If This Then That and the power of rules:
How to build a great product and live a good life
Every day, we encounter extreme complexity, what I like to call a tyranny of abundance. However, the same principles govern our outcomes — those who maintain and design databases know this well — and much of today’s technology makes the invisible principles visible.
My favourite principle is the prevalent, omnipresent and deterministic IFTTT: If This Then That. Input determines output, in other words, garbage in means garbage out. The beauty of 2+2 =4, an entirely black and white universe, where every complexity has been reduced to a binary, lies at the heart of technology as we know it today.
Everything that can be automated, will be
We’re still far away from AI. However, we increasingly live in the world of algorithms, which are based on the IFTTT principle, and that’s important to understand. The algorithm is our collective human expertise summarized as 2+2=4 (on the best of days, and in excellent products), and its only goal is to reduce complexity.
Does your product reduce complexity or does it introduce friction? Why do people have a problem with Uber? Is 2+2 always 4? (Feel free to throw Atlas Shrugged at me, by the way. I’ll duck).
Products represent a system of values
In Uber’s case, the main value is convenience, and the notion that our time is valuable. Then the standards come into play: how do we standardize this set of values? That’s where much of the product building happens. Product managers set standards to reduce instances of human error factor and individual decision making to maximize consistency. In Uber’s case, the core value is libertarianism, surely — here’s a product that undermines existing rules and systems, and democratizes transit to an extreme degree. For people who don’t like Uber, it’s not the technology they oppose — the underlying unrest has more to do with the set of values that particular algorithm represents. Because, as a society, especially here in Canada, we’re not libertarian.
Same goes for Tinder: surely, it’s convenient to swipe left. Would we want to shop around for a soulmate that way? The app is designed for hookups. The core value of Tinder is about making hookups happen, and taking as much of friction out of hookups as possible. Same goes for many other dating apps out there, designed to solve the hookups problem. Women and men looking for someone special, for a stable long-term relationship, currently don’t have a go-to app for that. Arguably, because overall, people marry less and hook up more.
The prevalent technology serves much like a mirror: we are the most popular ten apps, as humanity, right now
We can be so much more than that, of course, so please everyone, keep building great products.
The strongest products — and the best of lives, too — are governed by values.
Our values, in progressive societies, are somewhat at odds with values that currently produce our technology. I think that’s why many of us have such a hard time with it.
Here’s where IFTTT becomes such a useful tool to change and predict the outcomes. Focus on the value system first, then build out your standards, and the rules you apply to ensure your standards are met. Examine your values regularly: do your governing principles need to evolve and change? Then adjust your product and your life accordingly.
Values will help you set standards, make decisions and prioritize. Values exist above “goals” and inhibit the shared realm of long-vision and identity.
Steve Jobs valued and deeply understood good design. Steve Jobs famously said: “Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Those are the kinds of statements I look for, when evaluating products. The set of values is typically made quite visible, if you know where to look.
So how do you build a good product? A good life? Follow this path: Values => Standards => Rules
Your outcomes, your reaching whatever “goals” you’re after will simply be signposts, helping you navigate the course you choose. Chasing “goals” and making “plans” won’t get you there as quickly as a strong system of values will. Get the basics right, establish IFTTT and the output will follow.
