Compromise. It's a dirty word. It reminds me of what Peter Skillman highlighted at our ZURBsoapbox last year, "**Beware the lollipop of mediocrity**. Lick it once and you suck forever." Compromise leads product teams astray by giving everyone a false sense of security. A strong product team understands that great things happen when calculated risks are taken.
A designer will tell you that compromise leads to lackluster results. Compromise is the blending of individual ideas, married to create a Frankenstein that's both ugly and uninspiring. Compromise gives us false hope that the team made good decisions for the product. In reality, it's a gamble that covers the roulette table with blacks and reds. Once your team feels comfortable with compromise, your product and services quickly become unremarkable.
So what's a team to do? Here are four ideas for product leaders:
- Not everyone on the team needs to buy into an idea. Just make sure it's a vision that fits with the goals of the company and product. As an example, puce green may not be a team favorite, but there may be a huge audience waiting for it and your designer understands why.
- Support answers you don't like to keep momentum high. Justifying every product decision with a team can be taxing. Sometimes a strong, bad answer is easier to adjust than a watered down answer that doesn't spark anyone. In the online world, things can be changed quickly. Teams enjoy moving forward, not getting stuck.
- Throw away good answers. It's OK to throw away good answers that everyone on the team likes. Push your team find better answers that may not feel very comfortable.
- Customer feedback can help clear up problems. Don't try to tweak every part of a solution to be "ideal." Every once in awhile that "bad decision" might surprise your team when a customer uses your product.
Bryan Zmijewski
Leading the charge at ZURB since 1998
Our fearless leader has been driving progressive design at ZURB since 1998. That makes him quite the instigator around the offices, consistently challenging both the team and our customers to strive to always do better and better.
Learn more →
Follow him at @bryanzmijewski
