People Like Us Do Things Like This

Company culture isn't defined by a set of principles or a mission statement; it isn't defined by the founder's vision; and, it cannot be mandated from the top. Company culture is defined by action; it is the byproduct of movement; and, it is born of guerrilla warfare.

It starts when people like you stand-up and say that to be here—to be on this team—it means something. And then, they act accordingly; demonstrating, with consistency, that people like us do things like this ⁽¹⁾.

In a product company, I believe that our primary goal is to serve the customer. As engineers in a product company, I believe that people like us achieve this goal by shipping code. And, I believe that in order to ship code effectively, we must operate from a place of love and generosity.

Generosity means bringing our whole self to the work; and, leaning on our past experience in order to draw meaningful insight. It means trusting others to do the same. It means thinking "right" about our customers; and meeting them where they are, not only where we want them to be. It means working small and prioritizing throughput. It means unblocking each other and deploying to production, even when it scares us.

Generosity means saying, "this might not work"; and then, doing it anyway because something beautiful might happen; and because we believe that the possibility of beauty is far more important than our fear of failure and judgement.

This is not an easy way to exist. Which means that leading by example is also an act of generosity. As we make manifest our own beliefs, "we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same" ⁽²⁾.

People like us do things like that.

That is, people like us do things like that when it is possible. Only, many companies don't want us to operate from a place of love and generosity because such an endeavor implies risk. And, these companies have long regressed to a state in which risk avoidance is now the predominant motivator.

But, a company isn't a thing unto itself—a company is made of people. And, if we consider these people in the context of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, it's logical that a zeitgeist of fear will completely debase a company's culture. According to Maslow, people cannot go beyond themselves until their own basic needs for psychological safety are being met.

That's what makes feature flags so exciting—so rich with possibility! Feature flags diminish risk and help build psychological safety throughout the entire organization. This psychological safety gives everyone an opportunity to take action with virtuous intent. Over time, these actions will create a movement. And this movement will, eventually, transform your company culture.

¹ From "People Like Us Do Things Like This" by Seth Godin.
² From "Our Deepest Fear" by Marianne Williamson.

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