We live and breathe these values at Oath. They’re core to what we believe, who we are, and how we’re going to compete effectively.
Force good
This is more than “don’t be evil” or “be a force of good”.
Forcing good means creating systems that require others to act cooperatively and be good actors. We believe technology and systems should be used to facilitate better societies. And Oath should embody this in the product, making it impossible and extremely expensive to be bad.
Care for all
Companies burn workers out, exploit their customers, and generally do bad stuff. We’re taking a stance to do the opposite of this.
It starts with how we treat our team. We want you to take care of yourself, having the time and resources to eat well, sleep well, exercise, see friends, and feel fulfilled. Taking care of yourself, we know that you will be better equipped to support your family and co-workers. Lastly, this care will trickle down to support of our users.
We don’t believe good, efficient work must come from a place of over-working and fear. We believe in balance and care for all being the key to hyper-efficient work and output. Plus it’s just the right thing to do.
No bullshit
We don’t want bureaucrats, politics, or power struggles. All we care about is creating the best product to help the most people. And we don’t want to waste our workers’ valuable time they could spend in deep work. This means no bs meetings, saying things just to be seen, and wasting time. We don’t allow meetings unless they have clear purposes and agendas written out and sent beforehand. We default to writing and (RFCs) to make clear decisions.
That means being straightforward, agreeing on key objectives, and testing hypotheses. Every product should have a designated decision maker who has the final say when there is no data to inform the decision. These decision makers should build without ego and own up to mistakes. Use the results on key objectives to inform whether to continue investment or try something new.
Build in public
We believe transparency and public building are the best tools to ensure quality. When you know that others can see your work and you share it out to the public, it forces you to really think things through and create something great.
Building in public is also about accountability. Knowing that people are relying on you really motivates you. Lastly, building in public encourages tighter feedback and iteration cycles. By testing quickly on production, we can get user feedback and signals to improve the product experience.
Win on quality
We believe quality beats everything in the long-term. Quality beats quantity. Quality beats lower-prices. Quality stands the test of time.
Therefore, in the long run, always aim to build the highest quality product experience on the market. To build quickly and gain feedback on whether a feature is useful, make something bare bones but helpful. However, as soon as you confirm that it is useful, heavily invest in making it the best in the business.
Have fun
Seriously. Take joy in what you’re working on every day. Look forward to the impact you have on people. Do things for the hell of it, because they’re cool, and will make people smile. If we’re going to renounce boring, meaningless jobs - let’s do it right.
Let’s make fun, meaningful jobs the norm. Our users will be able to tell.
Learn from it
Learning is at our core. It is our competitive advantage. Everything we do must be in the goal or pursuit of learning something. Whether that’s talking to a user, releasing a new feature, getting feedback from your co-workers, or reading the docs. Don’t be afraid to fail as long as you get better from it. Learn from it, internalize it, and improve.
We hope that you’re always pushing yourself a little outside of your comfort zone. We don’t want you to plateau or stagnate, but to always be challenged. We believe the best people thrive in this environment of growth. And we know you will too!