Good Code Smell

[Links] Mission statements

Today at work, we talked about the idea of having a “mission statement”. We wanted to write down the values that our company carries. That would be a few statements that define who we are as a company and could guide us when making decisions. That exercise was more complicated than we initially expected, so I started looking at what other companies have.

This article is a collection of the bests I’ve found so far.

Amazon

Customer Obsession

Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.

Ownership

Leaders are owners. They think long term and donÔÇÖt sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say ÔÇ£thatÔÇÖs not my job”.

Invent and Simplify

Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by ÔÇ£not invented here”. As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.

Are Right, A Lot

Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.

Learn and Be Curious

Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.

Hire and Develop The Best

Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice.

Insist on the Highest Standards

Leaders have relentlessly high standards - many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and driving their teams to deliver high quality products, services and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.

Think Big

Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.

Bias for Action

Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.

Frugality

Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size or fixed expense.

Earn Trust

Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their teamÔÇÖs body odor smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.

Dive Deep

Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath them.

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.

Deliver Results

Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.

Full text here: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles

Apple

We believe that we’re on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We’re constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex.

We believe we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.

We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can focus on the few that are meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross pollination in order to innovate in a way others cannot.

We don’t settle for anything other than excellence in any group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.

Full text here: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple…

Google

We first wrote these ÔÇ£10 thingsÔÇØ when Google was just a few years old. From time to time we revisit this list to see if it still holds true. We hope it doesÔÇöand you can hold us to that.

  1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
  2. ItÔÇÖs best to do one thing really, really well.
  3. Fast is better than slow.
  4. Democracy on the web works.
  5. You donÔÇÖt need to be at your desk to need an answer.
  6. You can make money without doing evil.
  7. ThereÔÇÖs always more information out there.
  8. The need for information crosses all borders.
  9. You can be serious without a suit.
  10. Great just isnÔÇÖt good enough.

Full text here: https://www.google.fr/intl/en/about/company/philosophy/

Heroku

Developer productivity is our battle cry, at the core of everything we do. Why require three steps when one will do? Why require any action at all when zero steps will do?

Every decision ÔÇô from what HTTP cache to use, to the order of command-line flags, to the color of the buttons ÔÇô has been made with a maniacal focus on developer productivity.

We wake up each day with the mission of making it easy and painless to build and run cloud apps. Open source is in our blood, and our team has created and contributes significantly to a wide variety of projects.

Full text here: https://www.heroku.com/about

Mozilla

The Mozilla Manifesto

These are the principles that guide our mission to promote openness, innovation & opportunity on the Web.

  1. The Internet is an integral part of modern lifeÔÇöa key component in education, communication, collaboration, business, entertainment and society as a whole.
  2. The Internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.
  3. The Internet must enrich the lives of individual human beings.
  4. IndividualsÔÇÖ security and privacy on the Internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional.
  5. Individuals must have the ability to shape the Internet and their own experiences on it.
  6. The effectiveness of the Internet as a public resource depends upon interoperability (protocols, data formats, content), innovation and decentralized participation worldwide.
  7. Free and open source software promotes the development of the Internet as a public resource.
  8. Transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability and trust.
  9. Commercial involvement in the development of the Internet brings many benefits; a balance between commercial profit and public benefit is critical.
  10. Magnifying the public benefit aspects of the Internet is an important goal, worthy of time, attention and commitment.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/

Reddit

These are our core values. They guide us when making decisions.

  1. Remember the human
    • Be authentic, passionate, and empathetic.
    • Treat others as you would in person, and remember we all make mistakes.
    • Champion diversity.
    • Default to transparency, and when you canÔÇÖt be transparent, be honest.
  2. Give people voices
    • Create a safe space to encourage participation.
    • Embrace diversity of viewpoints.
    • Allow freedom of expression.
    • Be stewards, not dictators. The community owns itself.
  3. Respect anonymity and privacy
    • You are not required to share more than you are comfortable with.
    • Having information doesn’t give you a license to use it.
    • Allow people to be as anonymous as they choose, including ourselves.
    • Value the candor afforded by anonymity.
  4. Embrace experimentation
    • Don’t let “that’s the way it’s always been done” be a reason.
    • Seek new ways to be better.
    • Be willing to try new things and fail.
    • But remember wheels don’t always need reinventing.
  5. Make deliberate decisions
    • Make all decisions within the framework of larger goals.
    • It’s better to make an unpopular, deliberate decision than to make a consensus decision on a whim.
    • Consciously explore options and impacts of potential paths.
    • Voice disagreement; acknowledge that dissension is okay.
  1. Be doers
    • Turn ideas into actions and get things done.
    • Don’t be paralyzed by the status quo.
    • Find the balance between perfection and progress.
    • Build for the future and leave things better than you found them.
  2. The spirit of Lambeosaurus embiggens us all
    • Work is better when you’re having fun.
    • Don’t take ourselves too seriously.
    • Celebrate the good: recognize successes and reward accomplishments.
    • There must be four subpoints to each value.

Full text here: https://www.reddit.com/about/values/

Ruby on Rails

The Ruby on Rails doctrine:

  1. Optimize for programmer happiness
  2. Convention over Configuration
  3. The menu is omakase
  4. No one paradigm
  5. Exalt beautiful code
  6. Value integrated systems
  7. Progress over stability
  8. Push up a big tent

Full text here: http://rubyonrails.org/doctrine/

Synology

Synology provides an affordable way to centralize data storage, simplify data backup, share and sync files across different platforms, and access data on-the-go. The ÔÇ£5SÔÇØ serve as the pillars to Synology’s core values which are realized in products, features, and the direction we head.

  • Store
    • Efficient Storage: Storage made efficient, instant, and widely accessible.
    • Unified Storage: Unified storage available to all, and suitable for all-purpose.
    • Accessible Storage: Storage accessible through variant channels.
  • Sync
    • Sync & update: Obtain hassle-free file accessibility across IT devices.
    • Stay in-sync: Maintain up-to-date communication with family, friends, colleagues, and others.
  • Share
    • Share socially: Interact, communicate, and strengthen ties of friendship, family ring, and all form of relationships.
    • Share as one: Consolidate, converge, and unify services onto one location. Max resource utilization through sharing it among different services.
  • Secure
    • Total security: Equip security measures to prevent potential threat on data integrity.
    • Hands-on security: Provide hassle-free security settings that can be understood and configured by all.
  • Service
  • Quality Service: Provide precise, professional, and timely support to customers at all times.

Full text here: https://www.synology.com/en-global/company/vision