Spending Too Much Time on Version One
Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2025 4:55 am
It’s tempting to list everything as a core value because, hey, your company should be fast and high-quality and innovative and customer-obsessed, right? But here’s the problem, when you try to prioritize everything, you end up prioritizing nothing.
Take “speed” and “quality,” for example. Sure, they’re both nice to have, but what happens when they collide? Which one wins? If your values contradict each other, your team ends up confused, not aligned.
Less is more. I’d rather you have one, two, maybe three killer values that everyone remembers than 15 nobody can recite. Be ruthless. Pick your winners, move on, and accept that your core values are not set in stone and you can always adjust as you grow.
Defining your core values doesn’t have to be a one-time belize telegram data exercise. Just like with your product, you're going to build a version one, and then you're going to iterate—hopefully forever. We had values in our early days that we had to abandon over time because we outgrew them.
We borrowed a value from Facebook: “Done is better than perfect.” It worked well for us in the beginning when we were small and scrappy and needed to move fast. As we grew, we realized we needed to value long-term thinking more than speed, so “build a house you want to live in” made more sense. As your company grows, be prepared to evolve your values too.
On day one, you can write your values to the best of your knowledge and understanding in the current moment. Some founders struggle with this first step because they think they’re writing something sacred and must get it done perfectly or not at all.
Trust me: it’s not that deep. You’re not writing the bible. Just write something imperfect. It’ll probably change in a year or two anyway.
Failing to Provide Clarity to Those Who Matter Most: Your Team
It can be challenging to come up with core values that are both clear and specific. But keep in mind, it’s not a math formula.
To go back to our Costco example from earlier, “Do the right thing” can be interpreted in a lot of ways. You could make the same argument for “Build a house you want to live in.” People outside the company might not fully understand it—and that’s ok.
Take “speed” and “quality,” for example. Sure, they’re both nice to have, but what happens when they collide? Which one wins? If your values contradict each other, your team ends up confused, not aligned.
Less is more. I’d rather you have one, two, maybe three killer values that everyone remembers than 15 nobody can recite. Be ruthless. Pick your winners, move on, and accept that your core values are not set in stone and you can always adjust as you grow.
Defining your core values doesn’t have to be a one-time belize telegram data exercise. Just like with your product, you're going to build a version one, and then you're going to iterate—hopefully forever. We had values in our early days that we had to abandon over time because we outgrew them.
We borrowed a value from Facebook: “Done is better than perfect.” It worked well for us in the beginning when we were small and scrappy and needed to move fast. As we grew, we realized we needed to value long-term thinking more than speed, so “build a house you want to live in” made more sense. As your company grows, be prepared to evolve your values too.
On day one, you can write your values to the best of your knowledge and understanding in the current moment. Some founders struggle with this first step because they think they’re writing something sacred and must get it done perfectly or not at all.
Trust me: it’s not that deep. You’re not writing the bible. Just write something imperfect. It’ll probably change in a year or two anyway.
Failing to Provide Clarity to Those Who Matter Most: Your Team
It can be challenging to come up with core values that are both clear and specific. But keep in mind, it’s not a math formula.
To go back to our Costco example from earlier, “Do the right thing” can be interpreted in a lot of ways. You could make the same argument for “Build a house you want to live in.” People outside the company might not fully understand it—and that’s ok.