The Rise8 Culture Manifesto

Why: We wrote this document to provide the intellectual underpinning of our culture and ensure it is well understood. We did not write this document to be memorizable or to have an immediate "go-do

How: We answered the question, "What does it mean to be part of the Rise8 team?"--where team is a group of individuals working together to achieve their goal with an agreed-to governance for how they will interact with one another.

What/Who: The purpose of this document is to attract and onboard new team members, continue reinforcement for existing members, inform other stakeholders, and educate people who want to learn from our example.

DISCLAIMER: We stand on the shoulders of giants. Rather than trying to be original, we tried to be authentic. When being authentic overlapped with other organizations we admire, we borrowed their inspirational language and tailored it to Rise8. ‍

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I. Summary

There is a new digital imperative and those who don't embrace it will be disrupted. We believe that humanity can't afford disruption in the most critical areas of our lives.  Enter Rise8. We exist to make the world work better. Our vision is a future where fewer bad things happen because of bad software and so our mission is to enable large enterprises to continuously deliver valuable software users love. Valuable implies that it is in production and generating mission or business impact. We achieve that by focusing on outcomes: changes in human behavior based on what they do with the features (outputs) we give them.

Enabling implies we not only deliver impact and outcomes, we also transform organizations so that they can deliver them.  To convince the bureaucracy to transform, we have to show them the value. We start small. One valuable capability users love, continuously delivered to one production environment to produce outcomes that create mission impact.  Then we scale. With our portfolio advisory and end-to-end software development capabilities-there's no limit to what we can build and the impacts we can have on the world.

To do all this, we relentlessly optimize for learning velocity, a big culture change for large enterprises. Changing the culture of large enterprises is not a hero's task-it takes a dream team aligned on the biggest impacts.  Our core values are what differentiate us. We keep it real / about outcomes in production / achieved through grit and a growth mindset / with no unnecessary rules. Every aspect of our dream team-the people, the culture, and every decision we make-can be traced back to those core values. We also have permission-to-play values: be bold, do the right thing, do what works, do what is required, and always be kind.  Do is repeated three times. Do, Do, Do. Execute, execute, execute. It is boldness that enables action. It enables us to put justice, wisdom, and temperance to use. Kindness is implied at the intersection of what is right, what works, and what is required... but we call it out as a special reminder because the bold can often be unintentional jerks.

It's easy to write admirable values; it's harder to live them. We want everyone to help each other live the values and hold each other accountable for being role models. To do that we cultivate meaningful relationships and meaningful work, which are mutually reinforcing and supported by radical truth and radical transparency.  This is the foundation of a dream team. This is Prodacity.

A dream team's #1 focus is the customer, and at Rise8 we start with the customer and work backwards. The customer, not the Highest Paid Person's Opinion (HiPPO), determines what works (and what doesn't).  To figure out what works, we have principles to optimize for learning. These are our values in action.

It starts with creating an idea meritocracy, specifically one that can generate big ideas--thinking small is a self fulfilling prophecy! For an idea meritocracy to work, everyone has to be willing to disagree, decide, and commit with a bias for action. Opinions should be held strongly on culture, moderately on process, and loosely on implementation. After hearing the team's ideas, the team captain makes the decision and we commit until we have enough data to change course.

Working on big ideas and committing to decisions doesn't mean waterfall, though. No matter what we decide, we always start small and deliver fast, forever. Forever means we don't allow debt to accumulate for the sake of short term gains.

There will be lessons learned. Learning requires that we actively seek and provide feedback; passive acceptance is not enough. Make feedback active-active.  The last principle warrants special consideration. For all this to be a reality, it is everyone's responsibility to make it safe to learn. At the core of everything we do is the idea that it is okay to make mistakes, and unacceptable not to learn from them.

We want employees in their first few months to be surprised at how accurate this culture description is to the actual culture they experience.  Our true culture is evidenced by what we do. We always seek to stay true to what works best, while at the same time avoiding the trap of replacing what works with what sounds good. The evidence that our culture works is found in the long term data showing that we are moving closer to our purpose, vision, mission, and goals.

Every person who joins us can help us to find new and better ways of working together. And every person who has been here long enough to see results helps us protect against replacing what works with what sounds good. Never lose sight of the fact that our culture as defined is tailor made to enable our purpose of making the world work better and delivering a future where fewer bad things happen because of bad software. The degree to which we stay true to the values, principles, and ways of working that work, is the degree to which we will be able to continuously deliver valuable software users love by way of outcomes in production and mission impact.

