Public’s culture principles
These are the baseline principles of Public. They are the core values under which we operate.
Public runs on ten core principles:
- Honesty kills bullshit
- Feedback comes from a place of care
- Loyalty through care
- Autonomy through alignment
- Work fast through organized speeding
- Embrace urgency
- We are directly responsible
- We don’t make excuses
- What could go right?
- Find a way
1. Honesty kills bullshit
Honesty is one of the easiest ways to be transparent and leaves no room for interpretation. Always be honest to each other, it helps to work efficiently and kills the bullshit as everyone always knows exactly what’s up and where they stand.
2. Feedback comes from a place of care
Don’t confuse feedback with criticism. Good feedback comes from a good place. It’s meant to improve the project, the company, or the person. It’s given in a timely manner to keep it in context. And it’s given by anyone, to anyone, no matter their position in the company.
3. Loyalty through care
The success of this company is dependent on the trust and commitment we’re getting from every employee. To get trust and commitment, we have to give trust and commitment. The most literal execution of this is to truly care about every person not just as an employee but as a person.
I.e.: When someone’s not performing well the reaction should not be to tell the person what they need to do, but to ask if they’re OK.
4. Autonomy through alignment
Autonomy without alignment is anarchy. Alignment comes from common beliefs and a mutual understanding of the company’s goals. Only if we’re aligned on both, true autonomy can exist.
5. Work fast through organized speeding
We run fast. We have to. So always organize your work while you create it. Name files correctly, comment your code, name layers in Figma, stay true to existing style guides. We’re able to run fast because we take those extra seconds in the day to day to stay organized.
6. Embrace urgency
We operate with urgency and we’re proud of it. It’s a superpower that lets us ship more stuff in less time. So when something urgent comes up, we embrace the urgency of it — because we understand that even seemingly small wins today will compound over time.
7. We are directly responsible
We take responsibility for our work and our contribution. We’re comfortable with making a decision, understanding that it might be wrong. At Public, everything we do has a Directly Responsible Individual (DRI). This is the single person who’s responsible for the outcome of the project. Everyone is a DRI on something and every person should always have a clear understanding of what projects they are the DRI for.
8. We don’t make excuses
Excuses are a waste of time and time is our most precious resource. Instead, we always point the finger at ourselves, with total self-awareness. We have a ruthless focus on doing better.
Excuses are different from explanations. Explanations tend to focus on what one has learned, vs. just trying to convince people something wasn’t your fault.
9. What could go right?
Optimize for upside. Try the things that might seem unlikely to be successful, but if they were, they would be massive. Anticipate what could go wrong and apply responsible judgment, but be driven by what could go right.
10. Find a way
“Things are only impossible until they’re not.” — Jean-Luc Picard
There’s always a way to make something happen. Find that way. Get scrappy. Every goal has multiple ways to achieve it and every problem has multiple ways to be solved. Innovating means doing things no one has ever done before. So it’s impossible to know something is not possible until you’ve tried everything to make it happen.
These are updated from time to time. Last update: June, 2022
