The guiding principles and fundamental beliefs that help us function together work toward a common business goal.

1. User obsessed

We put our customers front & center. Customers drive all the rest. We want to delight our customers at every step, no matter what happens. We are to be obsessed with their happiness and success, and even surprise them (in a good way) when possible.

Why? We are writing software for people, they are all that matters at the end of the day. This is defined in opposition to the competitors. It’s important to know what our competitors are doing, but at the end of the day, users only care about how the product solves their problems.

Details. Most startups will claim to be user-obsessed without being so, people are thinking about what the company needs, whether it’s closing those support tickets, or releasing this new marketing page. Being user-obsessed is about always putting first the problems our actions solve for the user, whether it’s solving the problem raised in a support ticket (the goal isn’t to close tickets but to solve them), or communicating more clearly the problem the product solves on the landing page.

Examples of actions.

• See the two examples above.
• Writing docs from the perspective of the user who will read it. The use of “we” is most of the time a no-go. Only use "we", "our" for recommendations..
• When reaching out to an external user, communicate using the lens of this person. Don’t say “We would love it if you could leave feedback on X”. Instead say “We have tried to solve the problem you raised, what do you think about X?”

2. Excellence

We're aiming high, and we know it. Excellence extends to everything we do. The way we communicate, the things we build, the code we write, and the way we treat people.

Examples of this are:

• Excellence in our product. We’re making hard, boring things, easy. Because we deal with important matters, we must do so perfectly.
• Amazing support. Quick, personal, and helpful.
• Delight in our communication. If we sound corporate, we’re doing it wrong.

Why? 1. We operate in a mature market. UIs have been built for decades. The market is saturated with average-quality software, MIT license, and commercials. Pushing the boundaries is rewarded non-linearly, we need to stand out. 2. It's more fun to work with smart people.

Examples of actions:

• A team member won’t leave a state of mental confusion unsettled. He will dive into the matter until she/he figures out what doesn’t add up with accuracy.

3. Transparency

Most of our work is public. We always default to communicating in public. For example with Slack, even if you ask someone a question, do it in a public Slack channel over a DM or a private channel. It’s even better if you do it on a public GitHub page.