Measure results not hours
We care about what you achieve: the content you wrote or edited, how well your content ranks and converts, and the team member you helped.
Someone who took the afternoon off shouldn't feel like they did something wrong. You don't have to defend how you spend your day. We trust team members to do the right thing instead of having rigid rules. Do not incite competition by proclaiming how many hours you worked yesterday. If you are working too many hours, talk to your manager to discuss solutions.
Give agency
We give people agency to focus on what they think is most beneficial. If a meeting doesn't seem interesting and someone's active participation is not critical to the outcome of the meeting, they can always opt to not attend, or during a video call they can work on other things if they want. Staying in the call may still make sense even if you are working on other tasks, so other peers can ping you and get fast answers when needed. This is particularly useful in multi-purpose meetings where you may be involved for just a few minutes.
Write promises down
Agree in writing on measurable goals and track in the appropriate systems, such as Airtable.
Growth mindset
You don't always get results and this will result in criticism from yourself and/or others. We believe our talents can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and input from others. We try to hire people based on their trajectory, not their pedigree .
Global optimization
This name comes from the quick guide to Stripe's culture . Our definition of global optimization is that you do what is best for the organization as a whole. Don't optimize for the goals of your team when it negatively impacts the goals of other teams, our users, and/or the company. Those goals are also your problem and your job.
Keep your team as lean as possible, and help other teams achieve their goals. In the context of collaboration, this means that if anyone is blocked by you on a question or your approval your top priority is always to unblock them, either directly or through helping them find someone else who can, even if this takes time away from your own or your team's priorities.
Tenacity
Tenacity is the ability to display commitment to what you believe in. You keep picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and quickly get going again having learned a little more.
Ownership
We expect team members to complete tasks that they are assigned. Having a task means you are responsible for anticipating and solving problems. As an owner, you are responsible for overcoming challenges, not suppliers or other team members. Take initiative and proactively inform stakeholders when there is something you might not be able to solve.
Sense of urgency
At an exponentially-scaling company, time gained or lost has compounding effects. Try to get the results as fast as possible, but without compromising our other values and ways we communicate, so the compounding of results can begin and we can focus on the next improvement.
Perseverance
Working at ContentDistribution.com will expose you to situations of various levels of difficulty and complexity. This requires focus and the ability to defer gratification. We value the ability to maintain focus and motivation when work is tough and asking for help when needed.
Bias for Action
It's important that we keep our focus on action, and don't fall into the trap of analysis paralysis or sticking to a slow, quiet path without risk. Decisions should be thoughtful, but delivering fast results requires the fearless acceptance of occasionally making mistakes; our bias for action also allows us to course-correct quickly.
Everyone will make mistakes, but it's the relative number of mistakes against all decisions made (i.e. percentage of mistakes), and the swift correction or resolution of that mistake, which is important. A key to success with transparency is to always combine observation with questions to ensure understanding and suggestions for solutions / improvement to the group that can take action.
We don't take the easy path of general complaints without including and supporting the groups that can affect change. Success with transparency almost always requires effective collaboration.
Accepting Uncertainty
We should strive to accept that there are things that we don’t know about the work we’re trying to do, and that the best way to drive out that uncertainty is not by layering analysis and conjecture over it, but rather accepting it and moving forward, driving it out as we go along. Wrong solutions can be fixed, but non-existent ones aren’t adjustable at all.
Write things down
We document everything: in the handbook, in meeting notes, in issues. We do that because " the faintest pencil is better than the sharpest memory ." It is far more efficient to read a document at your convenience than to have to ask and explain. Having something in version control also lets everyone contribute suggestions to improve it.
Self-service and self-learning
Team members should first search for their own answers and, if an answer is not readily found or the answer is not clear, ask in public as we all should have a low level of shame. Write down any new information discovered and pay it forward so that those coming after will have better efficiency built on top of practicing collaboration, inclusion, and documenting the results.
Efficiency for the right group
Optimize solutions globally. Making a process efficient for one person or a small group may not be an efficient outcome for the whole team. As an example, it may be best to kill the automated Slack reporting every time activity in the activity tracker is changed, even if it provides management more insight into project statuses! In a decision, ask yourself "For whom does this need to be most efficient?" Quite often, the answer may be your team members or projects that are dependent upon your decision.
Be respectful of others' time
Consider the time investment you are asking others to make with meetings and a permission process. Try to avoid meetings, and if one is necessary, try to make attendance optional for as many people as possible. Any meeting should have an agenda linked from the invite, and you should document the outcome. Instead of having people ask permission, trust their judgment and offer a consultation process if they have questions.
Spend company money like it's your own
Every dollar we spend will have to be earned back; be as frugal with company money as you are with your own.
Frugality
Amazon states it best with: "Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense."
Freedom
You should have clear objectives and the freedom to work on them as you see fit.
Short verbal answers
Give short answers to verbal questions so the other party has the opportunity to ask more or move on.
Keep broadcasts short
Keep one-to-many written communication short, as mentioned in this HBR study .
Managers of one
We want each team member to be a manager of one who doesn't need daily check-ins to achieve their goals.
Responsibility over rigidity
When possible, we give people the responsibility to make a decision and hold them accountable for that, instead of imposing rules and approval processes.
Accept mistakes
Not every problem should lead to a new process to prevent them. Additional processes make all actions more inefficient; a mistake only affects one.
Move fast by shipping the minimum viable change
We value constant improvement by iterating quickly, month after month. If a task is not the smallest thing possible, cut the scope.