A good culture creates an environment where people can do their best work
The following section describes how we treat each other and operate day-to-day. Outlining our culture helps everyone understand how we interact and get work done in service of our mission. Some of these ideas are more aspirational than others, meaning they represent where we would like to be, not necessarily where we are today. Our goal as a team is to continually get closer to this, ideally.
First principles thinking
From the inception of Zywa, we have always been guided by first principles thinking which is one of the most effective strategies we can employ for breaking down complicated problems and generating original solutions. First principles thinking is a fancy way of saying âthink like a scientist.â Scientists donât assume anything. They start with questions like, What are we absolutely sure is true? What has been proven? First principles thinking requires us to dig deeper and deeper until we are left with only the foundational truths of a situation. In practice, we don't have to simplify every problem down to the atomic level to get the benefits of first principles thinking. We just need to go one or two levels deeper than most people.
Builder mindset
More than 70% of our team is comprised of engineers. We hire people who are passionate about creating new products with technology; entrepreneurs who are comfortable with ambiguity. We prefer to work with people who actually execute towards ideas, instead of just coming up with them.
Stay hungry, stay foolish
We work to preserve the founding moment â staying hungry and foolish, building just because it is fun, rapidly prototyping, and shipping embarrassing first versions.
Default to transparency
If someone states one thing, and then changes course and supports a different direction, point, or outcome, they should articulate this. It is OK to have our position changed by new data. Transparency has costs (distraction, etc.) but also great benefits (productivity, trust, etc). The people that do the most work will likely make the most mistakes. If you made a mistake, apologize as soon as possible. Saying sorry is not a sign of weakness but one of strength. Additionally, when we share our mistakes and bring attention to them, others can learn from us, and the same mistake is less likely to be repeated by someone else. Always default to communicating with the team as a whole: even if you ask someone a question, do it in a public Slack channel rather than a DM or private channel. Donât start private Slack channels or conduct business there. There are very few exceptions where this is preferred over a public channel. Share your work on Notion from the moment you start. No later than that. This makes it easier to collaborate, receive feedback, and deliver what is actually needed. There is no reason to keep things hidden until theyâve reached a state of âdoneâ.