Since the majority of Dwarves Foundation employees work in Saigon, this section is written with that as the default. Some benefits don’t make sense in other countries. We will try our best to provide comparable benefits and perks as it makes sense, though.

### Continuing Education Allowance

You will always grow by learning and playing with new and cool technologies. From books to conferences, you’ll get a yearly budget for your individual learning and development goals.

If you’re interested in taking classes that you feel improve you professionally or personally, you have a $300 annual stipend to do so. Some people take courses directly related to their career, while some take photography lessons or learn a musical instrument. It’s up to you; the point is to learn something that you feel enriches you as a person and employee.

### Conference

In the case of conferences, the company will pay 50% of all expenses for approved job-related conferences and seminars. If you’re speaking at the conference, we’ll pay 100% of the expenses.

To get approval to attend a conference, submit a request to the Admin. In your request, provide as much detail as possible about the dates of the conference, your total expected out of office time, the costs of attending, the benefits expected to be gained by attending, any potential disruption to client work, etc.

### Commission

The company will pay a commission on revenues it receives from each project which the employee procures. The commission will consist of 5% of the gross revenues for any sales. This may be split amongst multiple sales-people. A project does not have to have a sales-person.

### Coworking Space

If working from home or a coffee shop doesn’t suit you, then trying a coworking space might do the trick. We support a $50/month stipend towards a desk in such a place in your city. Just make sure you’re using a true coworking space that’s meant solely for working, not a club or social space.

### Remote Working

We encourage the team to work remotely. We want to build amazing things with autonomy, self-direction, and a healthy work-life balance. We offer flexible work schedules for all of our employees and unlimited PTO. We also believe that if a job allows for it, you should work wherever you are happiest.

It's also important to note this privilege is on a case-by-case basis and you need the approval from the lead.

### Healthcare

We provide comprehensive medical and life insurance for our full-time members. We want to make sure that you don't have to worry about your life and contributing to things that matter. By default, we pay for the default package as provided by Vietnam regulation. If you are in need to upgrade the insurance package, you can talk to the Admin.

### No Office Traps

We don't offer things like Foosball tables, catered meals in the office, and other “perks” designed to keep you at work for all of your waking hours. We were hoping you could put in 8 quality hours then go live your life, rest, and recharge so you can come back fresh to do it again.

### Investment Time

On Fridays, we work to make ourselves, the company and our community better by learning new tools and techniques, working on open source, blogging, creating new products, volunteering our time, and more.
The more you contribute, the more bonus you get up to no limits.

### Expense

The company will pay for any work-related expenses, such as software, or office supplies. If you have any doubts about whether or not to expense something, just ask. When you do buy something, get a receipt. Take a photo of that receipt, and send the photo to the Admin at <operation@d.foundation> for the reimbursements via the paycheck.

### Employee Liquidity Pool

If Dwarves Foundation is ever sold or part of an IPO, tenured employees will be eligible to receive a portion of 5% of the value of the company. That 5% would be divided into units, based on the number of employees we have at the time. People who were at Dwarves Foundation for less than 1 year would receive 0 units, someone employed 1 year would receive 1 unit, and so on, until you’re fully vested at 5 years for 5 units.

### Employee Stock Option Plan

If you don’t want to be just tenured employees, you can own the company. As part of the package, being the significant contributors will give you the right to buy a certain amount of company shares at a predetermined price. We will discuss on a case-by-case basis.

### Employee Referral Bonus

We usually hire and to keep the quality bar, the Dwarves are encouraged to recommend friends that you think they match with the team. We believe your suggestions should be helpful as you have to know the person.

The company will pay a one month salary as a referral bonus to any employee who refers an applicant to our company who is hired by the company to a full-time position. The bonus is paid upon completion of the newly hired employee’s first 90 days of employment. The referring employee must still be employed with the company at the time the bonus is to be given.

### Flexible Working Days

For a variety of reasons, people may choose to work fewer days per week than the usual Monday to Friday. It’s not encouraging but wherever possible we aim to enable this. Your paycheck and any bonus will be pro-rated as a percentage of a five day week. For example, if you opt to work 4 out of 5 days, your salary and any bonus would be reduced by 20%.

Please provide as much notice as you are able. Ideally two months or more for a change to your working patterns. It allows us to ensure that deliveries are resourced appropriately. As per our remote working policy, we encourage Fridays to be spent in the office wherever possible.

### Flexible Working Hours

We care about the quality of the work we produce rather than the number of hours worked.

We do not have a specific start time. Likewise, there isn’t a time we expect everyone to leave the office. However we do have several meetings among the company, so you should get into the office or dial in before that time. We need to respect the team and our commitments so if we have a meeting booked for a certain time you are expected to be accommodating.

It's also important to note this privilege is on a case-by-case basis and you need the approval from the lead. It’s worth noting most of our employment contracts with staff do in fact have set contractual hours. This is so we can withdraw this privilege if necessary.

For some people that prefer to have a fixed working schedule, we recommend to start at 8 am and end at 5 pm.