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II. There is a new digital imperative

INTRODUCTION‍

Since 2000, over half the companies on the Fortune 500 have been displaced. Marc Andreesen famously penned that software is eating the world. If software is eating the world, that includes the most critical aspects of our lives, too: government, war, public health, our environment, and so much more. These are areas where we cannot afford disruption. Our purpose is to make the world work better and we envision a future where fewer bad things happen because of bad software. "Fewer bad things" means that like software, our job is never done.

To advance our purpose we will become the best company in the world at enabling large enterprises to continuously deliver valuable software that users love. That mission may change over time based on the next most important thing we need to do in service of our purpose and vision. Valuable implies that it is in production and generating mission or business impact. We achieve that by focusing on outcomes: changes in human behavior based on what they do with the features (outputs) we give them.

Enabling implies we not only deliver impact and outcomes, we also transform organizations so that they can deliver them. To convince the bureaucracy to transform, we have to show them the value. We start small. One valuable capability users love, continuously delivered to one production environment to produce outcomes that create mission impact. Then we scale. With our portfolio advisory and end-to-end software development capabilities-there's no limit to what we can build and the impacts we can have on the world. Think big, start small, scale fast.

TO DISRUPT, OR TO BE DISRUPTED

Disruption is inevitable, and it can either happen to you or by you. We believe the key to becoming the disruptor is learning the fastest; that's the team that has the advantage. We optimize everything-our people, processes, and technologies-for learning fast. As described in the book Accelerate:

"In today's fast-moving and competitive world, the best thing you can do for your products, your company, and your people is to institute a culture of experimentation and learning and invest in the technical and management capabilities that enable it".

Optimizing everything for learning drives an unusual culture, at least by government and large enterprise standards. That is why we wrote this document!

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III. Transformation starts with a dream team!

The customer experience starts with the employee experience. We know that to achieve outcomes for our customers, we have to invest in our employee experience... first. We model ourselves on being a team. Our version of a great workplace is a dream team aligned to the biggest outcomes, for which we spend heavily. As noted in the DevOps Handbook, "You can't reorganize your way to continuous improvement and adaptiveness. Success lies in developing capability and habits in your people. It's how they act and react". We want Rise8 to be the team where you grow the most and have the most fun. Like all great teams, we aim to put the best people in the right positions-where best includes being an 8x team player. What is special about Rise8, though, is how much we...

• keep it real
• about outcomes in prod
• achieved through grit and a growth mindset with no unnecessary rules

Our core philosophies are people over process and technology, and learning over being right. More specifically, we have great people working together as a collaborative team to learn what works for our customers. Ultimately, this encourages flexibility and creativity that benefits both the customer and employee experience.

To have our entire organization be a dream team is challenging. First, we have to hire well. Not just for skill and ability, but especially for values and principles. We want to grow a star in every position. That starts with the coach ensuring that every player on the field crushes at their position and that

1+1 is greater than 2. A dream team is about pushing yourself to be the best teammate you can be, caring intensely about your teammates, and knowing you may not be on the team forever.

Every aspect of our dream team-the people, the culture, and every decision we make-can be traced back to our core values.
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IV. Core Values

We must view and make decisions through the lens of our core values or we will fail before we start. Our values determine who gets hired, who gets fired, the partners we work with, the clients we work for, and every other decision we make. The more these values sound like you and describe people you want to work with, the more likely you will thrive at Rise8. At Rise8 we make the world work better by enabling the continuous delivery of valuable software users love. Valuable means impact, achieved through outcomes in production. We are uncovering better ways of delivering impact by doing it and helping others do it. Through our work we have come to the following core values. You've seen them already:

KEEP IT REAL

We never shy away from who we are and what we believe—authentic. We care deeply and we challenge directly—radical candor. When we fail, we don't hide it—transparent. We are always authentic, transparent, and engaged in radical candor... even in the face of it being weaponized against us. Most of all, we are who we say we are as measured by the stack of undeniable proof we accumulate. If we can't prove it, it's not real, and we don't say it.

