Behaviour and protocol

Values

Values are pointless if not put into practice. Our values are reflected in the following behaviors.

Collective ownership

Collective ownership gives control of the entire project to all team members. “Your part” is the product. Either it’s a good product, or it is not.

Collective vision

• Communicate openly. No privileged information. Everyone should have the same basis for decision making.
• Cut the middle person. We put the team directly in front of the stakeholder.
• Break knowledge silos. No one is “the expert” in an area.

Collective accountability

• Work end-to-end. We need to be able to impact as much of the project as possible.
• T-shape profiles. We still have roles, and they know about areas surrounding their expertise.
• Integrated QA. The team takes direct responsibility for the work they’ve created.

Collective contribution

• Pair up! Team members work simultaneously on the same tasks.
• Keep it simple. We want people to be able to pitch in.

Guiding values

Inspired by Voluntās we have defined a set of virtues. These virtues are meant to be a guide on how to approach situations where our values are in conflict. They are set up as “X over Y” to make it clear that we value both, but aim to prioritize the first.

Trust

• Team over individuals
  • Individual difficulties are team difficulties - include the team in figuring them out
• Autonomy over control
  • Build a process that caters to self-reliance, not one that calls for control
• Transparency over appearances
  • Share everything, also the things you are not proud of yet

Betterment

• Quality over progress
  • A valuable feature is of no value if it breaks
• Feedback over consideration
  • No one benefits from avoiding difficult conversations
• Proactivity over minimizing work
  • If something can be improved, bring it up to the team

Sustainability

• Simplicity over versatility
  • Build products that do a few things well, rather than a lot of things poorly
• Lunch time over crunch time
  • Work at a sustainable pace - resist the urge to skip breaks
• Defaults over personal preference
  • What works well for most, is better than what works perfectly for you