### Paid Time Off

Dwarves Foundation offers two weeks of paid vacation, a few extra personal days to use at your discretion, and the official national holidays every year. This is a guideline, so if you need a couple of extra days, no problem. We don’t track your days off; we use the honor system. Just make sure to check with your team before taking an extended absence, so they’re not left in the lurch.

We don’t track sick days either. If you’re under the weather, take the time you need to feel better. We recognize, too, that your mental health is just as important as your physical health. Consider taking a mental health day every now and again when you’re feeling overwhelmed or mentally fatigued.

### Short-term Disability

On top of Paid Time Off, the company offers a self-funded short-term disability (STD) plan to all its employees. If you fall ill or injure yourself and are unable to work because of it, let us know, and you can take 30 days off at 75% pay. If after that, you’re still unable to work, the STD policy kicks in, and you’ll continue to earn 50% of your pay until you’re better, up to 3 months off. These days are an emergency reserve, in addition to your vacation/sick time described above. If after this period, you still cannot work, talk to your manager, An, or Han, and we will discuss what comes next on a case-by-case basis.

### Sabbatical

Every three years, employees are eligible to take a one-month-long paid sabbatical. Just give a heads-up preferably three months in advance so that we can coordinate the work-load accordingly.

### Parental Leave

When you welcome a new child, we encourage you to take up to 16 weeks leave for primary caregivers and up to 2 weeks of discontinuity leave as a secondary caregiver at 100% paid salary. You may also choose to take an additional eight weeks to leave unpaid.

Since the majority of Dwarves Foundation employees work in Saigon, this section is written with that as the default. Some benefits don’t make sense in other countries. We will try our best to provide comparable benefits and perks as it makes sense, though.

Benefits And Perks

## Towards growth
Keep learning and growing. We started this team out of software practice advancement. The continuous study lays the foundation for the future growth. Just like software, knowledge must evolve and be useful. We collect the lesson learned and input into our [**team knowledge base**](https://github.com/dwarvesf/brain).

## Purpose-built
Everything we do comes with **[the purpose behind]().** Good software is software that works and provide actual value. Effort is count when it's placed on things that matter.

They are apps and systems for mass market. But they can also be a custom script to automate the build pipeline; a website for a non-profit organization, or an open source desktop app.

## Effective > Productive
We try to work on things that create the most value possible in a certain amount of time. Know your priority and do things that matter.

Being productive is about occupying your time—filling your schedule to the brim and getting as much done as you can.

Being effective is about finding more of your time unoccupied and open for other things besides work. We don't believe in busyness. We believe in effectiveness.

## Keep it simple
| | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| So everyone could understand. Going simple makes everyone easy to follow. Take boring solutions and legacy tooling. Use simple words rather than Cambridge-based synonyms. After all, what's important is the problem was solved, not what fancy tool we picked. Shiny toys can cloud our judgement. Sometimes, simple is harder than complex. | ![](assets/culture-handbook.webp) |

## Go the extra mile
Try to do more than what required to do. Make the 5% impossible possible.

Spend a bit extra effort. Little things count. How you approach. How you solve or react to it. You'll be amazed by how effective it becomes by [going extra](https://memo.d.foundation/Go-the-extra-mile-4f4051d924444c62bb309cc4864b40df).

Software gets updated to bring a better experience. That should applies in everything else. Every time you look back on your work, there should be something to improve.

## Think long-term
Making any kind of actions, we think about the long-term effects. Every decision we make today can lead to an impact in the future. The technology we endorse, the solution we choose to solve the problem; The founder we backed, the startup we invest into; The people we work with, the way we handle the customers. It also includes how we talk about ourselves, the attitude toward peers.

## Pay it forward
Give before you get. We foster a place for collaboration and productivity, a pay-it-forward chain is vital. It's about passing on wisdom and taking the time to engage in valuable grasp for the less-experienced one.

It creates a culture of mentoring and ensures we're all moving forward.

## Bond through goals
We move toward mutual goal. Having a share sense in goal drives us closer to success without distraction.

Though the execution methods might be different, a consensus in goal will synchronize the output and get things done seamlessly.

## Value the difference
Having multiple authenticity and the will to do right things helps us see differently with fisheye views.

It gives us more on what we currently know. We trust on that to diversify the team in knowledge base and social experience.

## Making decision as team
The skillset is essential, but it isn't as important as vision and coordination.

It's ok to know more, but it's better to learn more. Everyone has something that they could improve upon, including yourself.

Be supportive and values every decision as long as it contributes to the team benefit.

## Thoughts on software
Software is continuously changing the world. It's the tunnel to the future. One of our bet is on the Web3, the Open Internet and the next gen automation software using AI and Big Data.

That's happening and will continue to impact the entire world for the next 10 years. And with that believe, we want to be a one that construct the next future of things.

## Engineering discipline
Software engineering is about collaboration. It is what happens to programming when you add time and other programmers.