OUTCOMES IN PRODUCTION

We are purpose-driven, dedicated to serving something beyond our own self-interests: mission impact. Output is meaningless unless it drives the desired impact. Outcomes bridge the gap between output and mission impact. Outcomes only exist in production, or as we like to say, "prod or it didn't happen". We constantly communicate with our customers to ensure we are addressing their biggest pains and to provide a transparent picture of our process. We can have the greatest impact by focusing on solving the most important problems in the overlap between the user and the mission

GRIT

‍Talent alone is insufficient for high achievement; instead, it is grit—the unwavering dedication and resilience in the face of challenges—that differentiates those who reach their goals from those who do not. Grit is the powerful combination of passion and perseverance directed toward achieving long-term goals. It is more than just working hard; it involves sustained effort and continuous interest over extended periods, often spanning years or even decades. This quality is crucial for overcoming obstacles, setbacks, and plateaus in progress. It requires a steadfast commitment to one's pursuits, driven by a deep-seated passion that fuels persistent effort.

GROWTH MINDSET 

‍We believe that abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication, hard work, and perseverance. This mindset contrasts with a fixed mindset, where individuals believe that their talents and intelligence are static traits that cannot change. People with a growth mindset are more likely to embrace challenges, learn from criticism, and persist in the face of setbacks, ultimately leading to higher levels of achievement and success. Along the way, your two biggest barriers to growth will be your ego and your blind spots. Step outside your ego and empathize with others. Empathy and kindness foster trust and effective team decision-making. The highest form of empathy is meeting people where they are without expectation of change. Start there and iterate towards incremental change. Expose your blind spots. Remember that prod is the ultimate arbiter of truth, not anyone's resume. Identify the hypotheses and test them quickly. We're less afraid of being wrong than we are of losing opportunities or the chance for feedback by moving too slowly. Every incremental action, validated or invalidated, is an opportunity to learn as quickly and cheaply as we can. In every interaction, we encourage members to think about whether they are playing the role of a teacher, a student, or a peer and whether they should be teaching, asking questions, or debating.

NO UNNECESSARY RULES

‍Traditional management practices, laden with rigid policies and micromanagement, can stifle creativity and hinder a company's ability to adapt quickly to changing market conditions. By eliminating superfluous rules, we can empower Risers and customers to take initiative and make decisions autonomously, which leads to greater ownership and accountability. This approach hinges on having highly talented individuals who are capable of exercising sound judgment. Instead of relying on extensive guidelines, the emphasis is placed on clear communication, context over control, and fostering a high level of trust within the organization

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V. Permission-to-Play Values

‍Permission-to-play values are the minimum standards that someone must meet to work with a company. They are often confused with core values, but they don't distinguish the company. We believe that all standards can be derived from these five:

• Be bold ‍
• Do the right thing ‍
• Do what works ‍
• Do what is required
• Be kind

Do is repeated three times after being bold to emphasize the importance of action. In the words of one of the user groups we support: execute, execute, execute. That is, we expect Risers and Dream Teams to take bold action. How we do that is important. It needs to be the right action, the right way, for the right reason, right now. The first four align to the cardinal virtues: courage, justice, wisdom, and temperance. We included "be kind", even though we believe it is implied by the first four values, so that we never lose sight of it!

Here's some additional context for the first four Permission to Play Values:

Be Bold (Courage). Courage is the resilience to face difficulties, fear, and challenges with inner strength. It involves enduring hardship, embracing discomfort, and acting rightly, even when it's difficult or unpopular. In practice:

• I say what I think, when it's in the best interest of the team, even if it is uncomfortable.
• I make tough decisions without agonizing. I take smart risks and am open to possible failure.
• I question actions inconsistent with our values. I am able to be vulnerable in search of truth.

I understand attitude drives behavior, which drives results-no cynicism. Cynicism is cowardice. Instead I have the courage to be optimistic about what we can achieve, bringing a positive attitude at all times. I also have the courage to question everything, looking at the problem from every angle to ensure we achieve what is possible. I spot problems for the purpose of identifying and mitigating risk while finding solutions to enable success. I am quietly confident and openly humble. I finish what I start. I represent and evangelize the brand.

Do the Right Thing (Justice). Justice is the commitment to fairness, integrity, and respect in treating others. It is about recognizing our shared humanity, fulfilling social responsibilities, and promoting equality and kindness. In practice:

• I recognize that what injures the hive also injures the bee, and that seeking the very best in ourselves means actively caring for the welfare of others.
• I honor equality, strive to do good, and avoid anything that would harm others.
• I seek what is best for the customer and company, rather than what is best for myself or my group. For instance, I make time to help colleagues and I share information openly and proactively.
• I am known for candor, authenticity, transparency, and being non-political.
• I only say things about fellow employees that I say to their face. I admit mistakes freely and openly.
• I treat people with respect regardless of their status or disagreement with them.

