Design Tenets

Decision-making tools that resolve recurring team debates, unlike generic design principles

Bob Baxley
35 years of product design wisdom from Apple, Disney, Pinterest and beyond

Design Tenets

"Principles are sort of Applehood & Motherpie. They're just not something people are going to argue over... Tenets are really decision-making tools." - Bob Baxley

What It Is

Design tenets are opinionated decision-making tools that help teams resolve recurring debates quickly and consistently. Unlike generic design principles (like "simple," "clear," or "beautiful"), tenets take a clear stance on contested trade-offs where reasonable people might disagree.

The classic example comes from the development of Apple Keynote. Steve Jobs gave the team three tenets: (1) it should be difficult to make ugly presentations, (2) focus on cinematic quality transitions, and (3) optimize for innovation over PowerPoint compatibility. That third tenet in particular prevented years of debate—without it, the team would have spent endless cycles arguing about whether to prioritize compatibility or innovation.

Tenets work because they're like personal rules you make for yourself (paper vs. plastic at the grocery store). Rather than reconsidering every decision from scratch, you establish a principle and move forward from there.

How It Works

Effective tenets share several characteristics:

  1. They're debatable - Someone could reasonably argue the opposite position. "Make it simple" is not a tenet because no one argues for making things confusing. "Optimize for innovation over compatibility" is a tenet because both sides have merit.

  2. They're memorable - You can't have more than 3-4 because everyone needs to internalize them without consulting a handbook.

  3. They resolve recurring debates - They should address arguments your team has over and over where people dig into opposing camps.

  4. They operate at the strategy level - Tenets work best for overall product or design strategy, not individual features.

Bob Baxley's tenets at ThoughtSpot:

  • Documentation is a failure state - Nobody wants to learn your software. Do everything possible to make things self-explanatory.
  • Every interaction should start simple; users opt into complexity - Unlike Tableau's "space shuttle cockpit" approach, make the product approachable and let power users unlock advanced features.
  • The entire product should look and feel like it came from a single mind - Combat the natural fragmentation of enterprise products where teams optimize locally.

How to Apply It

  1. Identify recurring debates - Pay attention to arguments that happen repeatedly where the team bifurcates into two camps.

  2. Make a definitive choice - Have the debate once, as an organization, and decide to go left instead of right.

  3. State it clearly - Frame the tenet as a clear directional choice, not a vague aspiration.

  4. Limit to 3-4 tenets - Everyone must memorize them. If people need to consult a document, they won't use them.

  5. Use them in design reviews - When debates arise, come back to the tenets: "Wait, are we actually starting simple and forcing users to opt into complexity here?"

When to Use It

  • When building a new product and establishing design DNA
  • When joining or leading a design team that lacks clear direction
  • When teams keep having the same debates repeatedly
  • When you need to scale design decisions across distributed teams
  • When moving from a "control" mindset to a "choreography" mindset

Source

  • Guest: Bob Baxley
  • Episode: "35 years of product design wisdom from Apple, Disney, Pinterest and beyond"
  • Key Discussion: (00:38:20) - Explains the difference between principles and tenets with Keynote and ThoughtSpot examples
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

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