This notion of 3P- People, Process, Product is the key to business excellence. The right people, a robust process, and a good product make for a healthy business.
To maintain the performance of the company and take into account the notion of just-in-time, Lean Design created a method of the same name.
The 3P here stands for Production, Preparation, Process. The objective is to avoid stopping production chains by the unplanned arrival of raw materials. Therefore, this approach facilitates the integration of a new product into a production line by designing the product at the same time as its manufacturing process
It is also 3P – People Planet Profit, an expression used to designate the triple bottom line performance of companies; it corresponds to the three pillars of sustainable development: social (people), environmental or ecological (Planet), and economic (Profit).
2026 update
Originally written as an introduction to the 3P (Production, Preparation, Process) methodology, this article now resonates with a broader question explored in my recent work: how organisations intentionally design the way decisions are produced, coordinated and governed.
Beyond industrial excellence, 3P illustrates an early form of decision architecture, where product design, manufacturing constraints and organisational choices are aligned from the outset rather than optimised afterwards.
This perspective is further developed in my work on Decision Architecture in the age of AI.
3P- Principles
Preparation, Process Production is an adaptation corresponding to a three-dimensional model of Total Quality Management (TQM) where on each axis there are parameters to be improved and monitored which are: human resources, products, and processes. The latter being the key to control its production process- avoiding waste of any kind.
This approach will give birth to UX design, promoting co-design as proposed in the principle below:
- Simultaneous product and manufacturing process development
- The client establishes the design and quality requirements
- Quality is present in the process as much as in the product
- The production system is designed to meet demand, cycle time and cost targets
- The just-in-time philosophy is the basis of the 3P method
The principles are broken down into 3 distinct phases
- Information
- Creation
- Redefinition: from launch to product life cycle.
These 3 phases, in Lean management, are repeated in order to take into account continuous improvement.
Find out the best practices guide from A à Z
UX Design, Agile ?
The 3P method was used to define UX strategies by creating a link between analysis and planning as a guide to decision making.
In blue phase 1 Information, it is the challenge + phase 2 creation which takes into account the different elements of the need. In red, phase 3, redefinition of the process by taking into account the constraints and the measure of success.
The UX strategy blueprint is also available in design challenges and design sprints.
The Agillists adopted efficient methods to ensure the success of their product deployment. Just-in-time has become Time-to-market.
Although developed decades before the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, the principles behind 3P remain highly relevant. As AI becomes embedded into operational processes, organisations must design not only products and production systems, but also the decision architectures that connect people, data, processes and intelligent systems.
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