Warren Buffett’s 10 Rules for Success…for Designers

Warren Buffett is a pretty successful guy, right? Probably the kind whose advice you’d take seriously. I was in Jimmy John’s the other day grabbing a freaky-fast sandwich, when I spotted a sign on the wall that displayed “Warren Buffett’s 10 Rules for Success.” As I read over them I couldn’t help but think of how relevant these axioms were in my world as a product designer. Well, I am not Warren Buffett, but I have learned a few things over the course of my time in product design, things I believe are valueable enough to pass along.

1. Reinvest your profits — This looks a bit different for designers. Profit is your return on investment. Let’s say you fought for something during a project, and it made it to release and you saw positive results from it. Take that credibility you just earned and double down on it. Don’t make the big ask for the promotion or raise, just coontinue to do the work and do it well. Invest thatinfluence you have back into the product or the team. Focus on improvement. Your payday will come eventually. For now, just continue to build that bank of credibility so that when the time is right you can put it to good use.
2. Be willing to be different —There is only one you. In the entirety of the universe, for all of time, there will only have ever been one you. You have something unique to contribute if you are willing to let go and just be yourself. Trends are changing faster and faster these days, and there will always be trendsetters and trend followers. In this case, know your strengths and utilize them to separate yourself. Play to those strengths, and draw a line in the sand. Focus on self-awareness for a bit, and find out who you are so that you can let the rest of us know. Gary Vaynerchuk is big on “doing you.” His point is that being anything else will slow you down and will likely make you unhappy. Make a strong stance and make it in a space where your can back up your decision with evidence or solid reasoning. Authenticity is the key to differentiation.
3. Never suck your thumb — Don’t sit too long on decisions. Be specific, be passionate, but also be willing to be wrong and respond accordingly. Waiting to make a decision will be more costly in the long run, and will delay your ability to deliver value to the people you are serving. Seth Godin has great perspective on this where he says to take advantage of commitments when others are still in limbo.
4. Spell out the deal before you start — Communicate effectively. Listen well, then repeat the problem back to the customer/business analyst/ manager and make sure you are working toward the same goals. Once you have that established you can discuss what success looks like by defining you key success metrics. Establishing shared understanding early in any process will go a long way toward a shared sense of motivation and purpose.
5. Watch small expenses — Pay attention to the details. All of them. Be intentional with your work, whether in writing user stories, working on the taxonomy of your application or designing your interface elements. Take the time to do all of the work well, and give it the attention it deserves to make it truly great. This will be a major confidence boost, particularly when you are presenting to teammates, clients or customers. Antonio Brown is well-known across the NFL for his work ethic. He was drafted 195th, in the 6th round of the 2010 NFL draft. He’s a small receiver coming out of a small school, but he continues to break records and is establishing himself as the best wide receiver in the league. All of this goes back to his attention to detail and his persistence and dilligence in doing things the right way.
6. Limit what you borrow — Understand design debt and manage it wisely. If you are new to the concept of design debt, Austin Knight does a great job of explaining it here. Basically, our iterative processes and quick release cycles provide an environment where sweeping things under the rug becomes common practice. All of those times when you say “we’ll note it and fix it in the future” will add up quickly. One way to avoid the pitfalls of mismanaging your debt is to consistently come back to how your design methods are helping the team or company achieve its overall vision. You will be able to make a case for investing in some design refactoring. Build it into your roadmap. Make it a regular part of your design or product reviews. The goal here is to have a plan, don’t take on more debt than you can handle, and constantly communicate the status of the design debt.
7. Be persistent — Don’t give up when the situation gets difficult. Whether internal politics, difficult design problems, or inadequate technical resources, commit to delivering and then deliver. Fight through the iterations. Find a better way to say it. Ask for feedback earlier. At the very least, you will come out on the other side knowing how to do it better next time.
8. Know when to quit — There are plenty of moments that I can think of in my career when I wish I would’ve “stopped sooner,” and most of those are in moments of debate or collaborative meetings. When you feel yourself losing a sense of kindness, and the focus has become winning the argument rather than supporting your teammates and the product, then it’s probably time to let it go. You can stand on your design principles all day long, but if it comes at the cost of hurting those around you, you’re doing it wrong. You are all on the same team, attempting to work together to achieve the same outcome. Don’t beat your colleagues to a bloody pulp with your lofty design rhetoric — no amount of usability testing or user metrics will make up for a bad attitude and hurtful words.
9. Assess the risks — At it’s core, product design is all about risk management. Understand where you have risks, and do your homework to anticipate outcomes. Know the kinds of changes you can push out to your users, and the kinds of changes you need to test heavily prior to release so that you can reduce the risk. If you feel alone in your anxiety regarding a change or feature, speak up. One of the best things you can do is communicate the risks with your team. This way the risk can be evaluated from all angle. Keep a Risk board somewhere so that people can see when design/engineering/sales/support is having high anxiety associated with risk. Then, when something gets deployed, watch closely and report back to the team so that you can develop a better spidey-sense about your product.
10. Know what success really means — At the end of the day, no amount of retweets or Dribbble likes are going to change anything. Take pride in the work you are doing and understand the people that it is affecting. You may not be in the sexiest industry, or your userbase may not be in the millions, but you work alongside real people every single day. Invest in them. Make it a goal to know them, and support them in becoming who they want to be. Help them when times are tough, and give them a pat on the back when they do a great job. Thank your managers and leaders for fighting battles that you probably didn’t even know existed, and look for the good in people. It’s there, I promise you.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on a list like this. In my experience, it’s intangibles like these that aren’t taught in universities or design schools, and too often young professionals are cast into the seas of the “real world” armed with only their tactical skills to defend themselves. I still have a long way to go in my career, but will be looking forward to updating and extending this list as time moves on.