1. We build trust
This means trust based vulnerability. We admit mistakes. We disclose struggles. We ask for help. We ask for feedback. We take feedback well. We seek to understand before seeking to be understood. Communicate often and early. We hold ourselves accountable before anyone else has to.
2. We embrace conflict
Quality conflict is the lifeblood of our business. We must have the highest quality arguments in tech. Mine for conflict. If there is none, you can ask someone on the team to take the other side.
3. We don't give up and commit
The winner shouldn't be the person who has the most arguing stamina. If you can't make a decision, figure out who in the room is the best to decide, decide, disagree and commit.
4. We ALL drive team alignment
It is everyone's responsibility to create clarity and maintain it. What decisions did we make? What's most important today? Who is doing what? By when? This should be done at the right level of abstraction for the work. Constantly check in on alignment and fix if we get out of alignment. Misalignment is how businesses die. Lean into whatever tools are best for the task at hand but tools shouldn't be used to fix culture. (Shape up, agile, to do list, etc.)
5. We are obsessed with the customer
Be clear on how the customer will measure satisfaction. Understand what will drive this satisfaction and what won't. Demand clarity here before building anything.
6. We give behavioral and performance feedback publicly and often
Feedback is given nicely and with compassion. Positive feedback should be 5:1 negative. The positive feedback will create safe spaces for negative feedback to be given. Use blunt words/ don't spend too much time choosing your words but don't be degrading, ever. Never give behavior and performance feedback at the same time. Separate them with behavior always coming first. See how here.
7. We communicate, communicate, communicate
Communicate complex technical concepts in your area of expertise to people without your background so that they have a clear mental map. Communicate what you need to do great work. Communicate what you're feeling, if you're distracted, if you're happy, unhappy, whatever. We are people and we accept humanity. Check-in. Accept that you'll need to repeat yourself a lot as a leader.
8. We value "figuring things out" as much as we value "building"
We don't expect anyone to know all of the answers. We do have the humility to know what we don't know and we list our unknowns. That admission is a strength. When figuring things out, design experiments to learn and block time to research. Learning how something works is a great deliverable.
9. Empathic Perspective
Work hard to understand the perspectives of the different people in the system you're working on. This could be an internal team, a customer team, investors, etc.
10. We are Pirates
We question the status quo. We don't care that things have been done a certain way in the past. We love breaking the way things were done to find better ways.