Values
These values are what we value at Bonusly. They aren’t just nice-sounding words on a poster somewhere, but a succinct description of our culture and what it’s like to work here. We use these values to guide our day-to-day activities and decision-making, from how we respond to customer emails to the roles we hire for to the features we build.
The initial list of these values were created at our first company retreat, when Bonusly was a team of seven people.
- Go get results
- Communicate
- Default to transparency
- Work smarter, not harder
- Help out
- Seek and embrace diversity
- Delight the customer
Go get results 
You can think of this value in two parts: “go get” and “results”. The first part speaks to our strong bias toward action. If there’s something you want to make, improve, change, or get rid of -- go do it. Need input or feedback? Chat with some colleagues on Slack. Need copywriting, engineering or design resources? Recruit those colleagues by rallying them to your cause. Whatever you do, avoid what Netflix calls “analysis paralysis”.
The second part (“results”) speaks to the primacy of outputs. We don’t particularly value inputs - how the work gets done. What matters is getting the work done and measuring the impact of this work after completing it. Do the results match up with your goals? Is there more room for improvement? Were there unintended consequences (good or bad)?
Share the results from your work (see our values of “Communicate” and “Default to Transparency”): if they’re great, you’ll be swimming in bonuses. If they weren’t what you hoped for, no big deal - get some input from the team and then keep executing until the results are great.
Communicate 
We hire team members who we believe will make us smarter and better at what we're trying to do. In order to succeed at becoming smarter and better as a whole, it's essential for us to communicate.
What does communication mean at Bonusly?
- You actively solicit input on work you’re doing.
- You listen before giving your opinion.
- You contribute your ideas.
- You keep your cool in stressful interactions.
- You treat your colleagues with respect at all times, especially times of disagreement.
- You have the courage to contribute on topics, even if they are not in your realm of responsibilities or expertise.
Default to transparency 
We don’t just occasionally share our internal metrics -- we make them available in real time. Any member of Bonusly can log in to our internal dashboard and see our up-to-date metrics: revenue, burn, churn, runway, etc. This ensures that people have the information they need to come up with novel solutions and act on them.
On an individual level, we candidly share stories of our successes, failures, challenges, and interests so that we can learn from and support one another.
Work smarter, not harder 
At Bonusly, we’re able to move quickly and effectively with a very small team by ensuring that every team member is not simply executing on tactical-level tasks, but is also evaluating, improving, (and ideally automating) how those tasks get executed. Moreover, team members are encouraged to question if specific tasks are even necessary, and seek growth via subtraction .
Working smarter also means knowing yourself and how you work best. Where do you work best? With what tools? At what times? How much R&R do you need in order to perform at your best? What skills/knowledge do you need to acquire in order to take your output to the next level? At Bonusly, you have the freedom, and the responsibility, to answer these questions for yourself.
Help out 
Share knowledge, teach skills, and otherwise help out your colleagues whenever possible. “Not my job” isn’t in our vocabulary. Also, helping out doesn’t mean waiting to be asked for help. You proactively offer help and support whenever it seems appropriate. You give selflessly of your time and expertise to help others on the team.
Helpfulness also comes into play with the level of conscientiousness and proactivity used to identify and resolve problems. Our friends at CB Insights have this great framework for levels of helpfulness .
Of course, we all get busy from time to time, so occasionally the answer might be “Not now, but have some free time later today” or “after I ship this big feature tomorrow”.
Seek and embrace diversity 
Our industry has well-documented problems when it comes to workplace diversity . This fact makes it easy for tech companies to skew everything from their employment policies to the features they develop toward the needs of the dominant group - which is both a disservice to our customers and reinforces the lack of diversity in our industry.
We work better when we include a diversity of opinions and ideas. This means encouraging input from everyone on the team, and also seeking to add people to the team from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in our industry.
Our dedication to diversity goes beyond simply putting equal opportunity copy on our job descriptions. We use tools (like Textio ) to eliminate gender bias from the language of our job postings, and actively seek out applicants from diverse backgrounds. And we invite feedback from job applicants and employees alike about how we can better embrace diversity. We all have unconscious biases , and welcome your help in identifying and mitigating them.
Delight the customer 
This is a value as old as business itself, but it’s fundamental to how we operate at Bonusly. We are a business, and the only way we can stay in business is by attracting and retaining customers.
At Bonusly, everyone focuses on the customer -- their needs, challenges, feedback, ideas, and behaviors. This focus is foundational to everything we do, because we don’t just serve customers -- we delight them.