How to Implement Product Principles so You Stop Struggling with Decisions

A life beyond frameworks

The speed at which teams make decisions defines their progress. Yet speed isn’t everything. Consistency is vital to success.

When decision-making lacks a minimum structure, you may observe undesired behavior like:

• Lengthy discussions before calling the shots
• Resistance to make decisions
• Inconsistent decision-making across teams
• Uncertainty about what a good decision looks like

My view on decision-making is simple. A poor decision is often better than no decision because it creates learning, while no decision gets teams stuck.

Decision-making doesn’t need to be complex. Teams need to align on what matters most, and that’s when product principles can help.

Product principles are the foundations of collaboration. They help teams understand what’s most essential and what’s less relevant. Teams understand what to pursue and what to drop.

Let’s take this piece to clarify the following:

• The importance of product principles
• How to set product principles
• Using product principles in daily work
• Challenges of maintaining product principles
• Principles that helped companies I worked with