Let's Talk Principles: From Technical Conservatism to Connected and Modular Systems

At present, it is not surprising that we are committed to the principles of products. They have evolved and been reiterated over years of reflecting and learning from our own successes and failures, of us trying to code them so that we can create a predictable and repeatable R&D culture.

The goal was simple: to help us repeat successes and avoid repeating mistakes. And that's what they did. Developing and adjusting these principles has been instrumental in consistently creating great products at scale. They've helped us keep everyone on the same page, enabling even new hires to get things done and make faster, smarter decisions to drive the most value for our customers. Today, they are deeply embedded in our culture: the way we work, collaborate with each other and, of course, create products.

And that's why we wanted to share them with you. We've launched a series of blogs exploring each of our product principles written by the people who know them best: our R&D team. So far, we've introduced the series and explained the importance of getting results, following design fundamentals, and keeping it simple.

This week, we're exploring two more. To start, our product engineer, Waheed El Miladi, explains how technical conservatism helps Intercom grow faster:

"Being technically conservative means reusing existing technologies and frameworks in our stack, or promoting proven patterns and solutions. We value this familiarity because we understand that the important problems to solve are the ones that bring value to the customer or company."

We'll also hear from Gustavs Cirulis, Principal Product Designer, on how focusing on connected modular systems helps us answer the right questions immediately, increase efficiency and reduce costs:

"By designing systems first, you focus on the most important issues without getting lost in the finer details. But designing too many systems can also lead to a product that is difficult to understand and expensive to maintain.This is where modular systems come in. Design systems can dramatically increase team efficiency and product consistency because you design and create UI components only once, then use them throughout the product."

Want a little more? Check out more episodes of our podcast here. You can follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or grab the RSS feed in your player of choice.