Do What Works (Wisdom). Wisdom is the ability to discern what is true and enduring. It emphasizes sound judgment, understanding cause and effect, and applying knowledge to make effective decisions. In practice:

• I make wise decisions despite ambiguity. I identify root causes, and get beyond treating symptoms.
• I think strategically and can articulate what I am, and am not, trying to do.
• I am good at using data to inform my intuition.
• I make decisions based on long term, durable decisions, not near term. I use my judgment to proactively anticipate needs.
• I learn rapidly and eagerly. I contribute effectively outside of my specialty. I make connections others miss.
• I seek to understand our customers around the world and how we serve them. I seek alternate perspectives.
• I am open-minded in search of great ideas.
• I create new ideas that prove valuable. I re-conceptualize issues to discover solutions to hard problems.
• I challenge prevailing assumptions and suggest better approaches. I keep us nimble by minimizing complexity and finding time to simplify.
• I thrive on change.

Do What is Required (Temperance). Temperance is the practice of self-control, moderation, and balance. It means mastering desires, avoiding excess, and maintaining composure to live harmoniously within one's limits. In practice:

• I acknowledge that abundance comes from having what is essential.
• I exhibit self-control, harmony, and good discipline always—in pleasure or pain, admiration or contempt, failure or triumph.
• I guard against extremes. "If you seek tranquility, do less.' Or (more accurately) do what's essential—what the logos of a social being requires, and in the requisite way. Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better. Because most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.24

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VI. Prodacity

‍Prodacity is how we sum up all aspects of our dream team. It's a willingness to take bold risks to get to prod and to learn from it. Prodacity is at the core of making the world work better with software. It's about empowering yourself and everyone around you to make deliberate, autonomous decisions. Inspire confidence in yourself and those around you to respectfully disagree, decide, and commit with a bias for action. Leverage a continuous path to prod to lower the tail risk of a bad decision. Then, commit to decisions in an effort to move and learn quickly, but be willing to call out when prod tells you things aren't going well. Let prod humble you, dust yourself off, and adjust course.

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VII. Message from Leadership

‍This document is a lot easier to write than it is to live. Just like it takes a dream team to execute great product, it takes a dream team to execute great culture. We have to help each other and hold each other accountable to living our values. To do that we cultivate meaningful relationships and meaningful work, which are mutually reinforcing and supported by radical truth and radical transparency. Meaningful relationships start by giving more consideration to others than we demand for ourselves. When highly capable people work together in a collaborative context, they inspire each other to be more creative, more productive, and ultimately more successful than they could be as a collection of individuals.

Transformational leaders value inspiration and context over management and control. We trust teams to do what they think is best for the mission-providing them inspiration and context for alignment alongside decentralized autonomous decision-making. Small diverse teams drive our work, and make 80% of the decisions. In turn, this generates a sense of responsibility and self-discipline that drives us to do great work that benefits the organization. While our teammates are the dopest and we make a kickass team, we know we can always do better. Never satisfied, we suck compared to how great we want to become...

You're here because you intensely feel the call of duty. Driven, we rise. You believe we're stronger when we respect each other, invest in each other, and succeed in unity. Together, we rise. You have unique talents and that crazy tenacity it takes to do the hard, meaningful work that others don't have the stomach for. Forever, we rise. Your duty, unity, and tenacity shine through in ways that raise the bar for all of us. Never stop. Driven, together, forever we accelerate each other in pursuit of our purpose.

Together, we are one Rise8 and we approach every interaction with empathy, sincerity, and respect. In turn, this creates an environment of trust that cultivates inclusive teams to amplify our strengths. Unity isn't just internal-we're in the business of building relationships outside of our workplace. The better we collaborate, the more effective we are. When we're working well in unison, we're unstoppable in our awe-inspiring purpose to continuously deliver a future where fewer bad things happen because of bad software!

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VIII. A dream team's #1 focus is the customer

‍Our ideal customers would say, "without mission impact, there's no us," and without those customers there's no Rise8. So we work backward from the impact they need, with a laser focus on end-user outcomes in prod. Our dream teams bridge the gap between output and impact.

