Part 3: How am I doing?

Each member of the team is judged by these criteria, in order from most to least important:

1. Productivity & Output:

How much shippable, valuable, finished work did you get done? Did you produce several one-off fixes, or write a tool that automates a workflow?

Working a large number of hours is not always related to productivity, and may be counterproductive in the long run. We target efficient coding: target quality over quantity when writing tools that will be reused often, and vice versa when writing one-off sales pitches.

2. Contribution to the Product:

How much do you contribute to the development of the product as a whole? Were you able to bring a new client on board with a new product? Do you bring other experience or expertise that can be applied more broadly?

Being able to predict what a customer needs, and responding with a completed product that meets those needs is critical to the company's success. We also value contributions to open source projects that are used as part of the product.

3. Contribution to the Team

How much do you contribute to hiring, integrating people into the team, improving our workflow, amplifying your colleagues, or tools that can be used by others?

When each person contributes to the team more, all members benefit. However, being a group contributor means that you are making tradeoffs versus an individual contribution. It is up to you balance your own work and contributions you make to the team.

4. Technical Skill Level:

How difficult are the kinds of problems you solve? Can you solve problems that no one else can?

Being able to write code more efficiently than other people means we can bring products to market that others cannot.

How am I doing?

What do you consider yourself to be good at and when do colleagues come to you to ask for help?

Test yourself within each of these four areas, and ask yourself where you fall. Ideally, everyone should be contributing to all four points in a balanced way. If you find that colleagues are often asking for your help on different topics, you're likely doing very well.

What can we be better at in the future?

We believe in a culture where individuals are driven by their own curiosity and self-respect. If you find a topic interesting, do some research, speak about it with a colleague, and integrate it into your work. Ask yourself often which new skills you've added lately, and where you were able to incorporate them into a project.

We frequently ask this question of ourselves and the team at the end of a development cycle.

Our approach is modern and liberal - look at what others are doing and ask them how they do it. Insert yourself into the process.