DESIGN EXCELLENCE IS A CHOICE OF EXCLUSION: THE “PIZZA HAWAII” RULE FOR DESIGN GOVERNANCE

Being an Italian expat is a bit of a laugh, but there’s one question that follows me like a bad hangover: “Luigi, mate, what’s the big deal with pineapple on pizza? Why can’t we just have it?” Most people think they’re asking about a topping, but for me, this is the ultimate entry point into the world of Design Governance. They’re asking why I care about Excellence. They’re asking why I have the bollocks to protect a standard when everyone else is happy to settle for a mess. To me, that pineapple isn’t just a fruit—it’s a direct threat to the very logic of how the design practice unlocks value.

INTRO

I tell the Pineapple Conspiracy Cult the same thing every time: it’s not about being a snob, it’s about Operational Integrity. A proper pizzeria doesn’t refuse pineapple because they’re elitist; they do it as a form of Design Governance because it wrecks the flow.

In the corporate world, it’s the same story: adding a rogue ingredient to a high-speed line isn’t a “tweak”—it’s a spanner in the works that kills delivery velocity. If teams start making “everything for everyone,” the entire Design Governance framework fails, and design loses its real job: acting as the Operating System that enables organisations to deliver business value without tripping over each other.

“Design is not for philosophy, it’s for life.”

— Issey Miyake

If design teams are nodding along, they’re not preparing an excellent pizza—they’re introducing a mess into the pipeline. To avoid that, teams need time and space to dig into where those requests actually come from. By applying strict Design Governance, the design practice can protect the brand’s DNA and ensure the entire product ecosystem doesn’t burn out tomorrow just because someone is chasing a fad today. That’s how I keep design effective and sustainable.

Anything else is just noise.

Why Design Governance Fails Without Operational Readiness. Don’t Open a Michelin-Star Kitchen for a Pop-up Stall.

I’ve seen it a thousand times: designers acting like they’re running a three-Michelin-star kitchen when their organisation hasn’t even mastered boiling an egg. To me, that’s not being “visionary”; it’s being delusional. You don’t buy a £50k wood-fired oven if the team hasn’t got the Operational Readiness to knead the dough. That’s a total failure of the Design Governance strategy.

Real investment in sustainability isn’t about the shiniest tools; it’s about building a governance model aligned with the firm’s digital maturity. That model ensures the kitchen can actually handle the heat as the guest room scales up.

Scaling Design Governance for Real Business Value and the “No” That Actually Makes Sense for the Money.

My vision of the design practice is simple: enable the business strategy. Through this lens, I look into any request based on its impact in the short-, mid-, and long-term.

I may sound like a snob, but I’m looking at the bottom line. If a “Pizza Hawaii” feature is going to wreck the system’s scalability, it’s not a design debate—it’s a Technical Tax the business will pay in the long run. Within a solid Design Governance structure, that request is tagged as a bad business move. Period.

Every bespoke, dodgy component slows down every other chef in the kitchen. Teams must bring the receipts to the table and show stakeholders that, without Design Governance, they’re just burning cash and hurting their Global Velocity.

Conclusion

So, next time you’re about to drop a ‘pineapple request’ into your Design System, ask yourself: are you building a legacy through Design Governance or just making a mess of the kitchen?
I’m sticking to the Margherita—it’s cleaner, faster, and it actually works. But hey, if you fancy a debate on why your ‘technical tax’ is skyrocketing, my door is always open. Just don’t bring the fruit, yeah?

The stratospheric stuff I should have read or watched a long time ago

Rumelt, R. (2011). Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters.
Kholmatova, A. (2017). Design Systems: A practical guide to creating design languages.
Westerman, G., et al. (2014). Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation.
Gallagher, L. (2024). As You Were