Start with why

You need to know why you're doing something in order to take the right actions. Without understanding the reason for your journey, how can you pinpoint a destination or begin to map the route?

If you're shopping for a car, you should know whether you're planning to haul lumber on the weekends or easily find city parking. A clear goal lets you navigate the tradeoffs between different options. As we shared recently:

Good design is form-context fit. For startups, this means product-market fit. In order to build a great product, we must have clarity about the market we're trying to fit — our ideal customers. Everything we ship, everything we communicate, every decision we make should reflect their needs.

In other words, keeping our purpose top-of-mind is how we build effectively. This discipline is especially important as a team, since we need to coordinate the work among individuals to contribute to one harmonious machine.

You can't make a sensible plan without understanding the why behind it, and you can't implement that plan without pragmatic details. Both are necessary, but asking why always comes first. (And then writing down the answer!)

Why compounds#

The need to ask why applies at every scale of decision-making. Zoom in or zoom out, and it remains important for purpose to precede plan.

Whether you're defining the mission of a company, or honing a specific implementation, starting with why creates coherence across the team. This provides a better practical context for future decisions.

By contrast, each decision made without clear purpose creates cultural and technical debt. Thoughtless actions cause confusion and misalignment, both internal and external, and force expensive course corrections later. Having a concise why provides a stable foundation on which to build.

This is not to say that it's possible to never err — and some mistakes lead to significant learnings. Still, it is always worth investing time and energy into understanding why you’re making a decision in the first place.

When our purpose is apparent from what we create and what we say about it, that attracts people who share the same beliefs and values. Over time, we build momentum in a consistent direction — with others contributing, because they care too.

Using the framework#

When writing internal documents, we default to the "why, what, how" structure because it is simple and puts the why first. Each section is straightforward:

Starting with why grounds the document. We must understand why the problem exists and is important before we can decide what an appropriate solution looks like. A compelling problem is also motivating since humans like to solve problems. This section is often multiple paragraphs.

Next comes what. It should be short, concrete, and actionable. What solution are we proposing? For us, this is typically a sentence or two.

Lastly, how details our proposed implementation and evaluation. It may be longer and more complicated, and oftentimes links out to a separate tech spec. Even so, less is more: focus through brevity.

This structure begs the important questions. Does this why matter? Does this what help this why? Does this how accomplish this what?

Once we can decisively answer yes to each question, we begin building.

We originally got the phrase and concept "start with why" from the eponymous Simon Sinek book.

At Splits we're building institutional-grade banking that's instantly available to everyone in the world. Built on Ethereum. No account minimums, paperwork, or legal entity needed. Sign up today.