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Principles over process

Principle over process emphasizes the importance of adhering to core values and guidelines rather than rigidly following procedures.

Most companies I work with spend a massive amount of time on processes. Sometimes, it feels almost religious.

I often hear questions like: How do we build a good roadmap process? How should discovery be done? How do we measure software delivery? Why are we so slow?

These aren’t bad questions, but in most cases, they don’t touch the root of the problem.

What challenges does this help with?

I'd put Principles over process on your radar and read on, if you're facing these challenges:

  •

    Your teams have no decisions about what they’re building or even how they’re building. They seek approval for most things. Learn more

  • Failed transformations occur when attempts to adapt or improve a product or process result in setbacks or do not achieve the desired outcomes. Learn more

  • Low employee motivation occurs when team members lack enthusiasm and drive to effectively contribute to product development efforts. Learn more

  • The most common issues within the organization. You probably won’t be able to get rid of this, once you have a scale, but you can (and should) try to fight it as hard as possible. Learn more

  • High cognitive load means that the team has too many things on their shoulders, making them slower to move or to think. Learn more

The problem with processes

Processes are easy to write down, measure, and optimize. They give a sense of control, which many leaders hunger for. Processes can help less experienced people keep up with the organization. But here’s the problem—they also slow down your top performers.

Think of processes like a lifeboat—they keep those who can’t swim from drowning but also hold back those who are ready to fly.

Processes can kill creative thinking. They grow out of control, especially as the company scales. Processes create bureaucratic structures.

And that’s a fast track to losing the speed you had as an agile startup. And that’s the number one offender when it comes to good people leaving your company - because they’re being slowed. That’s not how you build great products.

Let’s use agile as an example. You’re not agile if you’re adopting process frameworks like Scrum or, worse yet, SAFE. You can be agile (in the word’s true meaning) if you follow the principles stated by the Agile Manifesto. These were created before those frameworks.

What if you already have too much process?

A few suggestions:

  1. Don’t let process people take over the organization. Look out for overzealous COO, CFO, and agile coaches. Talk sense to them.

  2. Keep the number of processes to a minimum. Do an inventory, determine the Minimum Viable Process, and kill the rest.

  3. Stop trying to control every exception with processes. In 80% of cases, nothing bad will happen if you let people figure the problem out on their own instead of creating a heavy process to hold them by hand. That’s where you get resilience and innovation.

  4. Guide your teams with operating principles instead of relying on processes. These principles should be part of your company’s DNA and influence every team decision.

Examples of operating principles

Operating principles are not just cringy hashtags you print and place on your walls for people to smirk about when you’re not in the room. It’s a list of guides that tell the team how to do their job and what to prioritize.

What operating principles should good product organizations have? Here are a few to inspire you:

Start with the problem, not with features.

Forget about new features for a moment. The main question should always be: Which user problem from our list do we want to solve? For each problem, there are multiple solutions. Then, start thinking about the features.

PS: An excellent framework to force you into this mindset is the .

Think big, work small.

Have a vision for where you want to be in a few years. Break that down into strategies to get you there. Then, plan specific projects to move the metrics you care about. Read more about .

Ship fast, ship early, ship often.

Stop holding onto things until they’re perfect. Deliver features quickly, often, and early. Measure, gather feedback, and iterate.

Remember the Pareto principle—80% of features won’t succeed. Find the successful 20% as quickly as possible. Use prototypes before you put a single line of code.

Outcomes > outputs.

What counts in the end isn’t how many features you release but the results you achieve. Does your product solve your customers’ real problems? Are your customers happy?

These are the main reasons you should be happy about, not that you’ve shipped something (that nobody uses).

Trust > control.

Stop micromanaging. Teach people to think like you, give them context , be present, care for them, and help them from the backseat. Delegating and trusting multiply the talent.

This fosters resilient, motivated teams that can innovate, bringing more value to the company. Plus, you’ll stop being the bottleneck.

Innovation > predictability.

Predictability kills innovation. Choose a side. If you want innovation, stop obsessing over deadlines, give your team some breathing room. And yes, stop obsessing over processes.

Learning > failure.

Foster a culture of experimentation. A “failed” feature isn’t a failure if you’ve learned something and you can apply this learning in the future.

Don’t fear mistakes. Don’t penalize mistakes too much. Otherwise, your team will stick to safe bets, and safe bets rarely make first-page news.

Data > ego.

I believe in leaders’ intuition. But remember, you’re human, with biases and habits. Data are facts. Data should guide your decisions no matter how attached you are to your ideas. Trust your gut, but don’t rely on it too much.

How to implement it step-by-step

  1. Add Principles over process to your deck / :
  2. Communicate the start of work on the practice to the team.
  3. Assemble strike team to work on the practice.

  4. From the list above, copy the principles you like. Expand on them using your own words in the context of your company.

  5. Ask your leadership team to work on the final list of principles.

  6. Communicate it to your teams.

  7. Embed it into your existing employee handbook, hiring, and performance management processes. Adjust your meetings and the way you make decisions to follow these principles. Start living by it.

  8. Remind your teams about it every once in a while.

  9. Revisit the list every 6/12 months and adjust if needed.

PS: If you need help with implementing the Principles over process, contact me. I have 20+ years of commercial experience working with bigger and smaller companies, upgrading product, design, and engineering teams to the next level. I can also connect you with experts on this subject.

Conclusion

If you live by these principles, you don’t need any specific process or framework to build products loved by millions worldwide. If you live by these principles, you should have a good strategy, constant customer contact, frequent deliveries, and a motivated, impact-driven team.

Instead of creating processes that force your team to fill out another spreadsheet they don’t understand why, guide them using operating principles. Next time, they may know why filling that pesky spreadsheet is important.

Operating principles become your DNA, your true foundation. And THEN, you can start figuring out where you need the process and where the principle is enough.

Good luck!

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Here are other practices related to Principles over process:

  •

    “Trust over control” principle emphasizes empowering teams with autonomy and decision-making authority, fostering a culture of trust rather than stringent control. Learn more

  • Innovation over predictability emphasizes the value of creative, novel solutions over routine, predictable outcomes in product development. Learn more

  • Empowered Autonomous Teams can decide what to build to solve they problem they're being assigned, without any excessive oversight. Learn more

  • Small (Pizza) teams are cross-functional groups of around 5-8 people who work together closely on a project, promoting quick decision-making and effective collaboration. Learn more

  • Your customers are your business therefore, obsessing over them must be at the core of your culture in order to succeed. Learn more

  • Core company values are the key beliefs and principles that guide how a company and its team operate and make decisions. Learn more

  • Team charter defines team mission statement, value stream they’re working on, their KPI list and the services they’re owning. Learn more

Hope that's useful!

Piotr Kacała