On building culture:
1/ A founder recently asked about my experience building culture. I think there are a ton of ways to build a great culture- and many approaches are situation/team/stage-specific. Here were my thoughts:
1/ A founder recently asked about my experience building culture. I think there are a ton of ways to build a great culture- and many approaches are situation/team/stage-specific. Here were my thoughts:
2/ First, there isn’t one right answer. Every co. and set of founders will have their own approach, and mostly these are just questions to ask or things to consider – definitely not meant to be prescriptive advice.
3/ I think culture starts first with mission/vision. I use this framework- *which is not linear* and not perfect, but I found helpful for me as founder/CEO:
https://twitter.com/ryan_caldbeck/status/1359001571141459968
4/ I don’t think setting mission/vision is a group exercise. I think it is typically set by the founder(s). It can evolve over time with input, but having crisp definition and clarity initially is important for aligning stakeholders.
5/ It draws investors/teammates/partners/customers to you that are aligned with that mission/vision.
(here is an example from CircleUp)
ryancaldbeck.medium.com/circleups-miss…
(here is an example from CircleUp)
ryancaldbeck.medium.com/circleups-miss…
6/ Next I think it is key to define the Company’s values, also a founder exercise IMO. Values clearly defined will act as a framework to help determine who you hire, who/what you reward, which customers and investors you work with – and which you decide to not work with.
7/ I cannot stress this enough- this is not apple pie and Golden Retrievers- this is the heart of the company. I think the more you invest into nailing this with authenticity and consistency the greater chance of success for your culture (and company).
8/ Then I think it is designing the org structure, defining hiring traits and recruiting.
More on those here:
More on those here:
https://twitter.com/ryan_caldbeck/status/1168948538006548480
9/ Recruiting effectively is vital for culture. Expect difficult questions w. every hire. “X has more experience but Y is more aligned with our hiring traits.” Every co in existence has had someone say “yes we care about diversity but we can’t wait any longer for this hire….”
10/ How you respond in those moments sets a tone for the culture- to say nothing of the people you decide to hire.
11/ Don’t fall into the stale “hire the best engineers in the Valley” saying. 1) First, the best engineers often aren’t in the Bay Area anymore- that’s outdated advice,
12/ 2) you need to be practical – you likely aren’t splitting atoms and you likely can’t get the best even if you were, 3) “the best” isn’t a hiring trait. You and someone else on the hiring panel will define that differently.
13/ You need to more clearly define what the hiring traits are and provide examples of how to identify them. I remember having dinner several ago with the heads of engineering from two deca-unicorns.
14/ Now you have mission/vision, you have clearly defined values and hiring traits, you have an org structure and hiring strategy/tactics. You also need to begin to set up feedback (formal and informal) and reward mechanisms (intrinsic and extrinsic).
15/ Feedback: Feedback structure- I think healthy teams give each other feedback in all directions, formally and informally. Lots of ways to accomplish this. We did 1:1s every other week and written reviews 2x per year. Also 360s so teammates could give managers (and me) feedback
16/ Feedback norms: We never wanted someone to get feedback for the first time in a review. Sometimes we failed at that, but it was our goal. To do that ongoing feedback either in 1:1s or more informally is critical.
17/ What do you provide feedback on: Do you focus on Inputs or Outputs? I don’t think there is a right answer, and it depends on the company, but here are my views:
https://twitter.com/ryan_caldbeck/status/1263939845329530880
18/ Other considerations: How do you bring your Values into your feedback sessions? How do you ensure people are giving clear, direct and transparent feedback in all directions? (incredibly hard and IMO important)
19/ Reward mechanisms: what are you rewarding and how are you rewarding? What you reward: This connects back to Inputs v. Outputs. Consistency and transparency in what is being rewarded is key for lots of reasons including creating a culture of focusing on drivers of success.
20/ In addition, there are surveys that show the people that don’t see a connection between their Inputs and the Outputs get burnt out more easily.
21/ How are you rewarding: Yes there is cash comp and equity. A few yrs into our journey we started using third-party benchmarks (Options Impact, Radford are 2) that could help us see roughly what “market” is for each position, then setting a target percentile within that range.
22/ If you want to pay 99th percentile for every position you’ll be out of money soon. I found that aligning up front (i.e. we pay 70th percentile- or whatever the answer is) helps ensure the process is fair and transparent.
23/ Also-using 3rd party benchmarks and a clearly defined comp system helps important D&A initiatives.
24/ I’ve also found that non-monetary rewards really matter. If they didn’t most people wouldn’t work at startups. Pride and mission matter. Culture matters. Growth - personal and professional, company and individual, matters.
25/ Giving people responsibility/ownership over projects they couldn’t get elsewhere matters. Thus it is imp to create frameworks that allow them to truly take ownership over getting something done- and to prevent micromanaging.
Here is more on that:
Here is more on that:
https://twitter.com/ryan_caldbeck/status/1010937892342906880
26/ Celebrating (Inputs or Outputs), both internally and externally, matters. How do you celebrate wins? Frankly this was something I don’t think I did well at all- and I regret that. I tried to directly in 1:1 meetings, with a walk by of someone’s desk and with emails/notes.
27/ We also tried to celebrate in front of the company and helped individuals, and teams, get PR to celebrate things publicly (articles, blogs, panels, etc).
28/ But I’m not good at celebrating wins- I move on to the next thing immediately and so my celebrations come off as stale and inauthentic sometimes. I have tried to be better and I wish I were more effective at that.
29/ Adjusting the ship:
A product, team, career, company inevitably needs adjustments and pivots along the way. That’s a good thing IMO- and shows that the person is listening to data and adjusting their approach based on feedback.
A product, team, career, company inevitably needs adjustments and pivots along the way. That’s a good thing IMO- and shows that the person is listening to data and adjusting their approach based on feedback.
30/ That will require hard conversations- how can you set the tone for that both in a willingness to give and receive hard feedback. We had managers read out the output of their 360s to their teams- so the teams knew what feedback the manager had heard.
31/ Inevitably some people and products wont work out. How do you make hard decisions swiftly? I’ve found one of the most difficult parts of letting someone go, other than the obvious pain for the person directly involved, was what and how to communicate to rest of the company.
32/ In our history we typically allowed people that were fired to tell the rest of the company whatever story they wanted. Sometimes, frankly often, that caused short-term pain, but we believed it was the right thing to do to allow the person to leave with dignity.
33/ When great people see a culture that isn’t willing to cut bait on a product that isn’t working, or a teammate that isn’t having the impact anyone would want, those great people typically leave.
34/ There are so many other parts of what makes a culture but (right or wrong) those were some of the major areas we tried to focus on.
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