Creating Shared Language: Good, Better, Best Framework
Teaching Teams to Ship Value Progressively Instead of All-or-Nothing
Role: Director of Product Design
Partners: Product Management and Engineering Leadership
Impact: Adopted across the entire organization; developed further into a company-wide planning framework after the acquisition
The Problem
Design work was being treated as all-or-nothing, and it was breaking delivery. Designers would show a comprehensive vision; Product and Engineering would say “we can’t build all that this quarter”; teams would cut features reactively to hit the timeline. No one asked “what’s the minimum that delivers value?” What shipped was either feasible-but-low-value or so stripped down it didn’t solve the problem, and once it shipped, leadership saw it as “done.” Half-finished solutions piled up.
How I Approached It
I created the Good, Better, Best (GBB) Framework, a structured way to scope solutions in three intentional tiers. Good solves the core problem and creates a foundation to build on. Better adds capability and removes friction. Best fully realizes the opportunity. Teams define all three during planning, so “we’ll figure out v2 later” turns into a documented roadmap.
What Changed
GBB gave teams shared language for scope. Tradeoff conversations got easier. Instead of arguing about which features to cut, teams asked whether Good solved enough to ship. Teams could argue for continued investment by showing the value path from Good to Better to Best. Solutions actually got iterated instead of stalling at “done.” The framework was adopted across the organization, and after the acquisition, it was developed further into a widely used planning framework, used well beyond design.
What I Learned
Shared language changes culture. Naming the tiers gave teams a way to talk about scope that didn’t feel like compromise or failure. And good frameworks scale beyond their creators: simple systems spread because anyone can use them.