# Design Tenets For Decision Making

> Create high-opinion decision-making tools (tenets) to resolve repetitive design debates and ensure product cohesion. Use this when a team is stuck in circular arguments, when scaling a design culture across fragmented teams, or when defining the core DNA of a new product.

- Skill: `samarv/design-tenets-for-decision-making` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add samarv/design-tenets-for-decision-making`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/samarv/design-tenets-for-decision-making/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: samarv (https://skillmd.com/u/samarv)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/samarv/design-tenets-for-decision-making

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Design tenets are strategic decision-making tools that force a choice between two valid directions. Unlike "design principles," which are often indisputable platitudes (e.g., "make it simple"), tenets provide a specific point of view that allows teams to move from a mindset of control to one of choreography.

## Core Principles

- **Argue the Opposite:** If you cannot reasonably argue the opposite of a statement, it is a principle (a platitude), not a tenet.
- **Limit to Three or Four:** Tenets must be memorizable. If a team has to consult a handbook to remember them, they will not use them in real-time debates.
- **Decision Utility:** A tenet's primary job is to settle a debate once and for all so the team doesn't have the same argument every six months.

## The Process for Creating Tenets

### 1. Identify Repetitive Debates
Audit recent design reviews and product meetings. Look for "bifurcation points" where the team consistently splits into two camps. Common areas include:
- Power vs. Simplicity
- Compatibility vs. Innovation
- Customization vs. Standardized UI

### 2. Draft "Paper vs. Plastic" Statements
Write tenets that explicitly favor one approach over another. Use the "X over Y" or "X is a failure" format to ensure the trade-off is clear.

### 3. Test for Memory and Utility
Socialize the draft tenets. If a team member cannot recite them from memory after 24 hours, simplify the language. If a tenet doesn't immediately clarify a current design bottleneck, discard it.

### 4. Apply During Reviews
Use tenets as the objective criteria for feedback. Instead of saying "I don't like this," ask "Does this design help the user opt-into complexity, or is it forcing complexity on them by default?"

## Examples of Effective Tenets

**Example 1: Apple Keynote (Early Development)**
- **Tenet:** Optimize for innovation over PowerPoint compatibility.
- **Application:** This allowed the team to ignore legacy file constraints and focus on cinematic transitions that were impossible in PowerPoint at the time.
- **The Opposite:** "Prioritize seamless compatibility with existing corporate standards." (Also a valid, but different, strategy).

**Example 2: ThoughtSpot (Enterprise SaaS)**
- **Tenet 1: Documentation is a failure state.** If a user has to read a manual, the design failed. 
- **Tenet 2: Start simple; opt-into complexity.** The interface should look like a search bar for "mere mortals," but allow power users to turn on advanced analytics filters.
- **Tenet 3: Look and feel like it came from a single mind.** Prevents "Conway's Law" where the product looks like a collection of disparate features from different engineering pods.

## Common Pitfalls

- **Using "Apple-pie" Words:** Terms like "intuitive," "beautiful," or "fast" are useless because no one argues for "counter-intuitive" or "ugly." If everyone agrees with the statement by default, it's not a tenet.
- **Creating Feature-Specific Tenets:** Tenets should operate at the design strategy/brand level. If they are too granular, they lose their power to align the entire organization.
- **Ignoring the Tenet When Convenient:** If an executive overrules a tenet for a one-off feature, the system breaks. Tenets require "air cover" from the highest levels of leadership.
- **Relying on High-Fidelity Too Early:** Do not try to define tenets using high-resolution comps. Use "block-frame" diagrams or words only to focus on the conceptual model before the visual expression.