No, i’m not talking about the movie (although it is my list of movies to watch). The tenets i’m talking about are a set of guiding principles that can help you focus your effort. At Amazon, tenets are used by teams to help explain what they do and their values. On product design, tenets can help be used to minimize and streamline unnecessary features.
As I'm constantly on the lookout for areas to improve and always asking myself “what can we do better?”, “how can we reduce errors?, which can get overwhelming at times, I decided to put together a set of tenets to help prioritize and focus my thinking on what/how to tackle any process improvement efforts.
This is what I had put together:
Tenets for Process (e.g. SOP, playbook):
Consistency and Standard
Overall, all the processes should be consistent with one another (e.g., using standardize terminology, duration)
Error prevention
We aim to design SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) and process that help reduce errors.
Flexibility and efficiency of use
We allow a level of flexibility from users when following the process (without going completely derailed) to meet their needs. Our processes should be efficient, coherent, easy to use and not overly complicated. Can be taught in a few hours or less.
Helps users navigate workflow and development from start to finish (Deliver Results)
Our processes should successfully guide users.
Scalability
Can be adopted by other teams with some adjustments if needed and can be used when we scale.
What are some of your tenets?