Team & Culture

The Team – Our team is growing and changing pretty quickly. The best way to see who’s who and who’s new is to check our about page at Kit.com/about. If you see anyone on there you don’t know, please reach out and schedule a 1:1 with them.

So much of what makes our team special is the time we invest in each other. We think it’s a great use of time to spend an hour learning about what your teammate values, why they live where they do, and their story. We do this normally via 1:1s over Zoom or in-person if you happen to be in the same city as another team member.

Org Chart – We work really hard to keep our company structure as flat as possible. That means we have fewer managers than most companies our size. It also means that we need every team member to be driven and good at holding themselves accountable. You can view our Org Chart to get a better idea of the overall shape of the company.

Trust – Trust is the most important element of our culture. Trust is also a common theme throughout this handbook. Many of our odd rituals are centered around either showing that we trust you or helping you to better trust your teammates.

Conflict – We view conflict as valuable and normal, especially when you have a group of talented, ambitious, and diverse team members. Conflict doesn’t equal failure. It’s an opportunity to communicate and work together toward a resolution and better understanding.

That said, when conflict inevitably arises we expect you to address it quickly and directly. Too much, too intense, and too-long unresolved conflict can transform from constructive to counterproductive.

If you talk to a third-party on the team about a conflict, we expect for them to help you clarify your thoughts and perspective before addressing it with the person directly. If you’re concerned how a conversation will go or if your feedback will be well received, feel free to ask a teammate to help facilitate the conversation.

Pride – The entire team takes pride in their work in a way you don’t see at too many other companies. That comes through in how hard we work, our attention to detail, and how we bring our full selves to work.

Communication – At Kit we use a lot of different tools and methods to communicate. The most common are Slack, Basecamp, and Zoom.

More than anything we try to focus on working in public so that everyone can be a part of discussions that are happening and chime in when needed. We focus on trust, listening, and being open minded when communicating with each other so that the lines of communication stay open and flowing.

We encourage the sharing of ideas, opinions, and questions in channels even if it’s not one specific to the team you regularly work on. We encourage cross-team communication and through experience have found that starting with positivity first before any constructive criticism results in better received ideas and opportunities for collaboration.

Here are some things to focus on in your communication, both as a listener/reader and speaker/writer.

Ownership – if you are delivering the information, the onus is on you to make sure the right people see and react to it. @ people who need to know about it. Ask your manager if you’re not sure who needs to see it. Make deadlines and decisions clear, then keep the project moving. Make clear and specific asks for input, so contributors know exactly how to participate.
Acknowledgement – if you own a piece of information, you have the ball. The ball isn’t passed until someone has explicitly acknowledged that they are on it. Just posting in slack or basecamp is not enough. Make sure you get direct acknowledgment that they have seen information or are working on something before you consider the ball passed. This may involve reaching out to someone more than once! If you have reached out three times and can’t get a response, it makes sense to loop in your manager to see if they can get things moving.
Deadlines – if you make an ask of another person, add a clear deadline so they know how to prioritize it. On the flip side, if someone asks something of you, and the deadline isn’t going to work with your other commitments, talk with them about it and agree on a new deadline together. Be creative to find the path through to keep projects on track. Ask, “what would have to be true to move the project forward?” Is there another way to get input async? From another source? Execution > consensus.
Follow up/repetition – if there is something important that is ongoing, don’t hesitate to mention it repeatedly. An example of this is the experimentation process. This is something that the data team runs, but the whole team uses. It’s helpful for data to reiterate how they want that process to go and point back to documentation frequently, especially for those who don’t use it often.
Know which channels you need to read in depth- for each person there will be a few Slack channels where you should read every post thoroughly:
- Headlines – everything in here applies to everyone and is often important and/or urgent
- General – everything in here applies to everyone
- Your team channel(s) – each team has one or more channels dedicated to their work. If you’re not clear on which team channels apply to you, ask your manager
When to make something a meeting
- If something is extremely urgent or the timeline is super short
- If there is a lot of information to cover
- If there is a fair amount of conflict and it would be best handled in a forum where people can articulate their views in real time
- If the topic needs more context setting
When to post to Slack/Basecamp/Google Docs
- If it’s longer-term work and there is time for asynchronous cycles
- If everyone is clear on their role and can work on it independently