**Discipline is required** to follow the flow. Not applying software engineering methods results in more expensive, less reliable software, and it can be vital in the long term.

Keep learning and growing. We started this team out of software practice advancement.

Culture Handbook


Hiring means we need help. We only hire people who tell us what to do, not the other way around. We always look for long-term teammates that why we want to ensure the new hire is a value fit and culture fit.

### Rounds

Several Dwarves will talk to the candidates to walk them through 4 rounds

* Pre-assessment: We evaluate the logic, English, and the personalities in non-interrupted 30 minutes online test.
* Assignment: Its objective is to gauge the candidate skills, give them an idea of how they approach tasks relevant to the job and provide us with some talking points.
* Interview: In the 60-minute interview, the candidates would know more about Dwarves working style & philosophy, and impress us with their background and skills.
* Culture: This is an occasion for the team to learn more about the candidates in a casual way.

### We hire the manager of one

What’s that mean? A manager of one is someone who comes up with their own goals and executes them. They don’t need heavy direction. They don’t require daily check-ins. They do what a manager would do — set the tone, assign items, determine what needs to get done, etc. — but they do it by themselves and for themselves.
These people free you from oversight. They set their direction. When you leave them alone, they surprise you with how much they’ve gotten done. They don’t need a lot of handholding or supervision.

How can you spot these people? Look at their history. Have they been self-sufficient at previous jobs? Have they defined their role before? Have they started their own site/company before? Or done their own thing in some other way? Find someone with initiative and a budding entrepreneurial spirit. And then nurture it.
You want someone who’s capable of building something from scratch and seeing it through. When you find these people, it frees up the rest of your team to work more and manage less.

### Sideway Program

There are also two other programs that we hold bi-yearly in Spring and Summer.

* The Internship program is for students with or without Engineering background from top universities.
* The Apprenticeships are six-month paid career development programs for people with non-traditional technical backgrounds from underrepresented groups in tech.

Those programs were designed with the purpose to give an opportunity for candidates to experience the real world projects. No coffee runs. We love watching talented people learn and explore their skills.

![](assets/how-we-hire_internship-1.webp)

### Referral

We usually hire and to keep the quality bar the Dwarves are encouraged to recommend friends that you think they match with the team. We think your suggestions should be helpful as you have to know the person.

We also want to spend the bonus on you rather than the headhunting agency. The company will pay a one month salary as a referral bonus to any employee who refers an applicant to our company who is hired by the company to a full-time position. The bonus is paid upon completion of the newly hired employee’s first 90 days of employment. The referring employee must still be employed with the company at the time the bonus is to be given.


Hiring means we need help. We only hire people who tell us what to do, not the other way around. We always look for long-term teammates that why we want to ensure the new hire is a value fit and culture fit.

How we hire


### We do Agile

We build software. The way we see it is a collaboration between multiple people in the team with sufficient knowledge on the domain and clearly understand the project vision that they can quickly adapt to the changes in the market. We adopt the Agile philosophy at this level.

Also, based on that philosophy, we apply the Scrum framework, which we find out a good fit for us. There are no specific roles in the team at the beginning. There is only the team member who has autonomy and responsibility to meet the goals of the sprint. And there is the Scrum master who is the team member turning into a coach. He works to remove any impediments that are obstructing the team from achieving its sprint goals. The role was supposed to be temporary. A mature team doesn’t need a permanent coach.

### Cycles

We work in an 8-week cycle at Dwarves Foundation. There are typically six cycles to a year. This fixed cadence serves to give us an internal sense of urgency, work as a scope hammer to keep projects from ballooning and provide a regular interval to decide what we’re working on.

The idea is not that everything we ever decide to work on has to take eight weeks or can be completed in that time. However, rather that we think about how we can break big projects into smaller ones that can be done in that amount of time, and that we bundle smaller things into a presentable scope of work that can be discussed.

A budget thus limits work, and the budget focuses our discussion about what’s reasonable and what’s not. When a project starts slipping on its budget, the first approach should be to scope hammer the domain – and certainly not make it up by working more hours! Most things we work on can fit within eight weeks.

### Cooldown

In between each cycle, we spend a week cooling down. That’s the time to deal with various backlogs or bug smashes, writing up what we worked on, and figuring out what we should tackle next. It’s some times tempting to add cooldown onto the end of the cycles, as a way to fit in more work. However, the goal is to resist this temptation. Yes, sometimes a little spill-over will happen, but it’s helpful to think about the end of the normal cycle as “pencils down.” That means that by week 4 of a normal cycle, we should be winding down, getting ready to launch, make sure QA is lined up, and all the other work that happens during and after the launch of new projects.

### Meeting

All the meetings could be found on Basecamp Schedule.

#### All-hands meeting

The all-hands meeting happens at the end of every cycle. The Dwarves look back and decide what to do next.

#### Team meeting

At the same time, you are a member of either Programmer, Designer, Operation or Business team. We have a team meeting on the last Friday of the month to sit down together. This is the guideline so if in any particular circumstances the team lead can require to adjust the number of meetings.

