These are principles that either I have learned through experience or that I strive to follow in my work.

I like good manifestos, from all disciplines. They serve as anchors for steering work, or at least for guiding thinking. The act of writing them alone is valuable: it forces one to clarify what is valuable, what helps one do their best work. My manifesto is alive, evolving every few months as I learn about the discipline and about myself.

1. Engineering and design are not separate disciplines.

In the same way that one cannot design a porcelain vase without deep knowledge of ceramics, we cannot design good digital products without a good understanding of computing and networks. If I am going to create innovative solutions with a medium, I need to master its technical foundations. If I'm not passionate about the medium, I cannot hope to do good design with it.

2. Design to help people make sense of complexity, not to hide complexity.

Technology should empower us, not weaken us. Being human is being technological: it makes no sense to hide technology from people. I believe we should give people the tools and information to navigate complexity, not hide it away, which disempowers people, preventing them from learning and hence from self-serving.

3. Identify the leverage points.

Complex services cannot be treated in a reductionist manner like a scientific experiment. Cause and effect doesn't help. We might fix one end, for another to break, in a neverending whack-a-mole game. Complexity requires a systems view, paying special attention to the relationships and gaps between people and tools.

4. Listening before speaking, understanding before making changes.

If design is to make a difference, it needs to be done from a position of understanding of the existing rules and assumptions. Then, we question those rules and assumptions.

Understanding first doesn't mean spending months in discovery mode: learning can be done through building too.

5. If designers don't get pushback, they haven't pushed hard enough.

It means we haven't challenged assumptions or pushed the boundaries hard enough. That solution might or might not work, but getting pushback is valuable: it tells us we have gone beyond the obvious and made others think critically about the problem.

6. Don't settle for the first idea, ever.

It might be the best idea (it often is!), or it might be the one everyone loves, it might make complete sense and tick all the boxes: still don't settle for it. Convince yourself that other, better solutions are possible. Work hard to find them.

7. The unknown knowledge is the most important knowledge to (not) have.

What we don't know that we don't know tells us that we cannot control everything, we cannot design for every eventuality, or for every user. We have to design for the unknown as well as for the known.

The other unknown is the unknown knowns: things we know but are not aware that we know. This can be thought of as our hidden biases and unconscious assumptions. They are always there, in us and in others. We have to work to surface these because they will derail a project otherwise.

8. Learning by making oneself vulnerable.

Be open, share early ideas. Criticise and get criticised. Design is not for us, is for the world out there, and the world is large and varied: make the most of it to make your work and yourself better.

9. Be prepared to be wrong, a lot.

Design is risky. We have to break things, ideate beyond the known solutions, discuss problems and solutions with many colleagues from disciplines we hardly know anything about. Shit will happen, own it, because it is part of the job. Tell people in advance so they know that shit will happen, things will break, mistakes will be made. To do great design, we need a safe environment where we can fail before we succeed.

10. Get to the bottom of things.

Behind all digital products and services there is a concept, a belief, that brought it to life and maintains it. I need to pin it down, then question it. Why that concept and not another? What does that concept imply without saying it? Who put it in place? Who got sidelined? You might need to do this alone, to keep your friends and your job, but questioning why you are doing your job in the place you are doing it is a question that needs to be answered.

But also, be ready to answer the same question on yourself: why are you asking the questions you are asking? What is your aim?

11. Search for simplicity.

It is, like perfection, unachievable, but the search for it is worth it. Complexity cannot be turned into simple, but it can be simplified. Simplicity takes effort and time.

12. Don't play safe: be the disrupter, the one who does not easily comply.

Don't take the first answer as the last answer, keep asking. You will annoy some people: ask for forgiveness afterwards, reminding them why you are being a pain: innovation is never a relaxing ride.