Building a Values-Driven Organization
Looking back, one of the most important things we did in the early days of Petal was write down a set of company values.
We did this before we had a team, a product, or a dollar of funding. Our ideas about who we would hire, how we would act, and what our company would prioritize, among other things, were, at that time, completely hypothetical. It would be easy to think that spending time on values at that point was a waste.
But as any good product manager knows, it’s a mistake to start development without a specification. And an architect would never sign off on construction without detailed plans. As a founder, you’re not only building a product — you’re building an organization. Your values are your organizational blueprint.
And the reality is that over the course of building a high-growth technology company, you will actually develop a number of different organizations designed to accomplish different goals. As the company’s primary objective changes — from launching an MVP, to finding product-market fit, to scaling up, to expansion into additional categories — so too does the organization required to be successful. You may need a different operating model, a different team, and indeed, even a different culture, as you move from one phase of the journey to the next.
Your values, then, must be subject to some change. The ability to iterate on values — or, alter the “organizational blueprint” — as circumstances demand, is “a feature and not a bug.”
At Petal, we’ve revisited our values every couple of years and refreshed them for the challenges ahead. Each time, we incorporate new lessons and do our best to anticipate the next set of challenges that the company will face. As in an evolutionary process, some core aspects remain unchanged; but to that consistent core we add new capabilities and focus areas that (hopefully) match the next stage of our development.
Having doubled the size of our team in the last twelve months, and grown our business exponentially in 2021, we’ve clearly crossed over into the next phase of our journey — during which we aim to scale Petal to millions of members in the coming years. While we’ll continue to benefit from cultural attributes that helped us reach this point, we will also face a whole new set of challenges and responsibilities as a larger organization.
With that in mind, we engaged with our leadership and our team more broadly to revisit our values for 2021 and beyond. We consulted our strategy, analyzed our strengths and weaknesses, and did our best to anticipate our future needs. This helped us arrive at both a list of cultural attributes that we need to keep as the company grows, as well as a set of new capabilities we aim to develop or hone.
We then engaged in a comprehensive analysis of our business to determine where and how we could incorporate these attributes. We even held a cultural “hack-a-thon” to solicit the best ideas from the team on what we needed to change. And finally, we authored a new set of company values that reflect both the cultural elements that we aim to preserve, as well as the new areas of necessary growth.
With that preamble, I’m excited to share Petal’s next set of company values. I can say with confidence that these won’t be the last set of values that we’ll create, and of course they’re not perfect. But I’m also sure that we are better suited to tackle the challenges ahead with the benefit of a refreshed organizational blueprint, tailored for what’s to come. Now the hard work of living up to our values begins.
Petal’s Company Values (2021)
Do Right By the Customer
We build products to help our customers financially succeed. We act knowing that every decision we make impacts people’s lives: it’s not just a credit card, it’s a vacation, food on the table, engagement ring. We pledge to treat customers with fairness and transparency, and never to put our short-term financial gain ahead of their best interests. By doing the right thing for them, we do the right thing for us.
Be Brave
We are the bold champions of our mission. Never satisfied with the status quo, we have the courage to build something better. We take risks, try new things, and constantly challenge ourselves. We learn from the past but we don’t let it constrain us. We proactively speak the truth — no matter how difficult — and we’re open and honest when we come up short. It can be hard to be brave, but we do it for our teammates and for our members.
Listen Closely
We are a diverse set of individuals united by common purpose. We each have different skills, backgrounds, and experiences, and much to learn from each other. We all have valuable contributions to make, but not one of us is perfect. It’s by listening closely, practicing empathy, showing respect, and keeping a low ego that we discover new opportunities and solutions. We invite diverse voices and work collaboratively to accomplish our goals. We know that feedback is the fuel for progress and failure is an opportunity to improve.
Get it Done
We know the urgency of our work. People need better financial options and they need them now. We respond to this with speed, knowing that the cost of delay can be higher than the cost of a wrong decision. We each do our part to keep the team moving forward, refusing to be a blocker or to defer to tomorrow what we can do today. We are collaborative, but decisive. We listen to all points of view and choose a path forward — and we’re willing to commit, even when we disagree.
Seek Greatness
We’re here to do our best work and to be part of something that changes the world. Nobody thought we could do this, but we prove the doubters wrong by being better than they think we are. We stay positive in the face of obstacles, do what we say we will do, hold each other accountable, and achieve results day-in and day-out. We go the extra mile because we know the importance of our mission. And we each do our part: incredible individual contributions lead to incredible team results. It all starts with you.
Simplify
We work hard to make things simple.