#### Project meeting

Every project has its meeting schedule. It should follow the company Cycles and Scrum guideline with at least Sprint Planning Meeting and Sprint Retrospective Meeting.

### Communication

It’s hard to keep up on what everyone is doing and what it means if you just watch the stream of latest activity scrolling along in Basecamp. (It’s also a waste of time and source of stress to even try.) Instead, we have four chief mechanisms for keeping everyone in the loop about the work that’s going on.

First, there’s the daily question of What did you work on today?, which supplies the nitty gritty details, but as a personal narrative. They’re a great conversation starter if you see someone working on something you either care about or want to learn more about. Please do use them as such! You’re obliged to answer this question at least twice a week when you’re not out.

Second, there’s the weekly question of What will you be working on this week?, which details your intentions for the coming week. Everyone is obliged to answer this question when they’re not out.

Third, there are heartbeats. These are the team versions of What did you work on this cycle? This is where we summarize and celebrate the work that’s been done. Every team lead is obliged to write or designate someone on the team to write, this account one week after a cycle has ended.

Fourth, and finally, there are the kickoffs. These are the team version of What are you going to work on the next cycle? This is where the plan for the coming eight weeks is presented. Every team lead is obliged to write or designate someone on the team to write, this account before the start of the new cycle.

These mechanisms work together to free individuals and teams to run their days and cycles with confidence and independence. We have six opportunities per year to make big decisions about what to work on, and the rest of the time should chiefly be spent carrying out those short-term plans. By having clear expectations for communication, it’s easier for everyone to build trust in where we’re going and why.

### Pitches

Whether you work on product development or not, your voice and observations can help determine what we should be working on. The way to exert this influence is through pitches.

**Write-up your idea of a new thing, an issue in daily work**, a change to a feature, or any other product development you think we should be considered as a fully considered post (the more specific, the better). This gives the whole company a chance to consider and respond to the idea, and then we’ll have the idea encapsulated in a post, available for reference at any time.

There’ll always be more pitches than we have time to field, though. So it’s important to have realistic expectations about what will happen after you posted your pitch. The default is simply that everyone involved with product development (and probably most everyone else in the company) will read and consider your pitch. That’s a win right there. Even if the full pitch doesn’t make it in, it can impact other product decisions by shining light on a weak point.

Han and An is the team evaluating pitches for inclusion in the next cycle. Before the start of every cycle.

### Raising an Issue

From time to time people may have problems or concerns about their colleagues, customers, company leadership, work environment and so forth. We want everyone in the team to be empowered to raise an issue and have it dealt with swiftly and fairly.

* Have a conversation with the person involved: The first thing you can do, if you feel comfortable and able, raises the issue directly with the person concerned. This direct and informal approach is encouraged, and we expect your colleagues who are approached responsibly to respond similarly. This approach may be particularly appropriate in dealing with matters of speech and expression, where individuals may not be aware that their behavior is causing distress.

* Ask a colleague to intervene on your behalf: You may ask a colleague or leader to intervene informally on your behalf. In some situations, you may not feel able to approach the person or people involved directly and so going via a third party to raise your concern for you informally is another option available to you.
In particular, if you have a grievance with a leader and feel unable to raise it directly, you should raise this issue either with another leader or with a colleague who can raise it with a leader for you.

If they can’t help to resolve, you can talk to Han.

### With managers of one

Managing at Dwarves Foundation is a part-time occupation, next to being involved with doing the work itself. This means we rely on everyone at Dwarves Foundation to do a lot of self-management. People who do this well qualify as [managers of one](https://signalvnoise.com/posts/1430-hire-managers-of-one), and we strive for every one senior or above to embody this principle fully.

That means setting your direction when one isn’t given. Determining what needs to be done, and doing it, without waiting for someone to tell you to. A manager of one will spend their time well when left to their own devices. There’s always more work to be done, always more initiatives to kick off, always more improvement to be had.

### A typical working day

* 9 am Monday, there is an Operation meeting between the head of all the team. They check up the status and list out what they need to do this week. Basecamp sends out the Digest email about recent activities. Basecamp start questioning “What will you be working on this week?”

* 10 am Monday, there are several Sprint Planning meetings to get people on the ground if it is the first Monday of the sprint. People start working.
* 12 pm, lunchtime and take a short break to 1 pm.
* 3 pm Friday, the team close the sprint to do Retrospective meeting if it’s the last Friday of the sprint.
* 4 pm Friday, there are several team meetings of Engineer and Design team if it’s the last Friday of the month.
* 5 pm, Basecamp start questioning “What did you work on today?”
* 6 pm, the Dwarves leave the office.

### Remote

With the deep understanding that Work-Life balance is the real deal. We decided to pick this style of remote working as a primary way to work for the whole company. And everyone can choose to follow it or not. It’s optional but highly recommended.

We believe that a happy person can deliver 10x quality output compared to others. You cannot stay in the room all the time and can be creative at the same time. People should have the right to use the time of their own and to work anywhere as long as it does not violate the company values.

