How we strive to create an awesome workplace.
Values
Philosophie was founded with a simple objective: “make cool stuff and have fun doing it.” From the very beginning, we placed equal emphasis on an outstanding work product and an outstanding process to create it. This concept still echoes in everything we do, and is codified in our core values, which we call “Philosophers’ Stones.” I believe that these values, and how we apply them internally, combine to make Philosophie one of the best workplaces for creative software professionals.
We call our first value “Same Team,” and it refers to how we align ourselves internally and with our clients. Many professional services firms feel pressure to prioritize client needs over those of their staff. While staying up all night to meet an arbitrary client deadline may win you points, it isn’t a smart way to provide a reliable service in the long-run. Instead, we’ve pioneered a process that is designed to create a shared sense of responsibility, open communication, and a high degree of collaboration between our teammates and our clients.
Our second value is “People Before Pixels.” Even though we focus on creating technology products, we strive to not lose sight over the fact that the things we do and make are for people and by people. Before making any decision, we make sure that we’ve asked “why” through this lens, so we understand the impact that the decision will have on people.
Our third value is “Less, but Better.” With respect to our team, this is expressed in the form of a sustainable work pace. We work 40 hours a week and respect our colleagues’ nights and weekends as their time to recharge. We believe that excellent work can be created on a sustainable basis when people have expertise, clear objectives, and the time and focus to get things done.
Our fourth value is “Ship It,” which means don’t just think and talk about things — actually make them and see how they work. I believe that this bias towards action is something that our creative team values highly. The autonomy to apply and hone their talents is encouraged here.
And finally, “Make It Better.” We preach and practice the concept of continuous improvement, which we apply both to our work process but also to ourselves. We have a culture of curiosity and personal growth. Every individual on our team strives to improve at their craft, and the company supports their efforts through an individual education allowance, training materials, conference participation, and hosting relevant educational events.
Process
The service we provide to our clients is human-centered design, and we take the same disciplined approach to designing our organization and all of the programs that we have for our team. We don’t just offer a big menu of benefits and call it a day. Instead, the company’s leadership makes team happiness a priority and actively experiments with new programs towards that objective.
The pursuit of team happiness is not only baked into our value system, it is also part of our governance and management system. Every quarter we reaffirm the company’s 10-year, 3-year, and 1-year plans, all of which include some measure of team happiness alongside more traditional business metrics. From this we derive quarterly special projects, at least one of which typically is focused on providing some significant benefit to our team.
Some of the programs that have been born of this process have proven to be staples that we are very proud of:
- top-of-the-line equipment and exceptional office environment
- flexible paid time off policy
- pet-friendly workplace
- quarterly all-hands updates and group discussions
- lunch reimbursement for 1–1 lunches with colleagues or clients
- team conference attendance and extra support for presenters
- annual education allowance
- fully-paid benefits for the employee and their dependents
- family leave
- self-talks to introduce new team members
- open-source handbook that anyone in the company may contribute to
As the needs of our team continue to evolve, so will the benefits and perks that we offer!