We step outside our ego to listen, learn, and engage with users everywhere. Then we work like crazy to earn and keep customer trust. For each iteration, the customer is the arbiter of what worked (and what didn't), so considering the collective user perspective comes first. To learn what works for customers we have...

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VIII. Principles to Optimze for Learning Fast

‍These principles form the basis of our culture and are built upon the values described above. They are intended to be more concrete and more easily translated to guidance in a practical situation. We consider them values-in-action.

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IX. Create an idea meritocracy

‍‍‍An idea meritocracy must put ideas over titles--the best ideas win, not the highest-paid person's opinions (HiPPOs). That means the role of leadership becomes providing context, not exercising control. Leaders focus on providing those they lead with the context they need to make good decisions. Command and control crushes ideas and stifles learning. We want employees to be prodacious independent decision-makers, and to only ask management when they are unsure of the right decision. The leader's job at every level is to set clear context so that everyone has the right information to make amazing decisions. Top-down is too slow at scale and we believe we are most effective and innovative when decisions are owned at the lowest level. We avoid at all costs what Safi Bahcall described as the Moses Trap: "when ideas advance only at the pleasure of a holy leader - rather than the balanced exchange of ideas and feedback between soldiers in the field and creatives at the bench selecting loonshots on merit - that is exactly when teams get trapped." There are very few exceptions to "context not control."  Pleasing your boss is not an "outcome" we strive for. Instead, seek to serve the mission.

It’s OK to disagree with your leadership. It's never OK to hide anything. Do the right thing and if you think a senior stakeholder might disagree ask, "Do you want to specifically override my decision." Don't execute on assumptions about what management would want. While we need to test assumptions about our product, when it comes to assumptions about managers one can simply ask.

Leaders should create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. Teams are encouraged to think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers. All members should have the courage and resourcefulness to spark change to make better our products, our people, our place. We encourage everyone to make bold decisions, even if that means being wrong some of the time.

To have the biggest impact, we need to focus on solving the most important problems. It sounds simple, but most organizations do this poorly and waste a lot of time. We expect everyone at Rise8 to be good at finding the biggest problems to work on--we don't shy away from large organizations' biggest problems. We believe the courage to chase bold ideas will make impossible dreams come true for users. We make bold, focused bets aimed at advancing the mission landscape. We don't want to "build them faster horses" as the saying goes.

Once we know our customers' unserved or under-served needs, we need big ideas. Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. We encourage everyone to be owners--think long-term and don't sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. Each member acts on behalf of the entire organization, beyond just their own team. They never say "that's not my job." We expect and require innovation and invention from our teams and always find ways to simplify. We are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by "not invented here." As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.

It's important to be explicit that an idea meritocracy benefits from diversity and inclusion. That doesn't mean we focus on superficial characteristics and arbitrary quotas, but precisely the opposite. We never want to miss out on the best ideas, for any reason. We hire people who have strong judgment and good instincts--that means they seek to include alternate perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs. They respect and value uniqueness and diversity of thought. We mean everyone, everywhere, at all times, regardless of background, level or circumstance. Ideas are richer and execution is stronger when everyone feels included. It is important to clarify, though, that we do not seek diversity in core beliefs, values, and principles-those are what unite us and give us purpose!

Having an effective idea meritocracy requires that we understand the merit of each person's ideas. As a team we have a responsibility to believability-weight our decision making. When we have a tough problem to solve, we find the most believable people possible who disagree with us and try to understand their reasoning. We spend a lot of time thinking about people's believability in order to assess the likelihood that their opinions are good. Believable opinions are most likely to come from people 1) who have successfully accomplished the thing in question at least three times, and 2) who have great explanations of the cause-effect relationships that lead them to their conclusions. Regardless, we care less about people's conclusions and more about the reasoning that led them to their conclusions.

That doesn't mean we don't try things that haven't been tried before! If someone hasn't done something but has a theory that seems logical and can be stress-tested, then by all means, test it! Inexperienced people can have great ideas too, sometimes far better ones than more experienced people. But experimentation only works if everyone is up-front and honest in expressing how confident they are in their thoughts. Not every risk works out but some do, so...

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X. Disagree, decide, and commit with a bias for action

‍We put radical truth and radical transparency at the forefront of our culture so we can surface disagreements and make better decisions. We believe--deeply--that we have nothing to fear from knowing the truth. But everyone has to play by those same rules. Stated another way, we only play with honest players--we have integrity and demand it from others. We don't say anything about someone that we wouldn't say to them directly, and nobody on the team allows someone to try people in the court of opinion without them present. It goes deeper than that, though. It also means that we don't let loyalty to people, even our own, stand in the way of truth and the well-being of the team. Open disagreement often leads to conflicts, and conflicts are essential for great relationships because they are how people determine whether their principles are aligned and resolve their differences.

