Ownership

We want each team member to be a manager of one who doesn't need daily check-ins to achieve their goals.

We expect team members to complete tasks that they pick up or are assigned. Having a task means you are responsible for anticipating and solving problems. As an owner you are responsible for overcoming challenges and there are no excuses. Take initiative and proactively inform stakeholders when there is something you might not be able to solve.

Do it yourself

No need to brainstorm, wait for consensus, or do with two what you can do yourself. If you think it is better than what is there now do it, no need to wait for something polished. A task done today is better than a polished result delayed indefinitely.

Outcome, not output

We care about what you achieve; the code you shipped, the user you made happy, and the team member you helped. Someone who took the afternoon off shouldn't feel like they did something wrong. You don't have to defend how you spend your day. We trust team members to do the right thing instead of having rigid rules. If you are working too many hours, talk to your manager to discuss solutions.

Be your own boss

You should have clear objectives and the freedom to work on them as you see fit. If a meeting doesn't seem interesting and someone's active participation is not critical to the outcome of the meeting, they can always opt to not attend, or during a video call they can work on other things if they want. Staying in the call may still make sense even if you are working on other tasks, so other peers can ping you and get fast answers when needed. This is particularly useful in multi-purpose meetings where you may be involved for just a few minutes.

Global optimization

This name comes from the quick guide to Stripe's culture. Our definition of global optimization is that you do what is best for the organization as a whole. Don't optimize for the goals of your immediate team when it negatively impacts the goals of other teams, our customer users, and/or the company. Those goals are also your problem and your job. Keep your immediate team as lean as possible, and help other teams achieve their goals.

Be respectful of others' time

Consider the time investment you are asking others to make with meetings and permission process. Try to avoid meetings, and if one is necessary, try to make attendance optional for as many people as possible. Any meeting should have an agenda linked from the invite, you should document the outcome. Instead of having people ask permission, trust their judgment and offer a consultation process if they have questions.

Spend company money like it's your own

Every dollar we spend will have to be earned back; be as frugal with company money as you are with your own. Amazon states it best: "Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size or fixed expense.”

Responsibility over rigidity

When possible we give people the responsibility to make a decision and hold them accountable for that instead of imposing rules and approval processes.

Accept mistakes

Not every problem should lead to a new process to prevent them. Additional processes make all actions more inefficient, a mistake only affects one.

An algorithm for distributed decision making

Use narratives, check sheets, and other tools. If you are proposing a new approach, sometimes a meeting isn’t enough and neither is a chat discussion. If you believe MayaData teams or the broader community or others need to align in a certain way to achieve an outcome, please take the time to articulate your reasoning in narrative form. This approach borrows heavily on the narrative structure used by Amazon.

Another technique we embrace is the use of criteria based trade off matrices; this approach starts with outlining the problem and 2-3 alternatives, then turns to listing the criteria by which these alternatives can be judged, and then turns to creating weights for each of these criteria.

The use of Narratives and Trade Off Matricies are important aspects of our internal operating system. Workshops and onboarding training sessions help to distribute these important algorithms.