I watched Jony Ive's interview and Karri Saarinen's talk. One word in particular caught my attention — Care. It's a fundamental principle that we surprisingly rarely mention when we talk about teamwork or design.

We throw around terms like revenue, metrics, data-driven, PLG, quality, vision, mission. But in reality, Care is the essence of our work. We strive to take care of people, and in return, we receive their gratitude. In that order.

I often think about beauty, aesthetics, and functionality, about their balance. Care transcends both beauty and functionality. It is a deep human motivation that gives birth to both function as a desire to help, and beauty as a desire to inspire or make human experience enjoyable.

A person who truly cares is like a hospitable host: they welcome, nourish, sustain, and delight their guests. They do everything to make them feel comfortable, warm, and cherished. In this way, they forge and maintain an important connection with these people, showing how truly valued they are.

Transferring this idea to business, we can say that our work is aimed at the same thing. We meet people, help them, reduce their anxiety and doubts, improve their lives, and in return receive sincere gratitude for this experience. This is the main ethical path.

It seems to me that a lot could change if, when working on any project, we first asked ourselves questions not about metrics and money, but looked at it from a different position:

• Is there care for the person who will interact with this?
• Are we really caring now, or are we just solving someone's technical problem?
• Will the person feel that someone cared about him, or will he feel manipulation and indifference?
• How much sincere care have we brought to people this month?
• How to make this project with care?

Of course, it may sound naive, like, business is not done that way. My opinion is different. A company will be in constant "survival mode" if its only value is the benefit it brings. Because benefit is a function, it is easy to copy. Even if it is a breakthrough technology, there will always be someone who will do the same, but perhaps cheaper or with more resources.

However, a business flourishes and gains loyal followers when its main value becomes Сare. Yes, you can and should still monitor profitability, conversion, and retention, it is just that the main key to decision-making becomes the thought of care. Then metrics will cease to dominate, and will take their modest and logical position as ordinary indicators of how successfully your care resonates with people and helps your business.