 > We don’t want to manage your chairs.

We encourage the team to work remotely. We want our Dwarves to wake up at 7 am on the beach, grab a coffee and start doing the job that they love. Or spending the day in a coffee shop downtown to be more socialized. Or take their time to breathe the fresh air in Da Lat or Chiang Mai. Or the Dwarves can choose to stay at home with their kids at the cozy working corner to enjoy the alone-zone, best zone to focus and get things done.

![](assets/how-we-work_remote-1.webp)

It's also important to note this privilege is on a case-by-case basis and you need the approval from the lead.

### We head toward craftsmanship

Software Craftsmanship is all about putting responsibility, professionalism, pragmatism and pride back into software development.

Craftsmanship is not enough to guarantee the success of a project but the lack of it can be the main cause of its failure.


How we work

> We're like-minded teammates who pursue ambitious goals with tech culture and codes of conduct.

## Build a place we love to work at
We build this company like we build a product. There are roadmaps for growth; there are phases; there are iterations. There might also be bugs, places where the company crashes because of bad organizational design, or cultural oversights.

That means we advocate for changes. Changes always start with making our people better.

<div class="fixed-layout-table">

| | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **[Education Allowance](https://github.com/dwarvesf/handbook/blob/master/benefits-and-perks.md#continuing-education-allowance-cea)** Annual budget for learning and development goals. | **[Referral Bonus](https://github.com/dwarvesf/handbook/blob/master/benefits-and-perks.md#employee-referral-bonus)** Sponsorship to recommend peeps that fit the team. |
| **[Work Gear Supplies](https://github.com/dwarvesf/handbook/blob/master/benefits-and-perks.md#work-supplies-expense)** Team fund to back you up for work-related expenses, such as work gears or subscriptions. | **[Travel Support](https://github.com/dwarvesf/handbook/blob/master/benefits-and-perks.md#flight-tickets-to-dwarves-hubs)** Annual travel package to Dwarves Hubs across the country. |
| **Learning Sponsorship** Monthly pool for internal & external input in the team’s knowledge hub. | **[Healthcare Package](https://github.com/dwarvesf/handbook/blob/master/benefits-and-perks.md#annual-healthcare)** Annual Bao Minh Insurance for overall & specialized healthcare check ups. |

</div>

> And other exclusive company support, as in [Dwarves Benefits & Perks]().

## Foster a learning culture
We take learning as the north-star metric. At Dwarves, we value you not only for the projects that you do for the company but also for how you strive to grow yourself. Learning at Dwarves takes place in all formats.

<div class="fixed-layout-table">

| | |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **[Radio Talks](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_SyzGLf6wiqctQFsRI_frw)** Weekly sharing on practices, new findings & demos. | [**Dwarves Memo**](https://memo.d.foundation/Data-Analyst-in-Retail-Trading-e92fe7d046a548d782ddec4fac57f61e) Practice sharing, real-case demos & key takeaways. |
| **[Dwarves Brainery](http://brain.d.foundation/)** All-in-one knowledge source for Dwarves and friends. | **Lecturer Training** Occasional training from university lecturers to reinforce working style & engineering mindset. |
| **[Tech Event](https://open.spotify.com/show/7iHr4TuMBhc2LZhLn0YFoI?si=be4abf7312fe44e1&nd=1)** Monthly sit with Vietnam tech talents for global real-world experiences. | **#TIL Channels** Jotted down channels for daily news & tips sharing. |

</div>

 

<div class="fixed-layout-table">

| | | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ![](assets/life-at-dwarves-20231205141750056.webp) | ![](assets/life-at-dwarves-20231205141816806.webp) | ![](assets/life-at-dwarves-20231205141835285.webp) |
| [Nam Nguyen: Keep pushing oneself towards the goal]() | [My Anh: From Data to Backend, an apprentice sharing]() | [Hieu Vu: Python, Java or NodeJS? Golang!]() |

</div>

## Get things done in style
We proudly ship out challenging products with the support from top-notch technology, latest toolings and frameworks. We apply Agile methodology at scale. The development phase is run in sprints, and V-model testing is applied simultaneously. Our [Dwarves Playbook](https://github.com/dwarvesf/playbook) contains teamwork ethics, engineering principles and other protocols we play by.

<div class="fixed-layout-table">

| | | | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **[Product Design](https://github.com/dwarvesf/playbook#product-design)** - [Design Sprint]() - [AARRR Framework]() - [UX Research]() - [The Design System]() | [**Production**](https://github.com/dwarvesf/playbook#production) - [Logging]() - [Monitoring]() - [Production Checklist]() - [Handover Checklist]() | [**Business**](https://github.com/dwarvesf/playbook#business) - [Overall Process]() - [Fixed Budget, Scope Controlled]() - [Collaboration Guideline]() | [**Developing**](https://github.com/dwarvesf/playbook#developing) - [Setup](https://github.com/dwarvesf/playbook#setup) - [Practices](https://github.com/dwarvesf/playbook#practices) - [Platforms](https://github.com/dwarvesf/playbook#platforms) |

</div>

![](assets/life-at-dwarves-20231205142525518.webp)

## Community support
Driven to turn what we know into impactful products & insights for community support. Over the past few years, the Dwarves has participated in countless campaigns and become the sponsor of different tech communities.