We devote incredible time and energy to getting in sync, because it's the best investment we can make. A dream team knows how to get in sync and disagree well. They surface areas of possible out-of-syncness, distinguish between idle complaints and complaints meant to lead to improvement. Remember that every story has another side, and are open-minded and assertive at the same time. We watch out for people who think it's embarrassing not to know and we ensure that those in charge are open-minded about the questions and comments of others. Making suggestions and questioning are not the same as criticizing, so we don't treat them as if they are.

Finally, dream teams recognize that getting in sync is a two-way responsibility: team members are reasonable and expect others to be reasonable. We make every decision, big or small, with care. We should have strategic patience, and tactical urgency. Another aspect of our culture of transparency is the aim to ensure that teams know who is doing what, by when, and why, which unlocks the best work experiences and outcomes. Everyone has the right to understand what makes sense. We said before we expect all employees to act like an owner, and that means they need access to information. We share documents internally--broadly and systematically. It might be hard sometimes, but the value of highly-informed employees is well worth it. Informed people make better decisions and have a greater impact, which is why we work hard to make sure everyone at Rise8 has access to as much information about the organization as possible.

In turn we ask that anyone who disagrees speaks up and owns it. No one has the right to hold a critical opinion without speaking up. Members are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. They should have conviction and be tenacious.

We do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. We are extremely open, sharing even the things that are hardest to share and keeping exceptions to radical transparency very rare. Radical transparency is not for everyone! Being the recipient can often be painful, but pain brings growth. If you want an environment of radical transparency, you have a responsibility to handle it well and to weigh things intelligently. Finally, remember the note about honest players--those who would misuse or weaponize transparency are denied it.

At the same time, voice rights shouldn't be conflated with decision rights. For every significant decision above the product team level there is a responsible captain of the ship who makes a judgment call after sharing and digesting others' views. Groups will meet about topics and debate them, but then afterwards someone needs to make a decision and be that "captain." We avoid committees making decisions because that would slow us down, and diffuse responsibility and accountability. We make decisions using the best information we have at the time, understanding it is better to be wrong and learn than it is to delay. Speed matters. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. Small decisions may be shared just by email, larger ones will merit a memo with discussion of the various positions, and why the captain made such a decision.

The bigger a decision, the more extensive the dissent/assent gathering should be, usually in an open shared document. We are clear, however, that decisions are not made by a majority or committee vote. We don't wait for consensus, nor do we drive to rapid, uninformed decision making. When the captain of any particular decision is reasonably confident of the right bet for us to take, they decide and we take that bet. Afterwards, as the impact becomes clearer, we reflect on the decision, and see if we could do even better in the future. If you disagree on a material issue, it is your responsibility to explain why you disagree, ideally in both discussion and in writing. The back and forth of discussion can clarify the different views, and pithy writing of the core issues helps people reflect on what is the wise course, as well as making it easy to share your views widely.

The informed captain on that decision has the responsibility to welcome, understand, and consider your opinions, but may not agree. Once the captain makes a decision, we expect everyone to help make it as successful as possible. Later, if significant new information becomes available, it is fine to ask the captain to revisit the topic and pivot when necessary. Silent disagreement is unacceptable and unproductive. But once a decision is determined, members commit wholly. Whatever the decision, though, we strive to...

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XI. Start small and deliver fast, forever

‍Every minute that goes by without validation by real users in a real production environment is RISK. We break work down into small chunks and prioritize the validation of our riskiest assumptions. We don't try to boil the ocean. We seek to accomplish more with what we have (but not with some arbitrary idea of "less"). Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.

We collaborate across teams to deliver holistic experiences to users by learning, iterating, and improving.

Throughout most of the government and large enterprises, there is an unhealthy emphasis on process and not much freedom. Specifically, we see a dominance of processes that hinder rather than facilitate continuous delivery and learning. It didn't start that way, but the chains of process tightened every time something went wrong. We aren't the first team to challenge that, but as the informal, smooth-running operations of the rebellions start to break down, pockets of chaos emerge, and the general outcry is to "grow up" and add traditional management and process to reduce the chaos. They start to value rules following above all else. To guard against that here we are explicit: at Rise8 we will always put continuous delivery of value to the customer above all else. This is not a rebellion, it's a revolution! We don't need to "grow up", just grow; and that means when something goes wrong we ask if the situation could have been avoided with more context or even less process. The answer is almost always: yes!

