When Paul and I sat down and wrote “The company we are building” we assumed that these values wouldn’t fundamentally change, but that they may need to be revised as we grew. I’m a believer that the values of a company should really always hold true and be relatively immutable. But that said, values are, by nature, dense. They capture a spirit or ethos in a broad way, which can be extremely difficult to land in 2-4 words.
Yet, it’s important that we do just that: land our values succinctly. We’re a growing team, with two physical offices in Portland and SF, and with a passionate and growing customer base. We need our values to continue to serve as the engine that drives us. These values define how we operate as a team, who we hire onto the team, and how we engage with customers and each other. They’re our operating model. We firmly believe that when embraced and embodied by each member of our team, our values become an integral part of our everyday decision-making process.
So with great thought and consideration, we have refined our values to accurately reflect where we stand today and where we envision ourselves heading in the future. We are excited to share these updated values, which have emerged through a collaborative effort involving not only Paul and myself but also many team members. Together, we have crafted a compass that will steer us on our purposeful path forward.
Here they are:
ConductorOne’s Values
#1: “Earn the Customer’s Trust”
This is unchanged and continues to define a huge part of how we operate. We focus on customer success. We do what we say we’re going to do for customers. We are extremely customer oriented. This does represent a trade-off at times. We don’t always do the sizzle feature or the big splashy thing - but we create value for customers by solving hard problems for them and we always do everything we can to make customers happy and successful.
#2: “Embrace Change”
This still very much holds true (as evidenced in the existence of this blog post). We’re a startup. Everything is constantly changing. It’s hard, and we acknowledge that. Only a small nod to add: embracing change is easy when the change is a benefit or feels good. But many times change doesn’t feel good. It’s hard. It sucks. Embracing change is about having a good attitude even when the change is difficult.
#3 "Show Kindness" -> "Practice Compassionate Candor"
What we meant by “Show Kindness” initially was “no assholes”. However, framing that JUST as kindness missed the mark. Kindness can easily be conflated with niceness. Being super nice, but not being honest and direct, doesn’t make things better and papers over problems and challenges. Not being an asshole is about being compassionate. But we also need to balance that with being direct, open, and honest with ourselves, each other, and our customers about what’s going well, what’s not, and where we can improve. We are kind in our delivery, but are direct and forthright.
#4 "Trust & Empower People" -> “Be The Conductor”
“Trust & empower your people” reads like a management philosophy and is very top down – but we’re a flat org of builders. The goal of this value was always that people would have ownership and feel empowered to drive their area and make it the best it can possibly be. That spirit is absolutely still the case, but we need to flip this on its head to make it relevant to everyone at the company. So, introducing: Be the Conductor. This is less about management, more about people. Being the conductor means owning the outcome. It means taking ultimate responsibility for the train getting to where it’s going. It’s about understanding everything that’s happening on your train (yeah, we’re going all in on trains :)). You care deeply about what you’re doing, you’re passionate about it, and you obsess over making it better. It’s about owning the outcome. You make sure the train gets to the right place, at the right time, no excuses.
Removing “Be Deliberate”
We removed “Be Deliberate”. The original spirit of this was that we wanted to make conscious decisions vs allowing momentum to set the course. But this value fell flat when we thought about our day to day. No one behaves in a way that they intentionally believe is not deliberate. It also rarely represented a meaningful trade-off that was driving decision making. The opposite of deliberate is not deliberate – and I don’t think anyone is ever intentionally not deliberate. So, we removed this. Though officially gone, it does still feel embodied in “Be the Conductor” as part of ownership is making good decisions.
That’s it!
- Earn the Customer’s Trust
- Embrace Change
- Practice Compassionate Candor
- Be the Conductor
Hope you enjoyed!
