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It's certainly an interesting idea, but from my experience, most companies I worked for had values that were primarily all talk and weren't really substantial.

It's certainly an interesting idea, but from my experience, most companies I worked for had values that were primarily all talk and weren't really substantial. Especially when things like 'Open Communication' and 'Fast-paced environment' mean completely different things to different people. Every company describes themselves as having 'impressive team members'. I'm not sure how this would help me actually find a company with the desired values when companies are able to say whatever they want about themselves.

lynnetye 8y ago
Replied to a comment below that touches on this, but the whole point is for teams to explain what things like “Open Communication” and “Fast-Paced Environment” mean to them. You can read how each team qualifies each of their value selections. Companies are limited to choosing 8 values and they’re also asked to rank them in order of importance. You’ll notice that many teams don’t select “Impressive Team Members.”
- jka 8y ago
  Is the Key:Values team (nice choice of name by the way!) familiar with Bryan Cantrill's talk on 'Principles of Technology Leadership'? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMGAtxUlAc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMGAtxUlAc It seems to resonate pretty closely with what you're building, so if it helps align or educate anyone (candidates, recruiters, or the team) that'd be neat. Edit: FWIW, the talk uses the term 'principle' to indicate what your site calls a 'value'; in practice I've seen tech companies talk about their 'core values' and so I think yours is very valid.
  - jka 8y ago
    Ah, I read that the team is you at the moment :) Either way, hope it might help!
- MediumD 8y ago
  Most of my skepticism is not tied to the ambiguity of certain values but the discrepancy of what people claim to be the values, versus what actually happens day-to-day. I don't mean to come off critical of your product. Your goals are admirable and you've made a lot of progress. I just don't think I could trust total strangers that their company truly is all about _____ or ____. I love the name though! It's clever
- Cyclone_ 8y ago
  It might be interesting to let actual verified employees by having a company email, anonymously give feedback on whether or not the company lives up to its values
  - lynnetye 8y ago
    I tend to work with many (and for small startups, all) of the current engineers on the team to write their profile. I also encourage companies to incorporate honest statements from their team members and provide links to their Github / LinkedIn / Twitter so that people can contact them if they want to reach out. I never found Glassdoor super helpful during my searches, so I didn’t go that route.
nck4222 8y ago
>'Open Communication' One of previous companies had this as a value. It was a startup, 5 engineers and the VP. You were expected to give honest critical feedback as well as positive, and were expected to receive both critical and positive feedback. It actually worked really well. There wasn't any politics, just people trying to become better engineers and deliver a quality product. Over a couple years we grew to 15-20 engineers, and devolved in to people writing multi-page emails to the VP, criticizing their colleagues (minor, or hard-to-measure things like "they don't refactor enough", or "they're happy writing poor quality code". Colleagues found out, and weren't happy a pier went behind they're back to criticize them to their manager. The VP didn't do anything, "Open Communication" was a core value, how can communicating problems be bad? Moral of the story is, even when a company has a good value, it still doesn't really tell you anything about them. All it takes one person to abuse it for their own gain, and a manager who can tell the difference, and it all falls apart.
- hitekker 8y ago
  >The VP didn't do anything More important than values, is the leadership that writes, promotes, and enforces those values. I'd personally like to see a website, more trustworthy and hard-hitting than glassdoor, which critiques leadership.
  - reducesuffering 8y ago
    Blind
  - nicoburns 8y ago
    Hmm... a non-commercial glassdoor-alike is an interesting proposition.

lynnetye 8y ago

Replied to a comment below that touches on this, but the whole point is for teams to explain what things like “Open Communication” and “Fast-Paced Environment” mean to them. You can read how each team qualifies each of their value selections. Companies are limited to choosing 8 values and they’re also asked to rank them in order of importance. You’ll notice that many teams don’t select “Impressive Team Members.”

jka 8y ago
Is the Key:Values team (nice choice of name by the way!) familiar with Bryan Cantrill's talk on 'Principles of Technology Leadership'? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMGAtxUlAc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMGAtxUlAc It seems to resonate pretty closely with what you're building, so if it helps align or educate anyone (candidates, recruiters, or the team) that'd be neat. Edit: FWIW, the talk uses the term 'principle' to indicate what your site calls a 'value'; in practice I've seen tech companies talk about their 'core values' and so I think yours is very valid.
- jka 8y ago
  Ah, I read that the team is you at the moment :) Either way, hope it might help!
MediumD 8y ago
Most of my skepticism is not tied to the ambiguity of certain values but the discrepancy of what people claim to be the values, versus what actually happens day-to-day. I don't mean to come off critical of your product. Your goals are admirable and you've made a lot of progress. I just don't think I could trust total strangers that their company truly is all about _____ or ____. I love the name though! It's clever
Cyclone_ 8y ago
It might be interesting to let actual verified employees by having a company email, anonymously give feedback on whether or not the company lives up to its values
- lynnetye 8y ago
  I tend to work with many (and for small startups, all) of the current engineers on the team to write their profile. I also encourage companies to incorporate honest statements from their team members and provide links to their Github / LinkedIn / Twitter so that people can contact them if they want to reach out. I never found Glassdoor super helpful during my searches, so I didn’t go that route.

nck4222 8y ago

>'Open Communication' One of previous companies had this as a value. It was a startup, 5 engineers and the VP. You were expected to give honest critical feedback as well as positive, and were expected to receive both critical and positive feedback. It actually worked really well. There wasn't any politics, just people trying to become better engineers and deliver a quality product. Over a couple years we grew to 15-20 engineers, and devolved in to people writing multi-page emails to the VP, criticizing their colleagues (minor, or hard-to-measure things like "they don't refactor enough", or "they're happy writing poor quality code". Colleagues found out, and weren't happy a pier went behind they're back to criticize them to their manager. The VP didn't do anything, "Open Communication" was a core value, how can communicating problems be bad? Moral of the story is, even when a company has a good value, it still doesn't really tell you anything about them. All it takes one person to abuse it for their own gain, and a manager who can tell the difference, and it all falls apart.

hitekker 8y ago
>The VP didn't do anything More important than values, is the leadership that writes, promotes, and enforces those values. I'd personally like to see a website, more trustworthy and hard-hitting than glassdoor, which critiques leadership.
- reducesuffering 8y ago
  Blind
- nicoburns 8y ago
  Hmm... a non-commercial glassdoor-alike is an interesting proposition.