5 Savvy Business Rules That Nobody Tell You About

Pretend like you’re a human being

With the possible exception of artists and architects, no one is more full of shit than designers. We can find a way to justify anything. That means no matter what you end up with, you can come up with some reason why it’s a good design.

The best advice I have for designers is to practice being not-designers: stop what you’re doing, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and then look again like you’re just a regular person encountering this product/service/user interface/object/page/poster for the first time.

Where do your eyes go? What do you think it is at first? How do you figure out what you are supposed to do? Make it inevitable

There is some truth to that old Henry Ford aphorism “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right.”. If you can’t believe it, it’s probably not going to happen. However, I like to take that one step further and ensure that every action we take assumes the desired outcome is inevitable.

Do not take actions that are out of alignment with that inevitability. Do not allow judgments take judgments contradict them. The more evidence you have — and everyone else has — that things will come out as planned, the more likely it will be so.

There’s something about working deeply, in real-time, with other people that’s both incredibly satisfying and enormously more effective than working alone. You need to be open for the pass, you need to hear the subtle rhythm shifts, and you need to spot when someone else’s table needs the check … everyone should be taking account of what everyone else is doing and constantly modifying their behaviour to better serve the team. Know why you’re doing it

If you are just out to make money. If you just want awards or recognition or for others to think highly of you, I hope you get that too. But I don’t think anyone is satisfied by fame or fortune. I find it incredibly satisfying (and gratifying, rewarding, and pleasant) to honestly have done the best job I could have done on something and I believe that works for everyone else too. Being skilful and exercising your mastery is what you’re here to do. Doing anything less undermines the whole point of being alive.