<aside> 👉 “*Culture is the collection of business practices, processes, and interactions that make up the work environment.” — [startupceo.com](https://startupceo.com/2015/06/the-difference-between-culture-and-values#:~:text=Values guide decision-making and,values should never really change.&text=Value changes are few and far between.)*
</aside>
What is it like to work at Datapane? We try and put Our Values into play every day to build an extraordinary culture.
We’re a fully remote team, with a centre of gravity that is currently in the UK and Ireland. We love remote, but we don’t take for granted that being a great remote team provides unique challenges. This means we take high-fidelity communication seriously.
We mostly work asynchronously, so we don’t have set hours where you have to show facetime and look like you’re working. We like to write things down and opt for clarity, and we think that fewer meetings are better.
This also provides flexibility, which we love. Want to pop to the gym in the afternoon or take the afternoon off to hang out with your partner? Fantastic. The only time we need you synchronously is on our fortnightly company call and team-specific morning standups. We use Zulip to communicate and Linear to organize projects and work, which are perfectly suited to this mode of operation.
Nobody likes an asshole, so we expect everyone to be fair and friendly. This doesn’t mean we shy away from giving feedback or challenging opinions, but everything should be done in a charitable and empathetic manner. We don’t have any appetite for infighting, power tripping, or creating fiefdoms.
We don’t like to stagnate and move with a sense of urgency. Making good decisions quickly is hard, so we have a few tricks to help us.
It’s easy to get bogged down by a previous decision which was made with different context. We like to challenge dogmas and think about problems from first principles. Nothing is sacred here, and we are free to challenge everything. We find this means we can move more quickly and make decisions with greater impact.
What can solve 80% of the problem with 20% of the effort? If we can avoid doing something, that is a huge win. We love taking shortcuts.
Oftentimes we aren’t all aligned on the best path forwards. Once we’ve made a decision, it’s important to note your disagreement and commit to helping the company achieve this path. This also means never saying “I told you so”, which is often tempting but very unproductive.
We believe that great management provides context and feedback and that the best people can be trusted to work autonomously and independently. This is reflected in how we structure communication to How we build products using Basecamp’s Shape Up framework.