About “moving fast and breaking things” — a designer’s perspective
In the tech industry, it is common to hear Facebook’s motto “move fast and break things”. This was later changed to “move fast with stable infra” (this article explains more about the shift). Although this is an old motto, it still seems to be present in the tech industry’s mindset. It makes sense that this mantra is still alive given the agile work culture in which incremental improvements and releases are done frequently.
This motto makes total sense from the developer perspective: don’t be precious, release things even if they have some bugs. Today the cost of releasing digital products to test out in the wild is low so why not gather some data and reiterate for a better version? It makes sense because it costs less for the company and the risks are lower. Everybody is happy: customers and company, right?
Not really. This can be true for minor improvements or products and services that have a very small impact on people’s daily lives. The things the tech industry has been building are, in most cases, not really that small. Think about the tech giants: Google, Facebook, Amazon. What they build impacts society in a huge way and affects so many people.
There is a big issue when speed is one of the main drivers of products and services delivered by tech companies. The eagerness to release things in a fast-paced environment has been causing huge problems. Trouble in our democracies, trouble in our information systems (leading to misinformation or facilitating disinformation), and trouble in decision making when machines are trusted to make what look like “objective” decisions when in reality some of them are very biased.
As a designer, who constantly thinks about putting humans and their needs in the center of the experience, I believe we have to step back and think more critically about this development methodology.
Why it is important to talk about this
Our online life is more than ever our real life. I feel that at the beginning of the popularization of the Internet there was a clearer separation. I remember from when I was a kid that there was an explicit transition from my real world to the online world. I would sit in front of the computer and listen to the dial-up until I was online.
Things have changed a lot since then. Many of us have constant internet access because we have computers in our pockets or on our wrists. This almost seamless integration of our online and offline life makes the impact of the products and services released by tech companies bigger than ever.
Just think about your life: how long do you spend interacting with computers on a daily basis? And by computer I mean not only your desktop but your phone, watch, smart TV, talking to your smart home device and so on?
Of course, we can build things fast, we can design things fast…but should we be doing it? Shouldn’t we be thinking about the consequences of what we put out there? Shouldn’t we make an effort to add transparency to what we build instead of a black box we can barely understand? Shouldn’t we let consumers know we are tracking their behavior and selling their data to other companies?
Having algorithms affecting people’s lives in so many ways, like pushing things to people that interfere with their perception of reality doesn’t seem right. Also, algorithms are involved in other important things such as how trustworthy we are (this looks like it came straight from an episode “Black Mirror”). As a designer, I feel we should be talking more about our role and what we can do to help stop that.
Our role as designers
Designers are empathetic creatures. We already care for our users, we are responsible for adding humanity to all those numbers being shown within our companies in slide presentations. We are usually the “voice of the customers” and we do our best to make their voices heard. I feel we should be more than that. We should now advocate for the well being of people in general, which means to recommend and fight for good data practices, for transparency in the algorithms and also for a slowdown of this “move fast and break things” way of thinking. Before launching a project, we could advocate for a checklist of areas that may go wrong and affect society, we should encourage critical thinking and show the value of thinking of our “users” as human beings and not just numbers on a spreadsheet. People with complex emotions and life consequences if our product goes wrong in some way.
I know this task is hard. I’ve been there before: when all the people around you care about generating revenue and how to release things in a more efficient way. There are demands from the executives, there are results salespeople would like to see. And there you are: a designer talking about “feelings”, the importance of qualitative data and understanding the reason why people behave like they do, and telling others why they should care about the consequences of launching a faulty product or service. It is a difficult battle but the first step to being listened to is to speak up. Share your concerns with your team, find allies within the company. There is a movement already happening so things are in your favor. Companies are starting to use things like privacy as a competitive advantage.
We can do this together. Even though I feel worried about our future I also feel we have a unique opportunity to make things right. Our viewpoints as designers matter, our care for our users matters. John Maeda, in his wonderful book “How to Speak Machine: Computational Thinking for the Rest of Us” says that for a business to achieve real growth, it has to have diverse voices and viewpoints. Be one of those voices!
Steps you can take to make a difference in your company
- Think critically about what you are helping to build: this involves thinking beyond the sprint cycle/short-term goals. A good question to keep in mind is: what problem this product/service is trying to solve and how does it impact not only your company’s goals but the society in general? How will it enrich people’s lives? Are there any risks to break things that shouldn’t be broken? If so, how can those risks be mitigated?
- Keep people front and center: who will use the product/service? More important: is there any group you are excluding from your thinking that you should consider?
- Reframe success: besides the most common success metrics (bring more revenue, making the user flow smoother/faster), are there any other important things you can consider? Remember that not all important things can be measured so it is good to keep in mind some important things in the world that you don’t want to break.
- Express yourself: voice your concerns. Sometimes it is hard and you will feel people are not listening to you. But this is the best way to find allies in the company. If you speak up, other people may be encouraged to do the same and join you. Which brings me to the last point.
- Find allies: find people who think like you and grab a coffee/lunch with them. Get to know them and you can team up and come up with strategies to surface the issues you worry about.
It is our responsibility
For years designers have been asking for an opportunity to sit at the table, to help with the companies’ major decisions and to have more responsibility than “making things look good”. I see more and more companies valuing design and allowing us to be more involved, which I think is great. Think about how many companies hire an organization like IDEO to help them to bring “design thinking” to their business. Companies are finally seeing the value design can bring.
The increase of design’s responsibilities comes with a more intentional approach from us, design professionals. Let’s be conscious of the ideas we bring, let’s think beyond the sprint cycle, let’s discuss what ethics mean in the context of the product or service we are building, let’s push for better data practices, let’s include those who are usually excluded, let’s make a better world together! Shall we?
