PROCESS

Here is How to Build

Design

Rules

What a rule is

Principles taught the disciplines of building a change. With that learned, the building begins, and it begins here, with the smallest thing a process is made of. That smallest thing is the rule. Before you can design a process, you design the rules it is made of, so the first real discipline is to know exactly what a rule is.

A rule is a prescribed statement. It says what is allowed, what is required, what is prohibited, or what is expected. It does not describe; it prescribes. "The customer is informed using the template" is a rule: it requires a thing to be done a certain way. A rule settles, in advance, that a given situation meets a given response, so the response does not have to be reasoned out afresh each time. Where there was a choice, a rule makes a decision and fixes it. That is its whole nature: a rule is a decision, made once, written down, and applied every time.

This is why the rule is the unit of design. To design is to decide, and a rule is a decision made and held. When you design a process, what you are actually doing, step by step, is making rules: deciding what is done, how, when, why, and by whom, and fixing each decision so it holds. A process is not designed in the abstract. It is designed one rule at a time. So the Designer's first move is not to draw a flow or sketch a system; it is to understand the rule, because the rule is what everything larger is built from.

The highest possible standard is to understand a rule as a prescribed statement, a decision made once and held, that settles what is allowed, required, prohibited, or expected, and to recognise it as the unit from which every process is designed.

Key Takeaway: A rule is a prescribed statement: it settles what is allowed, required, prohibited, or expected. It does not describe; it prescribes. A rule is a decision made once, written down, and applied every time, so the same situation always meets the same response without being reasoned out afresh. Because to design is to decide, the rule is the unit of design: a process is built one rule at a time, and the Designer's first move is to understand the rule.

A rule is a decision made once and held.
To design a process is to make its rules.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Rules · Discipline 1: A Rule · Section: What a rule is

MarvinPro | June 2026

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A rule lives in a process

A rule is not made for its own sake. It is made to govern a piece of work, and that work is a process. So a rule always sits inside a process: it is the prescribed way that some part of the work is done. Take the rule out of the process and it has nothing to govern. The rule and the process belong together, the rule the small thing, the process the whole it serves.

This matters for the Designer, because it means a rule is never designed in isolation. When an Owner decides that customers will be informed using a template, that decision lives inside a process, the process of handling a customer's case from start to finish. The rule governs one part of that work: how the customer is informed. It exists because the process needs that part done a certain way. A rule with no process around it is not a rule a Designer would make; it is a statement with nothing to bind. Every real rule answers a need that the process has.

So to design a rule well, you must see the process it serves. You ask what the work is, where this rule sits in it, and what the rule is there to secure. The rule that informs the customer is there to secure that every customer is told the same thing, the same way. Its place in the process, after the work is done, and its purpose, consistent communication, are what give the rule its shape. Design the rule by understanding the process it lives in, and the rule almost designs itself. Design it blind to the process, and it will not fit.

The highest possible standard is to design every rule as part of the process it serves, understanding the work, the rule's place in it, and what the rule is there to secure, so that the rule fits the process rather than standing apart from it.

Key Takeaway: A rule is made to govern a piece of work, and that work is a process, so a rule always lives inside a process as the prescribed way some part of the work is done. It is never designed in isolation: it exists because the process needs that part done a certain way. To design a rule well, see the process it serves, what the work is, where the rule sits, and what it secures, so the rule fits rather than stands apart.

A rule with no process around it has nothing to govern.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Rules · Discipline 1: A Rule · Section: A rule lives in a process

MarvinPro | June 2026

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A rule has five dimensions

A rule looks like a single statement, but it carries five things at once, and the Designer decides all five. They are the what, the how, the when, the why, and the who. The what is the action the rule concerns. The how is the way it must be done. The when is the point at which it happens. The why is the reason it exists. The who is the one it is for. Together these five are the whole of a rule, and to design a rule is to set each of them.

Take the rule that customers are informed using a template. The what is the action: inform the customer. The how is the way: use the template, so the same information goes out the same way, in the same tone. The when is the point: at a particular moment in the process, after the first contact, or once a part of the work is done, or when the work is complete. The why is the reason: so that every customer receives the same clear communication, not a different message from each person. The who is the one who does it: the team responsible for that point in the work. Five dimensions, one rule, each a decision the Designer makes.

Four of the five direct the work, the what, the how, the when, and the who tell what is done, how, at what point, and by whom. The fifth, the why, does not direct anyone; it explains. Yet it is not lesser for that. The why is set with the same care as the others, because a Designer, like a good leader, explains. A rule whose reason is known can be owned, defended, and changed safely; a rule whose reason is lost cannot. So all five dimensions are designed, and all five matter. The chapters that follow take each in turn.

The highest possible standard is to design a rule across all five of its dimensions, the what, the how, the when, the why, and the who, setting each with care, and treating the why as equal to the rest even though it explains rather than directs.

Key Takeaway: A rule carries five dimensions at once, and the Designer sets all five: the what (the action), the how (the way), the when (the point it happens), the why (the reason), and the who (the one it is for). Four direct the work; the fifth, the why, explains rather than directs, but is no less important, because a rule whose reason is known can be owned, defended, and changed, and one whose reason is lost cannot. All five are designed; all five matter.