<div class="fixed-layout-table">

| | | | |
| ------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------ |
| **[Golang Vietnam](https://golang.org.vn/)** | **[WeBuild Community](https://webuild.community/)** | **[Techie Story](http://techiestory.co/)** | **[Startup.vn](https://startup.vn/)** |
| ![](assets/life-at-dwarves-20231205142616589.webp) | ![](assets/life-at-dwarves-20231205142625014.webp) | ![](assets/life-at-dwarves-20231205142630563.webp) | ![](assets/life-at-dwarves-20231205142634406.webp) |

</div>

We build this company like we build a product. There are roadmaps for growth; there are phases; there are iterations. There might also be bugs, places where the company crashes because of bad organizational design, or cultural oversights.

Life at Dwarves


The average tenure of employees working at many technology companies today is shockingly low. At both Amazon, Google and other companies, it’s [just around one year](http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/career-management/tech-companies-have-highest-turnover-rate/). At Dwarves Foundation, it’s just around three years as of late 2018. That’s something to be proud of, and something to ensure endures. When you work at Dwarves Foundation, it should be feasible to think about this as the place for making a life-long career.

## Mastery & Titles

Advancing your career at Dwarves Foundation doesn’t mean giving up on your craft and moving into “management.” Whether you work in programming, design, ops, support, or whatever, you can become better at the work itself and level-up that way. This is especially important since we’re a relatively small company with just two layers of managerial cake: executives and team heads. And both the executives and heads still spend the majority of their time doing actual work themselves as well.

We’ve mapped our trajectory of mastery to *six different levels*. That title structure is shared amongst all departments, but the particulars of what characterizes one level from another will, of course, be different. Here’s an example of the titles for programming:

* Fresh Programmer
* Junior Programmer
* Programmer
* Senior Programmer
* Lead Programmer
* Principal Programmer

While this is how we recognize mastery, it’s by no means an expectation that everyone will start as a junior and end up as a principal. We need people and perspectives from all levels of skill. Also, for those who do end up progressing all the way through this path, it may well be a journey of many, many years, if not a decade+.

However, these titles make it clear to everyone where someone is in their career progression at Dwarves Foundation. Note that these titles are about a particular role *at Dwarves Foundation*. Someone may well have been a “Senior Designer” somewhere else with different assessment criteria and a different workflow, and then still start at Dwarves Foundation as a “Designer.” We recognize mastery and titles at Dwarves Foundation for the work done at Dwarves Foundation.

Day to day, though, these titles aren’t much of a factor. However, they do give newcomers another way of orienting themselves at the company, and it gives everyone a clear idea of tracking their career progression.

You can see the specific titles and proficiencies expected for: [Programmers](/), [Designers](/), [Business](/).

## Salary & Promotion

You get the paycheck on the 1st or the 15th of the month depend on your joined day.

Everyone in the same role at the same level is paid the same at Dwarves Foundation. When someone gets a promotion, that goes from one level to the next, they’ll get a corresponding pay raise Mar 1st as well.

The payroll fund is always reversed at 50% of total revenue. We always try to pays at the top 20% for our industry salary levels. The comparison data is provided by market research company, e.g., Adecco in Vietnam, that polls compensation data from all the major companies in our industry and plenty of our smaller peers as well. 

The data is reviewed once per year at the end of January. If it’s warranted, that is if the market rates have gone up, we’ll increase pay on Mar 1st to follow suit. We don’t decrease payment, even if the market rates may have dropped. If that happens, we’ll hold them steady until they come up again.

Payroll is run by An, and Han does the transfer. If you’ve got a query on your salary, you can talk to An.

## Performance Review

We perform bi-yearly reviews in July and January. Everyone who has been with the company at least 90 days and completed the [IDP batch](how-we-work.md#idp) gets a review. The primary purpose of these reviews is to give feedback on career path advancement and recognize accomplishments. We wrap up our January reviews in time to make promotion related pay adjustments effective January 1st. We follow a simple process:

* Everyone writes up a 1-2 page summary and sends it to the head of their team.
* The head of your team reviews your summary and prepares their thoughts.  He schedules a one-hour meeting to discuss.

The head of your team will reach out to you when it’s time for you to write up your review. Of course, you can (and should) ask for feedback as often as you’d like it. The Performance Indicator is usually the summary of *Responsible, Teamwork and Mastery.*


Advancing your career at Dwarves Foundation doesn’t mean giving up on your craft and moving into “management.” Whether you work in programming, design, ops, support, or whatever, you can become better at the work itself and level-up that way.

