Principle #4: Learn by making, not talking.

The value of building slowly. The popular belief system still centers around the “lean startup,” A/B testing, and shipping quickly. There are two reasons why I don’t think that’s necessarily the ideal approach.

Firstly, teams tend to underestimate the gravity created by shipping their first product. Once you share something with customers, you natu... See more

Some ways to build this habit:When reviewing new designs, always bring people back to “what problem are we trying to solve here?”When you get a hint that team members are misaligned (e.g. quoting data not everyone has seen, optimizing for different goals, shifting priorities), just say “We may be misaligned on this, what’s your understanding of X?”... See more

Before they began, the group codified a set of organizing principles, dubbed the “Pirate Paradigm,” that would dictate how they worked together:

• Don’t wait to be told to do something; figure it out for yourself


• Challenge everything, and steel yourself for the inevitable cynicism, opposition, rumors, false reporting, innuendos, and slander


• Break the ru

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