Between 2020 and 2023 we wrote a run of short culture essays. Each one covered a single habit of the team. This page keeps what they said in one place. Tool names, team structure and numbers are as of the year each essay was written, and the year is named where it matters.
1Ideas win, not rank
The team runs on ideas (2020). Our operations ran on four branches. Account looked after client happiness. PeopleOps allocated resources. Human Resource handled recruitment and the employee experience. Communication moved information across platforms. A small team shares perspectives and updates faster, and cross-functional work helps people see the whole operation flow.
We keep few committees. Draft a plan, execute the to-dos, fail fast, learn, and do it again better. Ideas come from everyone, whatever their level.
An idea earns its place when it solves a problem or improves a workflow. Most come from an issue we face daily that slowly turns into a pain. A pointless idea wastes people's time and costs you credibility in the next brainstorm. Whoever carries the best idea gets to call the shot, whether they are a one-month intern or a three-year manager.
Decisions sit with the people who do the work (2021). We keep a flat hierarchy and hire people to tell us how to work better. Letting people know the direction shares the responsibility, and shared responsibility lowers the risk.
Every decision runs through a 3x2 check:
- People, customer and number
- Now and then
All of these count equally. A decision may improve one or two of them, as long as the rest do not get worse. Three questions keep it honest. Does this do anyone a favor? Can it make a profit? Can it be maintained?
You do not decide alone. Ask people around you for information and advice. Asking for help does not take power from you, and it makes your points stronger when you explain them later.
It does not always work. People are still afraid of responsibility, and some calls stay stuck. Answer the "why" before the "how", and bring a backup scenario in case things go south.
2Open by default
Transparency inside the company (2020). A new hire hears "how much do you know about this woodland?" in the first interview. After joining, they see their own project and little else. Information transparency fixes that by being upfront about the ups and downs of company operations.
- Validate the possibility. Publish ideas and work progress in the Automatic Check-Ins. Others can test whether your idea is feasible. That beats asking people one ping at a time, and it keeps you from chasing things that do not fit the team's vision.
- Open-source the news. Share what you try in work and life, such as a time-management trick, a new language or a travel destination. The team becomes a small R&D unit for the latest trends.
- Avoid the roadblocks. Tell other teams how and when your plan will touch their days.
- Be open about success. It does not make you look cocky. It spreads a sense of "create something that works", along with your challenge, your stress and how you got through it.
The payoff is trust in management, honest talk between teammates, a visible reason behind board decisions, and the comfort to ask questions. When people believe their ideas matter at any level, they feel obliged to give more.
3Hiring, keeping and growing people
Culture came before the handbook (2020). For the first five years we had no culture book. Newcomers picked up the job and went with the flow, and we hardly forced team-bonding or late-night drinks on anyone. A workplace is not a magic land that nurtures every dream, and people leave when they find a friendlier playground. So we point to the places where real talk happens: the kitchen corner, the sofa bench in the master room, sometimes the balcony, and the Discord channels where we spend most days. A quiet person can start in the chat rooms. The handbook takes under 20 minutes to read (What we value). It centers on craftsmanship, teamwork and sustainability, and it changes over time like software does.
Build a constellation, not a few stars (2020). Sustainable companies are built by teams of shining constellations. It starts with recruiting. Many successes and disasters begin there, and recruiting is the most important job of any real leader. The second step is placing people well. People evolve their skills, but they do not change who they are. Do not confuse the two, and do not hire someone you plan to change. The third step is to minimize toxicity and learn from failure. Incremental improvement works in every function, even bookkeeping.
People matter when they believe in what they create (2020). Most talk about happiness and engagement ends in a list of tips. We skip the tips. Happiness programs are fake. People stay when they know their real value, so a product story never ends without a thank-you to its creator.
We hire on skill. It takes no engineering degree to work in software, and not every designer comes from art school. A university certificate or ten years of seniority do not decide it. Sharing knowledge is not a mandatory call either. It grows from the urge to learn and exchange within the team.
Nothing keeps people around unless they want to be there. If you tie them down with reasons, they leave for a better reason elsewhere. Make a space where they feel active, where their work means something and where judgments are fair. Then focus on what people want to do.
Growth is our universal language (2023). The core team lives and breathes growth, and we hire people who share the mindset. Our unspoken culture is 70/50. We do not work 9 to 5. People put in an extra 20 to 50 percent of effort on their own growth after the day job, on hobby projects or new technology. It is encouraged and never mandatory, and it pays off when the things we build reach customers. The Friday ritual built around this is described in Introducing OGIF.
We do not keep people by making the work easy. We keep them by looking ahead. Not everyone will get along with this, and the like-minded may find the place home.
4Quality and delivery
Go the extra mile (2020). Nobody wants a poor product, or wants to work with people who keep making one. Train the habit of upgrading. Every time you look back at your work, something should be left to optimize. Notice the little things, because the details make up the big picture, and polish tells the most about your work ethic.
The extra mile is not overwork. You can only go extra on what you truly want, and pride in the work makes it hard to fail in the long run. Doing one thing well beats ten things half-done.
Go beyond the title (2021). The common dilemma runs "you're only paid that much to do that much", and employees refuse anything outside the job description. People then work just "enough" and never find their limits. We would rather see people ask whether what they produce matters before they ask about benefits. Pay the upfront cost, take the longer view, and the math adds up.
Waiting for the right moment means waiting forever, so take the shot and accept the mistakes. Get better in two ways:
- As a role. A team that collaborates well is worth more than top individuals who refuse to work together. Raise issues, give feedback with constructive intent, and be someone people can count on.
- As a team. Share knowledge and leave things better than you found them.
Titles do matter. They bring accountability for your decisions and make your voice carry further. Fancy titles exist here when a contribution creates a positive impact, and great leaders create other leaders.
Focus on delivery (2023). When you are unsure how to improve as an engineer, ship. Users try your build and tell you what is wrong. It may have bugs or a wrong flow, and the frustration saves you time. Quality can only be measured after you ship. Before that, ask six things:
- What are we going to ship?
- What does the end product look like?
- What will the user think of it?
- What do they expect?
- Will they use it?
- Is it helpful?
Stop overthinking the process, the architecture and the library you saw on Hacker News last week. People who block delivery block the way to success.
Are you helping? (2023). A job title only defines the scope of someone's work. The clearer sign of value is the output, and one question gets at it fast: "Are you helping?"
5Related
- What we value lists the three core values these essays grew from.
- Introducing OGIF covers the Friday sharing session and the 70/50 culture.
- Record and reward sharing at Dwarves describes how sharing is recognized.
- Strategic thinking behind our hiring sets out the 2025 role strategy.