Elegance Manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of innovation teamwork
by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Expectation setting over flexibility
Low marginal cost over frequency
Muscle memory over creativity
Clarity over ambiguity
Sense of accomplishment and rest over continuous delivery
Fixing institutional errors over fixing human errors
Succeed fast, succeed small over fail fast, fail small
Career security over job security
Ambition over competition
Generosity over “just enough”
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.
Principles behind the Elegance Manifesto
We follow these principles:
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer
through synchronized and paced approvals
of valuable assets.
Welcoming changing expectations,
even within days of setting or meeting them.
Elegant processes harness change for
innovators’ collaborative advantage.
Approving expectations rhythmically, from a
couple of hours to a couple of days or weeks,
optimizing the size of each batch of expectations.
Junior and senior employees must work together
with schedule visibility and decision transparency
throughout the project.
Build projects around empathetic individuals.
Give them psychological safety,
a sense of belonging, and time away from the job
and trust them to get the job done.
The most durable and scalable method
of setting and meeting expectations
among stakeholders
is executing Five Verbs
wherever their desks are located.
Go-live events are the primary measure of progress.
Elegant processes promote ambitious innovation.
Junior and senior employees should be able
to maintain a sustainable pace indefinitely.
Continuous attention to rhythmic excellence
and good balance enhances elegance.
Simplicity–the art of minimizing
Verb Sprawl in formal planning—
is essential.
The best stories, experiences, and moments that matter
emerge from disciplined and empathetic teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how
to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts
its behavior accordingly.