The Full Stack Leader

“Quality is absolutely objective and definable” is the main idea I got from this book. Patagonia founder and owner Yvon Chouinard tells the story of his journey of starting a company, defining its quality and ethical standards, and running it sustainably through the years.

My favorite passage that relates directly to my work at Automattic is about the questions designers at Patagonia ask to see if each product fits their standards—things like functionality, durability, simplicity, authenticity, and timeliness. I loved reading about their central tenet of concurrency versus assembly line production. Every product decision involves the designer and producer at all stages, and they work together until it’s done.

Recommended if you love reading about products and companies, as well as an intimate look at a very popular outdoor clothing and equipment company.

Many of the principles built into Patagonia’s standards can and should apply equally to software and product design. Here are some of my favorite bits from the book.

Without a serious functional demand we can end up with a product that, although it may look great, is difficult to rationalize as being in our line—i.e., “Who needs it?”

This is relevant to building web apps or products—who’s going to use your app? Is it needed in the marketplace? Does it add value? As product builders and managers we should cut out products no one uses. They clutter up our codebase and confuse users away from our core products that help them the most.

The best restaurants in the world have set menus, and the best ski shops have already decided which skis are best for your skill level.

Make the best choice for people. You know how your product works intimately, and you use it yourself. Design for that core use case and you’ll find your software helps other people, too, naturally. This goes well with the WordPress project’s philosophy of decisions, not options.

The best-performing firms make a narrow range of products very well.

I love this since it requires you focus on doing one thing really well—a principle espoused by software greats like Microsoft, Apple, and Google.

Moreover, we carefully define, rather than just assert, what makes each product the best of its kind.

This is important for the why below the what. Explaining your philosophy and why it’s important—and carefully building your products to match that creed—rather than just saying you do things the right way.

Market trends are less important than strong intuition.

As a craftsperson, go with your instincts born from experience and intuition and pay less attention to what everyone else is doing. Don’t just copy your competition. If you follow your own way, you’ll innovate and they’ll soon be copying you.

Photo credit: Tom Walker, Flickr.

This is my book review of Let My People Go Surfing, The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard—founder and owner of Patagonia clothing and equipment company, based in Ventura, California, USA.

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