Principles
The 13 Canons
The 13 Canons are practical operating principles for building useful technology. They are not religious, legal, military, or universal doctrine. They are the defaults this studio uses to make scope, safety, ownership, measurement, and handoff explicit.
- 01
Start with the business problem.
Technology is a means. Define the decision, delay, cost, or friction before choosing a tool.
- 02
Ship the smallest useful system.
Scope the first release to create real value and real learning, then expand from evidence.
- 03
Keep humans in control.
Automations should expose important decisions, allow review, and provide clear ways to intervene.
In practice: a person reviews pricing, exceptions, and anything outside the approved answers before it reaches a customer.
- 04
Design for auditability.
Important inputs, outputs, approvals, and changes should leave a trace people can inspect.
- 05
Prefer evidence to hype.
Use observed behavior, measured outcomes, and explicit assumptions instead of fashionable claims.
- 06
Make ownership explicit.
Every workflow needs a person responsible for decisions, maintenance, and exceptions.
In practice: before work begins, every recurring software, phone, or messaging cost is listed along with who owns it.
- 07
Automate repetition, not judgment.
Let software handle predictable work while people retain context-heavy choices.
- 08
Build for handoff.
A system is not finished if only its builder can run it.
In practice: each project ends with written operating notes and a walkthrough for the people who will run it.
- 09
Measure outcomes.
Track whether work became faster, clearer, safer, or more valuable, not just whether features shipped.
- 10
Protect data by default.
Collect less, limit access, keep secrets out of code, and plan for failure.
- 11
Optimize for clarity.
Names, interfaces, states, and documents should make the next action obvious.
- 12
Make it fast and accessible.
Performance and accessibility are product quality, not cleanup work.
- 13
Leave the system better documented.
Capture decisions, dependencies, setup, and operating guidance while the work is fresh.