In general, for any angle of rotation $\theta$ from the $x-$axis, we may apply the following change of variable to put a hyperbola in standard form:
$$x = x\cos\theta - y'\sin\theta$$ $$y = x'\sin\theta +y'\cos\theta.$$
Notice our hyperbola $xy = 1$ is rotated by an angle of $\frac{\pi}{4}$ from the $x-$axis.
Hence we let, $$x = \frac{x' - y'}{\sqrt{2}}$$ and $$y = \frac{x' + y'}{\sqrt{2}}.$$
So in standard form, we get
$$xy = \frac{x' - y'}{\sqrt{2}}\frac{x' + y'}{\sqrt{2}} = \frac{x'^2}{2} - \frac{y'^2}{2} = 1.$$