A copy of the following document is shared with each new hire at Marriage Pact.
The bedrock of sound relationships is compatible values. That’s why, when we ask a Marriage Pact question, we don’t bother with your interests, hobbies, or favorite ice cream flavors. We ask about your values, deep down.
Our team is large enough that you probably won’t get to know everyone straight away (though you should try!). Our values guide how we interact with each other, giving us common ground, no matter what we’re working on or who we’re working with. Further, they’re designed to be concrete and actionable on a daily basis.
This is an evolving list, and your input will always be welcome and important in shaping it.
Here are our core values at a glance:
Be insatiably curious
Take initiative
Take pride in the details
Focus on why, not what
Respectfully disagree
Communicate early and often
Optimists win
We ask lots of questions. The Marriage Pact team is made of people who ask, “why?”—of our teammates and customers alike. We wonder why the world is the way it is, and we question assumptions. Even when something is painful or uncomfortable, we dive in and get inquisitive.
On our team, we prize “learn it all”s over “know it all”s; we believe your rate of learning matters more than your starting position—so do your utmost to learn, not look smart.
Advice
If you don’t know something, say so.
Champion curious people: go out of your way to share your ideas in a way that’s understandable to those learning.
Seek out others’ questions so you can improve the quality of your work.
Keep in mind
“The right question is usually more important than the right answer.” Plato
A sense of urgency is one of our biggest competitive advantages—lean into it! Don’t wait for tomorrow. Don’t wait for someone to tell you what they want (whether that’s a teammate or an end user). Proactively look for things that need doing, and then do them. This takes a lot of intrinsic motivation, but we find it satisfying and believe that’s the kind of organization the best people want to work in.
To support this, we weed out and eliminate bureaucracy between intention and execution wherever possible. If you find something you think needs doing, you will be 100% supported in doing it regardless of whether or not it’s “your department”.
Advice
If you see something that needs doing, do it!
Keep in mind
Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. So take calculated risks!
Nothing sucks the energy out of the room faster than a leader reflexively saying ‘no’. Instead, approach with an air of “how might we do this?” At the end of the day we must prioritize and do few things well—but no’s will be justified.
We’re all on the same team. It doesn’t matter who came up with an idea or who completed it.
Everything you do has the potential to be your best work. So do your best work. We appreciate the craftsmanship in the products we create, which exists only because of the dedication of the people who made it. We value craftsmanship for its own sake, because it shows we care.
This doesn’t necessarily mean “add more details”—we talk about 80–20 solutions a lot. In practice, it means that every aspect should be highly considered. We’ll cut scope so we can devote our full attention to fewer things. We’ll be meticulous in our thought process so we can focus on elegance: making things that are pleasingly ingenious and simple.
Advice
It can be hard to go quickly and attend to our craft. Cut scope, not quality.
Keep in mind
Note that taking pride in the details doesn’t necessarily mean “add more details”—great craft is often simple (but pleasingly ingenious-ly so).
We want our team to be high-learning and low-ego. So, when communicating what you know or what you’re working on, don’t present it as gospel. Instead, concisely summarize the challenge you’re solving and all of the information someone would need to arrive at the right solution on their own. Don’t just give people the answer—show them how to untangle the problem. That way, everything we design will be derived and re-derivable from a defensible thought process, no matter who had it first.
Advice
Summarizing both (1) the challenge and (2) your thought process can be much harder to do than just sharing your solution. That’s OK—it’s worth it. It benefits both your audience and you! Invest the time you need to do this.
If your team arrives at the same solution you found, we’re probably on the right track. If other people arrive at a different solution than you did, despite being handed your thought process & reasons, that’s a good sign learning is about to happen. Be insatiably curious about why y’all diverged.
Keep in mind
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Unknown
We’ll only build great things if ideas face healthy examination. So, respectfully disagree with your collaborators. Challenge decisions or ideas when you disagree, and ardently attempt to change minds—even if you aren’t fully convinced of the idea yourself or if doing so feels uncomfortable. In fact, we wrote this down precisely because disagreeing can be uncomfortable at first! But have backbone; disagree in service of the end result.
In turn, support people when they disagree. Celebrate their courage, especially when they’re disagreeing with you. Always distinguish between the relationships you have with your teammates (whom we cherish) and the problems you solve together (around which we’ll zealously disagree).
Advice
Argue as if you are right; listen as if you are wrong.
Once a decision is made, give your all to it—even if you disagreed earlier.
Keep in mind
Being candid is ultimately more respectful than beating around the brush.
Invest in your relationships! After all, we’re Marriage Pact—we should know a thing or two about how to do that. As in all your best relationships, we value a foundation of humility, kindness, and respect. Acknowledge your teammates’ emotions, and lead with empathy.
We care about each other, so we solve problems together. Communication is one of the most important determining factors in the long-term success of a relationship. Here’s what that looks like in practice: In marriage counseling, they advise, “Bring things up early and bring them up often. Bring up problems when it’s so early, and when they’re so small, it almost seems silly to bring them up.” It may feel awkward at first, but problems are easier to solve when they’re small. We communicate about the small things so they don’t fester or grow until they’re too big to ignore.
Keep in mind
“The best time to plant a tree was thirty years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today.”
Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. So dream big. Be courageous. Embrace the unknown. Willfully and deliberately choose optimism, and reject cynicism. Building is harder than criticizing, but we are builders. We may sometimes fail, but it’s only the optimist that gets the chance to change the world.
Further, spread joy. Share your dreams and hopes with the team; inspire others, too. Your ideas, inspiration, and enthusiasm generate an energy that’s infectious across teams. Revel in that when you receive it from others, and amplify it back. Spread joy in this way, to your teammates and to our customers through the products and experiences we create.