Making a career

## Aim for Quality

Quality exists in every piece of work. We thrive to deliver the best because we can.

| | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Well-crafted Software** We humbly imply our expertise and experience into well-crafted software. We take pride in high quality products and perfect solution. We can't stand preventable defects. | **Quality Pays** Quality outweighs everything else. Once it isn't managed, the entire project goes down as well. Crafting solid software requires time, efforts, disciplines and proper methods. |
| **Mind the Details** We believe small details equate to big success. Attention to details makes all the differences since it navigates and finetune all the mini bugs. | **The Boring Solution** When in doubt, go with the boring solution. It's about solving the problem. Opt for a basic method that removes people from complexity. |
| **Create Solution That Lasts** Software moves fast. New tech exists everyday. What you use today might deprecate tomorrow. But before any adoption, make sure it brings actual values over the existing solutions. | **Applications Needs Solid Foundations** Good software relies on a solid foundation. A product doesn't stop when it's launched, it starts when it launches. Either it's the maintenance or extensions, the foundation is vital. |

## Engineering-Driven

We build a place where software engineering changes the world for the better.

| | | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Systematic Discipline** We build software that lasts. It comes with systematic approaches, gained experience, engineering discipline, and the cost to make it maintainable. | **We're Not Commodities** Software is an artisanship. And engineering team is the vital factor to make it successful. Engineers bring value through solutions. That makes them aren't replaceable. | **The Best Idea Wins** We hire people for diversified perspectives. We’re constantly improve what we work. All voices are equal. If your idea makes the most sense, that’s what we’ll do. |

## Agile Minifesto

We've keep uncovering better ways to develop software. We came to our version of Agile Minifesto.

**Running Lean**

Extra processes, paperwork and redundant features are waste. Roadblock are waste. Everything not adding values are waste. Recognize the waste, and eliminate it.

**Constantly Delivery**

Make it work. First do it, then do it right, then do it better. The sooner we deliver, the sooner feedback can be received. That's how things evolve with enhancements.

**Towards Simplicity**

When things get hard, go simply. It's even harder than complex. We write code for humans not machines. We want readability. Readable means Reliable. It's understandable, workable, and maintainable.

**Effective > Productive**

Productivity is filling your schedule & getting as much done as you can. It's busyness and we don't trust that. Effectiveness is better. It's finding more of unoccupied time and open for other things besides work. Know your priority. Do things that matter.

**Fail Fast, Learn Often**

Evaluate your work constantly. Start again if you have to. Starting from scratch lets innovation comes organically inspired by previous experiences. Evaluate your work constantly.

## Agile at Dwarves

| | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Continuous Improvement** - Story, Planning, Sprint - Daily Standup - Retrospective | **Lean Thinking** - People first - Value-oriented - Eliminating waste |
| **Delivery Pipeline** - Continuous Exploration - Continuous Integration - Continuous Deployment | **Highlight Innovation** - Empower creativity - Validate with customers - Pivot without mercy or guilt |

Quality exists in every piece of work. We thrive to deliver the best because we can.

The Manifesto


## Empower Innovation with Software Craftsmanship

Innovation happens. There are many startups found and raise fund every day. They focus on making significant positive changes, impact millions of people, lead to breakthroughs and support the foundation of economic growth.

Building an innovation startup requires lots of different things, and it is tough. Most of them have to deal with business development, legal, fundraising, team recruitment, and product development at the same time. Tech startups need to move fast and break things.

At some points, growing a startup needs a strong and experienced team behind. The software team that can help to design the system, design the database, produce the well-crafted software, keep the system stable, avoid the technical debt and deliver values is one of the critical pieces to solve the puzzle.

Another motivation for Dwarves Foundation was the lack of respect that service firms receive. Most software companies out there focus on digital transformation and consultancy. The nature of the business with a tight deadline and budget force them to do tricks. They hit and run. The codebase and software they produced are full of crap, and it damages our pride.

**This is where Dwarves Foundation comes in.**

Despite the fact that service firms scale linearly, their ultimate size is capped and small, they don’t have life-changing exits for their founders, we start Dwarves Foundation as we want to build things right. I’ve always felt that companies like Dwarves Foundation are more important to the economy than the mildly pejorative phrase used to describe them.

**Dwarves Foundation is an innovation service firm**.

 We have been building an organization with high standard software practices and business growth capabilities, helping tech startups, entrepreneurs and makers deliver their innovative software product since 2013.

**We stand for the craftsmanship in software development**.

More than telling people how to do things, as a firm, we take responsibility for collaboratively creating the product of innovation with the client. We value the long-term partnership, and we brought the economic impact through massive product distribution and brought to the market by the clients.

This is what we do here. It takes many forms, and we’re always working towards better software craftsmanship.

## The name: Dwarves

![](assets/what-we-stand-for_yggdrasill-1.webp)

It begins in Norse Mythology. After the executed of Ymir, the very first giant of the universe, by Odin has conceived a whole new universe. In the new world, Yggdrasill is a giant ash tree located at the center cradles the nine realms of the cosmos.

