manu14357 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
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
How should people behave when no one is watching?
- Values reveal themselves in unsupervised moments
- Real values survive extreme situations, not just normal operations
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
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
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:
- 3–5 values with names, reasons, and story examples
- How each value appears in hiring criteria
- How each value shows up in daily operations
- Anti-patterns (what each value is NOT)
- How to revisit and evolve values as team grows