Creativity is born from constraints. By explicitly defining our constraints, we use them to our advantage. Exploring new territory requires embracing daily failures. We understand it’s just part of the game, learn from it, and move on. This allows us to innovate over months, years, and decades.
Design is about solving real human problems. We design for emotion the most detailed level. Emotions are the foundation of memory, and by extension, the internal desire that brings people back to our products. We work to understand upfront what emotions we want to evoke from the people who live with our products.
We focus on doing a limited set of things extremely well. Complexity always evolves from the bottom up - pieces to the whole, cells to an organ, individuals to a team - and this is no different in products & companies. This is why we always start with the simplest, most valuable problem we can solve.
Stories are how we understand ourselves and the world around us and are the most natural way to communicate. Our product is the story we’re telling the world and we have seconds to tell it. How people use it, where it fits into their lives, and why they come back to it is core to everything we do. We tell stories in how we design and what we choose to emphasize. Our collaboration is driven by narrative about our users, our strategy, our company and our place in the world.
Great things are never accomplished alone, they are accomplished by small groups of dedicated people who are driven to have an impact on the world. Collaboration means honest debate about ideas, approaches, and execution - our goal is to get to the truth. But collaboration does not mean consensus - it is important to disagree and commit when necessary.
Building at high velocity isn’t only a competitive advantage, it’s also more fun. This can only happen when we as individuals make the conscious decision to push the ball forward everyday and not be paralyzed by uncertainty, discussion, or doubts.