with your team.
When you do, you’ll be able to make decisions faster: instead of endless debate or analysis paralysis, you’ll be able to ask, “What choice most aligns with our principles?”
Whatever your answer may be, you’ll have made the best decision.
In a followup to this article, I’ll be sharing a simple but effective workshop that you can run with your team to craft your principles. I’ll add a link here when it’s available!
Thanks for hitting the 👏 if you enjoyed this article! It’ll tell me to write more like this.
Quinn Keast is a UX Designer + Partner at Caribou, a user experience strategy and design consultancy.
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