In 2022, I lead the product design team at Properly through a multi-day workshop to craft our design principles. As our team grew, it became critical for us to have a shared vision to guide the execution and output of our work. Our design principles were meant to:

• Help everyone to think about design

• Help to steer a design

• Help to drive innovation

• Help to establish what good looks like

The four principles we created are:

• Guiding

• Focused

• Reciprocal

• Transparent

We started by brainstorming keywords that exemplified our work. The goal here was to diverge and explore all possible themes. We then grouped similar themes, dot-voted, and arrived at our general categories of principles.

We then went through a Mind Mapping exercise for every major principle. The goal here was to craft phrases that brought the principles to life. As a group, we completed the following statements for each principle:

• As a user, I should …

• Our designs should …

Once we arrived at our final candidates, we started word-smithing the actual name of the principle, and that principle’s description.

Guiding

We connect the dots and support users through every step of accomplishing their goal. We acknowledge, respond to, and celebrate our users’ actions. Our designs empower the user to make progress and feel like they are in control.

Focused

We care deeply about our users’ attention. We say less and do more; we lead by showing, not telling. The Pareto principle (80/20) informs our designs to make the important things easy, and everything else possible.

Reciprocal

We give value before asking for value. We treat our users as equal partners in the conversation, and we value communicating in easily understood ways. We don’t make users feel stupid, ignored, or rushed.

Transparent

We present information to our users in ways that are honest, respectful, and accessible. We earn our users’ trust by not hiding anything that is essential to their goals.