Dwarf is the small and misshapen creatures that originated as maggots from Ymir’s corpse. They dwell in the mountains deep down in the dark underground of **Svartalfheim**. Dwarves are wisdom, natural good at smithing, mining, and crafting. They are well known for being the best blacksmiths throughout the nine worlds, not only do they have natural abilities to craft weapons and jewelry. They are also excellent engineers and architects.

Dwarvish magic was fundamentally technological know how. They had an unusually high level of skill. There was no shimmering light around the Dwarves, just first rate workmanship. Dwarves greatly pride themselves in their craftsmanship, be it smithing or anything else.

The dwarf is an example of a creature who has the ability that surpasses the known world, presaging the rise of a universe beyond this physical realm. Whatever their origin, the dwarf’s existence plays a role in expanding the imagination.

Aspiring to create a positive breakthrough that can be able to rewrite the new world, we chose the name Dwarves Foundation as the commitment to the vision that we follow.

At our woodland, the Dwarves are encouraged to thoroughly assess and evaluate the product quality before handing it to the customers. By participate in every detail of the work, we take craftsmanship as one of the most fundamental factors of the career transformation for engineers. World-class products require world-class engineers and craftsmanship is what makes it done. Craftsmanship is what flows among the team spirit, or does not exist at all.

We choose innovation to be one of our core values that form ideas to affect the general society undoubtedly. Innovation is not for geniuses working alone, it is an activity that requires the team effort. Being innovative is a part to approach the new era. What that rewards, what can I say, can genuinely lead to significantly remodel the cosmo.

![](assets/what-we-stand-for_dwarves-1.webp)

More than telling people how to do things, as a firm, we take responsibility for collaboratively creating the product of innovation with the client. We value the long-term partnership, and we brought the economic impact through massive product distribution and brought to the market by the clients.

What we stand for


Before anything else, values come first. The value is important to us. They are what we proud of. They help guide us when we are facing a difficult decision. They will be the things you like about what we do at Dwarves Foundation and how we do it.

Our core values guide our strategies and individual actions so that we create a company whose character is as radical as our work.

* **Craftsmanship**: We work toward perfection in every single piece that we produce. We are proud of the well-crafted software that we develop together.
* **Teamwork**: Teamwork is all about trust and collaboration. Having someone in the team mean we can rely on this person.
* **Sustainable**: We think long-term. We do not believe in rushing for project and working overtime. We believe in working sustainably and balanced so that we are a happy bunch of sane workers. Software requires good brains to create good codes and good processes.

## Culture Code

There is no such specific guide for culture code. So many of these employee handbook projects turn out to be ideal-case prescriptions rather than real-world descriptions. They cover all the ways people should act, not the ways they actually do. That’s a sham. Let’s not write a handbook like that. **Let’s keep it honest.**

We believe the culture is defined by whom we hire, what we promote and encourage. It is dynamic, and it should expand like our business. We welcome its change as long as we still stay on the ground. Just like we want people to contribute new skills and ideas, we want people to contribute to the new culture.

![](assets/what-we-value_culture-1.webp)

A few things that we observed over the last few years:

* [No asshole rules](https://www.amazon.com/Asshole-Rule-Civilized-Workplace-Surviving/dp/0446698202): no matter how great a candidate may be, being an asshole is an automatic deal breaker.
* False Positives are ok, False Negatives are not: we prefer to not have you in the team rather than let a wrong person affect the others.
* We love celebration: the Dwarves usually take chances to celebrate with you whether it’s your birthday or you have some good news.
* Knowledge sharing: every day we learn something new, and we would love to share it with the whole team even though it’s not relevant to you. We post it there.


Before anything else, values come first. The value is important to us. They are what we proud of. They help guide us when we are facing a difficult decision.

What we value


### Office

The Dwarves HQ is in Saigon, Vietnam. Thirty people and two cats have desk space in the Saigon office, but those people also work from home regularly. We expand the office space when the old one is full and people want the new office. Anyone is welcome to visit Saigon and work from the office at any time.

### From home

A few people at Dwarves Foundation are based in other countries and they work from home most of the time. Getting the basics right will make a big difference: a good chair and a good desk.

### From coffee shops

Working from home all the time isn’t everyone’s cup of coffee. Thus, lots of us choose to work from coffee shops or other third spaces either some of the time or a lot of the time. Great for a buzz of other people and much-needed [caffeine](https://giphy.com/gifs/bobs-burgers-fox-bobs-burgers-tv-3o72F3CQSLwU7XTlDy) of course, but please do mind our basic security rules and procedures to ensure that nothing leaks on to the cafe wifi.

### From a coworking space

If working from home or from a coffee shop doesn’t suit you, then trying a coworking space might just do the trick. We support a $50/month stipend towards a desk in such a place.


A few people at Dwarves Foundation are based in other countries and they work from home most of the time. Getting the basics right will make a big difference: a good chair and a good desk.

Careers > Additional Info