Unique to Kit

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Unique to Kit

Side hustles – One of the things that makes Kit special is how we support side hustles. Whether you occasionally send a newsletter or run a full-blown business, we believe creative passions fuel better work. Creating outside of Kit sharpens your skills and helps you empathize with the creators we serve. That said, a few guidelines help us keep things clear:

• No direct competition: Your side hustle shouldn’t compete with Kit.
• Kit comes first: Make sure your side hustle doesn’t negatively impact your role here. If it does, start a conversation with your manager on how to address it.
• Pace yourself: Your side hustle should energize you, not drain you. Use good judgement as to what that means for you given other life commitments.
• Creator-forward promotion on Kit channels: If you manage Kit’s social media, events, or other external presence such as working directly with customers, go ahead and use those channels to showcase Kit’s value. Please don’t use those channels to exclusively promote your side hustle.

If your side hustle takes off and you decide to pursue it full-time, we’ll cheer you on. Kit itself started as a side project, so we know how exciting that journey can be. Want to see what your teammates are working on? Join the  #side-hustles Slack channel to share your projects and get inspired. Questions? Ping us in  #ops-team. We’re here to help.

Open Books – We believe in transparency and want you to know how the company is doing financially. With our open books you can know pretty much anything about the financial health of the business!

Please ask questions and comment if you want to know more of the why behind how we’ve budgeted for the year. We do keep salaries confidential and lump sum them in the open books.

Leaving Kit – If you decide to pursue something you’re passionate about or graduate from Kit, know we will support you!  We’d rather know and help set you up for a successful transition than you feel like you can’t leave or let us know until right before. We want the best for you and realize that sometimes doesn’t mean continuing to work at Kit.

Gifs – We have a little bit of a thing for gifs at Kit. Sometimes it’s just easier to say it in a gif! Just don’t fight over how it’s pronounced.

Craft & Commerce – We hosted our first annual conference in 2017 in Boise, ID. The conference is a place where creators come together to build community, renew their inspiration for their work, and refine the strategies and tactics they’re using to grow their business.

We’ve continued to host C+C in the years since, and it’s been an incredible opportunity to connect with our customers and listen to some amazing speakers. We try to have members from different teams attend, so if you’re interested in coming, let us know!

I Am a Blogger – How many software companies can say they’ve filmed a documentary? We have! Telling the stories of our customers is so important to what we do! In 2017 we traveled the US and captured 17 stories in both a documentary and a coffee table book. It’s the best way to learn about the diverse backgrounds of our customers.

We are continuing this project in 2020 under the I Am a Creator (IAAC) name. Our coffee table book is in the works, you can watch our IAAC stories here and listen to the IAAC podcast here.

Creator Sessions – Creator Sessions is our free, weekly live series featuring different Kit creators sharing their talents with the world. Our mission with this is simple – bring joy, cultivate community and give creators the platform they deserve. You can watch catch up on all our Creator Sessions on our YouTube channel.

Book Club – We have an optional book club that’s led by someone on the team. It initially started as another way to learn and connect with each other by reading a business-related book. It’s a fun, relaxed way to share with one another both professionally and personally. We do this via Zoom in groups of 5-6 that are varied across teams for an hour every two weeks.

In previous book clubs we’ve read Anything You Want, Rework, Predictable Success, and Radical Candor.

Team and Kit Blogs – In years past, everyone on the team contributed to our Work in Public blog. We covered all kinds of topics, from new features to lessons learned during a big change to how we do team retreats. To keep our voice unified, Dani handled all the post scheduling, editing and image coordination with designers.

Currently, the Engineering team shares their ways of working with the world through the Engineering blog. The team has shared posts about what it’s like to work on our engineering team to improving the accessibility of Kit to how much we spend on AWS. If you’re interested in contributing, reach out to Grant for information and direction.

Next: Team Retreats