Photo of the Clearleft offices.
Andy Budd, part of Clearleft, shares some things he has come to believe over the years:
- You are not your user
- It’s often easier to break big problems down into smaller problems
- Sometimes you need to slow down to speed up
- Design can provide a huge amount of value to business
- Designers and technologists need to stop seeing themselves as separate from “the business”
- The key role in any design or technology team is the lead role
- Everybody is largely trying to do the right thing
- It’s better to design the right thing than design the thing right
- It’s easier to sell a well designed product than a poorly designed one
- Product management is the hardest job in tech
- The reason most projects go wrong is because of a lack of shared understanding from the outset
Be sure to read the whole thing, as it comes with some nuance. Take this addendum to truth #2:
However if you break things down too much, you lose the big picture view and entropy sets in. As such, you need to think both big and small.