Link
Search

Design-Research practice charter

Truss’s purpose

Move to the edge and declare it center.

Our purpose

We enable teams to make decisions based on awareness and learning. This means we have done the work to understand how things and people are connected, how they influence each other, how change cascades through the system, and shared this information so our teams are able to make better decisions about how we design services and products. We are systems designers.

Our principles

In our practice, we believe that:

Transparency is the default, in how we work and the work itself

Truss value: BUILD ALLIANCES, SHOW UP STEP UP

  • We value solo work time balanced with regular collaboration, working in the open, and asking for early feedback to build trust and bring people along.

  • We proactively communicate how we are approaching the work, trade offs, decisions we are making, lessons learned, recommendations, and most importantly the why behind them.

  • We advocate for inclusive practices, watching for ways that we unintentionally reproduce inequities and oppression in how we work and the things we design.

Deliverables are not all of the work. Working shoulder-to-shoulder is the work

Truss value: PAY ATTENTION, BUILD ALLIANCES

  • Our work doesn’t start and end with a UI; it’s relationships, adoption, and listening to the people involved with and impacted by a product or service.

  • We listen to understand, paying attention to what’s being said and unsaid by our teammates, users, and stakeholders.

  • We examine systems, data, practices, company culture, and organizational structures to gain context and understand value and impact on a broad and narrow scale.

  • We are clear about constraints we’re encountering, our own needs, we ask for help when we need it, and offer help when we see someone struggling.

Designing for all people and abilities is a priority

Truss value: SHOW UP, STEP UP, BUILD ALLIANCES

  • We invest in our own learning and ensure that everyone knows the basics of how to design accessibly.

  • We help our teammates and clients build empathy by understanding our users and their needs, behaviors, risks, and constraints, asking ‘who are we not listening to’?

  • We recognize the need for alignment and seek to connect people across practices and teams to navigate complexity.

  • We empower and trust others to use the tools of research and design to center users needs and problems before building solutions. We meet people where they are.

Collaborative incremental progress is better than perfection

Truss value: PURSUE MASTERY, BE ADAPTABLE

  • We hold our preferred or ideal process lightly, prioritizing incremental progress and bringing people along over getting it perfect.

  • We test ourselves and our ideas; we take a rigorous and attentive approach to problem solving (especially complex ones).

  • We believe development is hypothesis driven; we make small bets as a team and measure success via user and stakeholder feedback loops.

  • We ask questions, make decisions based on evidence, and help our internal and client partners practice this too.

Treating ourselves and each other with care produces better work

Truss value: ACT WITHOUT FEAR

  • We extend trust in order to build trust. We believe if teams support each other’s needs, we will produce great work together.

  • We demonstrate that radical candor begins with care for each other and demonstrating a willingness to support instead of place blame.

  • We are willing to speak up about doing the right thing even when it’s uncomfortable or difficult for us or others.

  • We are curious and open-minded, we provide a safe space to ask questions, and we are okay not having the answers.

  • We focus on working smarter, recognizing the ebb and flow of work and our energy. We protect and advocate for taking care of ourselves and teammates. We alternate intensity of work with recovery periods and advocating for each other’s needs.