Design Principles (Growth Design Monthly)

August 2020

Hi Everyone,

Phew, we just relaunched Fellow.app and our brand. 😅The double project was enormous, but not unlike the large scale challenges that many early-stage startup teams face. The whirlwind of shifting priorities and dependencies is probably not too different than the daily craziness that you encounter, noble growth designer!

Thankfully, we had just gone through a process to define our design principles, which provided the guide rails for the project's earliest discussions and prevented us from meandering into false starts in search of direction. Our design principles served as an immediate foundation for the new brand and flagship app. Our design principles were a confidence booster and an accelerator. They were evidence that “Hey, look we do know what we’re doing!”

While undertaking this tricky project, we felt validated that we had invested in developing our team’s first set design principles ever. Since it was so transformative for us, I wanted to codify and share our process, which I call the G.R.A.S.P. method.

Stay principled,
Joel Grenier
GrowthDesigners.co Community Member
Head of Design at Fellow.app

When Principles Become a Priority

There was a time at Fellow.app where design critiques had become a source of anxiety for everyone. We used to painfully push through lengthy meetings riddled with intense and puzzling debates. A simple button would take us down a rabbit hole into the rules of all our dynamic states. It seemed so complicated and convoluted, yet we still managed to burn the majority of our time on such relatively unimportant topics. Sound familiar? This sparked the development of Fellow's first set of design principles.

Getting a G.R.A.S.P.

It was time to take a firm grasp on the problem. Every organization's mission is different, as well as its team values. As a result, it's hard to think of a set of global design principles that would be a one size fits all.

"Design principles should help build your team's confidence, contribute to positive team culture, and increase team performance at scale."
~ Des Traynor, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Intercom

Enter the design principles definition process I call the G.R.A.S.P. method:

Set a Goal
Conduct internal & external Research
Synthesize your research down through Association
Summarize the results
And finally, Polish your principles

Caring for Your Principles

Let’s assume you’ve used the G.R.A.S.P. method to define your principles. The job is not done!

Increase awareness of your new principles with creative ways to memorialize them, such as a shared document or fancy printed posters. The most important thing is that they are visible, accessible, and regularly evangelized by the team during all your rituals.

Establish a routine of reviewing and refining your principles every three to six months. Consider your principles a living and breathing tool that will undoubtedly grow and evolve. The value of the principles will decay over time without this necessary attention.

As a result, developing and caring for our design principles has increased the team's confidence and communication beyond our expectations. We've also drastically improved the alignment, velocity, consistency, and overall quality of work.

Guest Editor Bio

Joel Grenier is the Head of Design at Fellow.app, a platform for people managers. Joel himself has sixteen plus years of experience helping companies build teams, implement operations, foster a healthy culture, and grow from the ground up.

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