Roberto Giolito has the distinction of winning Car of the Year and Ugliest Car. Both from Top Gear. Both in the same year. Both for the same car. That would be the Fiat Multipla.
To call the Fiat Multipla ugly is to miss the point. It certainly is no looker. The length is shorter than a typical car. The height? Taller. The resulting car looks squat and boxy. But as they say, beauty is on the inside. In fact, the New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) showcased the interior. The dash is as highly usable as it is highly unconventional. It seats six comfortably. The large windows create a feeling of space. Small but spacious and maneuverable. The point of this car is to completely satisfy one use case: living the European life while driving the crowded European streets.
When we are designing security capabilities, we start with the use cases. No, that’s too many use cases. Put one back. Still too many, put another one back. There. Good. We start with a few specific use cases and then get to work. Our goal is to fully satisfy these use cases given our limited resources. We will have to make trade-offs. That’s the nature of prioritizing. And when we do? Think of Roberto Giolito who let his design be ugly where it didn’t matter, in order for the design to be Car of the Year where it did matter. Ruthlessly prioritize. Dare to be ugly.
This article is part of a series on designing cyber security capabilities. To see other articles in the series, including a full list of design principles, click here.
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