A rule looks like one statement but carries five:
what, how, when, why, and who.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Rules · Discipline 1: A Rule · Section: A rule has five dimensions

MarvinPro | June 2026

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Rules call for rules

A rule rarely stands alone. Make one, and it calls for others. The rule that customers are informed using a template needs templates to exist, and that need is a rule of its own: someone must make them. That rule names who, the team that creates the templates, and that, in turn, calls for a rule on how they are asked for, and what happens if they are asked for badly. One decision draws others after it, until a small structure of rules stands where there was one.

This is the first sight of the book's larger truth. A process is not one rule but many, each calling for the next, fitted together. The rule to communicate by template sits at the centre of a small web: a rule that the templates are made, a rule for who makes them, a rule for how they are requested, a rule for when they must be ready, a rule for each message and the point it is sent. None of these stands on its own; each exists because another needs it. Follow the calls from one rule to the next, and you are tracing the shape of a process.

For the Designer, this is the work, and the warning. The work is that designing a rule means designing the rules it calls for, you do not finish with one decision; you follow it to the ones it requires. The warning is that a rule made without its companions is a rule that will fail in use, the template rule is empty if no rule makes the templates, names who, or says how to ask. To design one rule well is to design the small structure it belongs to. That structure, grown to its full size, is a process, which is where this book is going.

The highest possible standard is to design each rule together with the rules it calls for, following one decision to the others it requires, so that no rule stands without its companions and the small structure they form holds in use.

Key Takeaway: A rule rarely stands alone; making one calls for others. The rule to communicate by template needs rules for who makes the templates, how they are requested, and when they must be ready, each existing because another needs it. This is the first sight of the book's truth: a process is many rules, each calling for the next, fitted together. For the Designer, designing a rule means designing the rules it calls for, so no rule stands without its companions.

Make one rule and it calls for others, until a small structure stands where there was one. That structure, grown whole, is a process.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Rules · Discipline 1: A Rule · Section: Rules call for rules

MarvinPro | June 2026

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A real example

Within a process for handling customers' cases, an Owner made a rule: customers would be informed using email templates, so that everyone sent the same message, with the same information, in the same way, with the same tone. The rule was simple to state. It did not stand alone. It drew a structure of rules around it, and the structure is what made it work.

For any of it to happen, the templates had to exist, and that one need pulled a chain of rules behind it. The templates had to be written, so the Writing Team drafted them. They had to be right in every language the customers read, so they were translated. They had to be approved before anyone could use them, so each was signed off by the three who answer for it: Communication for the words, the Offer Owner for what is promised, and the Designer for the process. Once approved, they had to be reachable at the moment of sending, so they were loaded into the Systems, where a Performer could choose the right one, or the system could send it on its own. And all of it had to be ready before the Performers were trained, so they could be trained on the real thing. One rule, communicate by template, had become many: write them, translate them, sign them off three ways, load them into the Systems, have them ready before the training. None of the rules was idle. Remove any one and the rule above it fails. That is what it means to say a process is made of rules.

The Designer's task was not the single rule but the structure it called for.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Rules · Discipline 1: A Rule · A real example

MarvinPro | June 2026

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A rule

A rule is a prescribed statement: it settles what is allowed, required, prohibited, or expected. It does not describe; it prescribes. A rule is a decision made once, written down, and applied every time, so the same situation always meets the same response. Because to design is to decide, the rule is the unit of design, a process is built one rule at a time, and the Designer's first move is to understand the rule.

A rule never stands in the abstract. It lives inside a process, as the prescribed way some part of the work is done, and it exists because the process needs that part done a certain way. So a rule is designed by understanding the process it serves, the work, the rule's place in it, and what it secures, and a rule designed blind to its process will not fit. And a rule carries five dimensions at once, all of which the Designer sets: the what, the action; the how, the way; the when, the point it happens; the why, the reason; and the who, the one it is for. Four direct the work; the why explains, and is no less important, because a rule whose reason is known can be owned, defended, and changed, while one whose reason is lost cannot.

A rule rarely stands alone. Make one, and it calls for others, until a small structure of rules stands where there was a single decision. The rule to communicate by template called for rules for who makes the templates, how they are requested, and when they must be ready, each holding the others up. This is the first sight of the truth the whole book moves toward: a process is many rules, each calling for the next, fitted together. To design one rule well is to design the small structure it belongs to, and that structure, grown to full size, is a process.

You now know what a rule is. It is a prescribed statement, a decision made once and held; it lives inside a process and is designed by understanding that process; it carries five dimensions, what, how, when, why, and who, every one of them a decision you make; and it calls for other rules, drawing a structure around itself. With this, the unit of design is in your hands. The disciplines that follow take the five dimensions one at a time, so that you can design each with the care it deserves, and then build, from ruled steps, the whole of a process.

Know the rule, and you hold the unit from which every process is designed.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Rules · Discipline 1: A Rule · Chapter Outcome

MarvinPro | June 2026

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