Talk Like Humans, Not Corporations – We believe in treating others whether it be team members, customers, or vendors as humans and that includes all written communication. If you wouldn’t say it while talking face-to-face with someone, don’t do it in an email. Examples we try to avoid:

“I apologize..” rather, say “I’m sorry for…”

“Department” rather, say “team” or “I’ll connect you with ___” or “person”

“Kit does/doesn’t” rather, say “We do/don’t”

Our Favorite Books – Anything You Want by Derek Sivers & Rework by DHH and Jason Fried are both books that have influenced how we operate at Kit. They’re short, easy reads that we recommend! Predictable Success by Les McKeown is also one of the favorites from the book club.

Test & Experiment – We have a culture where we should be trying new things (testing) and also setting those tests up in order to tell if it’s successful or not. A failed test isn’t necessarily bad, it’s one option that’s eliminated from the pool of many towards the success of what we’re working on.

Product Specialists – These are third-party contractors who handle 24/7 support tickets. They’re all incredibly kind and skilled at their job. Giulia oversees this group. If there’s an issue with a ticket, a new process that impacts support, or any questions you might have regarding the product specialists, reach out to Giulia. If you want to learn more about helping customers, shadowing is a great way to do that! Steven oversees the Technical Team; they’re also third-party contractors with a ton of technical knowledge about our product. Many of them used to be product specialists themselves and can share their expertise.

Board of Advisors – In 2018, the leadership team started meeting with a board of advisors. This meeting happens twice a year in the spring and late fall as part of the quarterly directors reviews. Pat Flynn (one of our biggest affiliates), Ryan Delk, Kieran Snyder, and Joe Fahrner are on the board. We are looking to add additional members to our board. We encourage you to get to know the board members as opportunities arise.

Your First Two Weeks at Kit – One of our team members recently called our onboarding process “wonderfully relentless” and we thought that summed it up well! We’ve all started at new jobs and felt like we were not really sure what to do with our time, or how to contribute. We try to make your first two weeks at Kit really full of training, meeting teammates, assignments and initial projects. This way you’ll hit the ground running and feel like a part of the team from day one.

Feel free to reach out to anyone at Kit for help, support, or encouragement. We care about each other and understand there’s a lot to take in during your first two weeks. From team members to managers to the CEO, we all want to help you succeed here.

Contractors – We work with numerous contractors, some more than others. Reach out to Ops for a list of the contractors (and their employees) that we have recently worked with if you’re unsure who someone is in Slack. Contractors are invited as either single or multi-channel guests in Slack, so they don’t have access to all the channels.

DMFs – You’ll hear us use this, and it stands for Decision Making Framework. This is one we borrowed from Coinbase. The article provides a great overview of what it is, how to use it, and when to use it.

At Kit, anyone can invoke a DMF at any time. Normally this occurs when there’s a decision that impacts others in one way or another (process, policy, decision, etc) and there’s conflict to the point where it doesn’t seem like you’ll be able to get consensus or buy-in on a decision. It might be a great time to invoke the DMF which calls for a period of time for anyone with an opinion about the decision to share it (often in Basecamp), input providers (5-8 people of varying opinions and often teams) agree to be part of the DMF, a decision maker is determined (normally this person follows the majority but has the authority to make a different call), and then a date and time is set for the DMF to take place.

We encourage team members to record and share the results.

Diversity & Inclusion – Kit is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws, including age, race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender expression or identity, religion, creed, citizenship, national origin or ancestry, military status, or political affiliation. We value diversity in all of its forms and we want to build an inclusive and diverse culture. We have a team of diverse thoughts, cultures, and interests and think that’s important and valuable to building the best solutions for our customers.

We want everyone to feel comfortable here, and that starts with each of us being aware of our biases, putting processes and policies in place that promote a diverse and inclusive culture, and being open to improving and iterating on our culture.

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