As teams and their products grow, they often become highly centralized and inflexible. We avoid this by being highly aligned and loosely coupled. We spend a lot of time debating strategy together, and then trust each other to execute on tactics without prior approval. Often, two groups working on the same goals won't know of, or have approval over, their peer activities. If, later, the activities don't seem right, we have a candid discussion. We may find that the strategy was too vague or the tactics were not aligned with the agreed strategy. And we generally discuss how we can do better in the future. The success of a highly aligned, loosely coupled work environment is dependent upon the collaborative efforts of high performance individuals and effective context. Ultimately, the end goal is to grow the team for bigger impact while increasing flexibility and agility. We seek to be big, fast and nimble. We believe operational excellence will unlock us to deliver better experiences in the long run. We set ambitious goals, measure ourselves against results, and continually iterate towards improvement. That requires us to...

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XII. Actively seek and give feedback

‍While we celebrate our wins, we also learn from our errors and challenge ourselves to evolve. We value feedback as an essential part of improvement. This aspect of our culture is one of the hardest for new people, especially those coming from a large bureaucracy, to believe - and to learn to practice

In most situations, both social and work, those who consistently say what they really think are quickly isolated and banished. That is not the case here, but do understand that speaking your mind requires equal parts brains (what to say), thoughtfulness (when to say it), and caring (how it's said). We work hard to get people to give each other professional, constructive feedback up, down and across the organization - on a continual basis.

People frequently ask others, "What could I be doing better?" and themselves, "What feedback have I not yet shared?" Feedback helps us to avoid sustained misunderstandings and the need for rules. Feedback is more easily exchanged if there is a strong underlying relationship and trust between people, which is part of why we invest time in developing those professional relationships. We actively help people learn how to do this at Rise8 through coaching and modeling the behaviors we want to see in every employee.

Leaders demonstrate that they are all fallible and open to feedback. We expect them to be vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders also have to be able to give quality, constructive feedback--which is why we expect leaders to operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and be skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ.

We believe there is always more to learn from each other, from users, and from the world. We know that our best work is tied to authenticity, which allows for growth and collaboration. We bring our whole selves to work and commit to building an inclusive environment in which all people feel safe and excited about being their full selves. We believe that a more open world is a better world. The same goes for our team.

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XIII. Make it safe to learn  

‍We move fast so we can innovate through experimentation and learn faster. We're less afraid of being wrong than we are of losing opportunities or the chance for feedback by moving too slowly. Every incremental action, whether validated or invalidated, is an opportunity to learn as quickly and cheaply as we can. We're in love with customer problems more than our solutions. We walk in our customers' shoes and experiment our way to success. The only failure is the failure to learn fast. As Humble and Kim said in the DevOps Handbook, "By removing blame, you remove fear; by removing fear, you enable honesty; and honesty enables prevention." At the core of everything we do is the idea that it is okay to make mistakes, and unacceptable not to learn from them. Mistakes are a natural part of the evolutionary process, so optimize for being wrong and don't feel bad about your mistakes or those of others. Love them! We don't worry about looking good-we worry about achieving our goals.

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XIV. Improvement Kata all the Things! ‍

!We want employees in their first few months to be surprised at how accurate this culture description is to the actual culture they experience. Our true culture is evidenced by what we do. We always seek to stay true to what works best, while at the same time avoiding the trap of replacing what works with what sounds good. The evidence that our culture works is found in the long term data showing that we are moving closer to our purpose, vision, mission, and goals. The entire purpose of culture is to enable a group's purpose. Every person who joins us can help us to find new and better ways of working together. And every person who has been here long enough to see results helps us protect against replacing what works with what sounds good.

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XV. Closing

‍We wrote this document to provide the intellectual underpinning of our culture and ensure it is well understood. We answered the question, "What does it mean to be part of the Rise8 team?" by explaining the values and principles that allow us to advance our purpose of making the world work better with software. The smaller the gap between what we say here and what we do, the better we can achieve our mission of enabling large enterprises to continuously deliver valuable software users love. That is how we deliver a future where fewer bad things happen because of bad software and do our part to make the world work better.