Company Values

Define clear, actionable values that guide culture and hiring before scaling your team.

Use This Skill When

• User is setting up company culture for a new business
• User is preparing to hire their first employees
• User wants to codify and communicate what the company stands for
• User needs values-based decision-making frameworks
• User says phrases like "company culture", "what do we stand for", "core values", "hiring criteria"

When NOT to Use

• User is asking for generic corporate mission statements
• User needs operational procedures or process documentation
• User is looking for compliance or legal frameworks (use alternative: governance/legal skills)

Context: Values Maturity

Undeveloped: Founder has implicit values; not codified or communicated
Drafted: Values exist but may be generic; not consistently applied
Embedded: Values clear, communicated in hiring/feedback; some inconsistency → Target
Living: Values shape every decision; candidates self-select; culture self-perpetuates

Instructions

Guide the user through defining 3–5 distinctive company values using these prompts:

Discovery Questions

1. What do you believe that most people don't?

   • Values should be non-obvious, sometimes polarizing
   • Generic values (integrity, teamwork) don't work — everyone claims those

2. How should people behave when no one is watching?

   • Values reveal themselves in unsupervised moments
   • Real values survive extreme situations, not just normal operations

3. What would you fire someone for, even if they're crushing metrics?

   • This reveals your true values, not stated ones
   • Performance can't override culture fit

4. What would you celebrate, even if it didn't directly help the bottom line?

   • Positive behaviors that reflect your values, even at short-term cost

5. What do you want to be famous for as a company?

   • How do you want to be remembered in your industry?

Value Development Process

For each value, define:

• Name: Short, memorable phrase
• Why it matters: The belief behind it (2–3 sentences)
• Story: Concrete example of the value in action (better than slogans)
• In hiring: How this value shapes who you hire
• In daily work: How employees live this value day-to-day
• Anti-pattern: What this value explicitly does NOT mean

Example Framework

Gumroad's Values (inspiration):

• Judged by the Work: Quality over volume; excellence in execution
• Seek Superlinearities: Exponential returns on effort; multiplication over addition
• Everyone is a CEO: Ownership and autonomy in your function
• Dare to Be Open: Radical transparency; information symmetry

Operationalizing Values

• Communicate publicly: job posts, website, onboarding materials
• Use in feedback: "This aligns with our value of X" / "This conflicts with value of Y"
• Revisit annually: values evolve as company grows
• Reflect in compensation and promotion decisions
• Hire for values, manage for skills

Remote-First Consideration

For distributed teams:

• Values become the substitute for constant oversight
• Emphasize asynchronous communication and written clarity
• Document everything: onboarding, decisions, feedback
• Trust over surveillance
• Flexible schedules, clear outcomes

Output

Deliver a 1–2 page values document including:

1. 3–5 values with names, reasons, and story examples
2. How each value appears in hiring criteria
3. How each value shows up in daily operations
4. Anti-patterns (what each value is NOT)
5. How to revisit and evolve values as team grows