How to Create Product Principles
Product principles are the decision-making guidelines that help teams make consistent choices when the PM is not in the room. They answer: when we face a tradeoff, which side do we choose?
This guide covers how to create product principles that are specific enough to resolve real debates.
Step-by-step guide
Step 1: Identify recurring tradeoff debates
List the tradeoffs your team debates repeatedly: simplicity vs power, speed vs completeness, existing users vs new users, customizability vs opinionated defaults. Each principle should resolve one of these recurring debates.
Step 2: Write principles as preferences, not platitudes
Bad principle: We value quality. (Everyone values quality. This resolves nothing.) Good principle: We ship smaller, more polished features rather than larger, rougher ones. The test: does this principle help someone make a decision?
Step 3: Limit to 5-7 principles
More than 7 principles cannot be remembered or applied. 5-7 is enough to cover the major tradeoffs. Each principle should be distinct: if two principles always point the same direction, combine them.
Step 4: Validate with past decisions
Test each principle against 3-5 past decisions. Would this principle have led to the decision you actually made? If not, either the principle is wrong or the past decision was wrong. This validation step catches aspirational principles that do not match reality.
Step 5: Share and reference consistently
Post the principles in your team Slack channel, include them in onboarding, and reference them in spec reviews and planning meetings. Principles only work if people know them and see them applied.
Common mistakes
Principles that everyone agrees with
If no reasonable person would disagree with a principle, it is not useful. We build products users love is not a principle; it is a platitude. A principle should have a viable alternative that you are explicitly choosing against.
Too many principles
More than 7 principles will not be remembered. Prioritize the principles that resolve the most common tradeoff debates.
Tips
- Review principles annually: as the product and market evolve, some principles may need updating
- Use principles in spec reviews: Does this spec align with our principles?
- Include counter-principles to show what you are choosing against
How Vantage helps
Vantage self-learning memory system captures product decisions and patterns over time. As your team consistently applies principles, Vantage learns these patterns and calibrates future PRD generation to match your product principles.