Your Culture, Your Product

Why should product people obsess about culture? I've heard (and seen) both sides of this one.

I'm sure many of us can name some of the "maverick" tech leaders who come out from time to time with salty hot takes about how culture is something you should "leave at the door." It's a distraction. What matters is you move fast, ship it, stay late, work hard.

Listen. I am ALL FOR moving fast and shipping early and often. (Not so much about glorifying long hours and the hustle/grind life. That's so not my scene.)

But the kind of culture you build IS the kind of product you ship. Culture always, always, comes out in the code.

The people you hire, the way you manage your team, the kind of processes you live by, your approach to time off, the way you talk to and about each other (and your customers)... it's honestly right there, in your product, for everybody to see.

Tightly controlled, micromanaged people will build a suffocatingly rigid, tight-laced, micromanagey product.

If you don't know the kind of product I mean, think of your least favorite tool. The one you groan when you realize you have to open again. Yeah. You know the kind of product I mean.

Guaranteed there are unhappy people behind that app. And fun fact: the users of that product are going to be pretty easy to pick off when a better (AKA more joyfully) built product comes bouncing along.

That's my kind of product. The kind that wins friends because it doesn't just do the job, it's so much more fun to be around.

You can't build a fun product if you're not having fun.

If you hire creative people and let them run — create a workplace where they're free to express themselves, feel a real sense of belonging, have outside interests AND the time and mental energy to pursue them AND the psychological safety to bring those passions to work... they will bring that creative energy to the product you build.

And here's a great bonus: that product will attract lots of fun, freaky fresh users. Who will use your product in ways you didn't expect, couldn't predict, which will help you grow into areas you couldn't have imagined when you set out.

And they'll tell all their freaky fresh friends about your product, too.

That's why I believe so hard that your brand starts and ends in your product. If users love using your product, if it helps them do the thing AND brings them joy, they'll keep using it, keep talking about it, keep telling their friends.

No clever ad copy can paper over a bad product experience. (And trust me, I LOVE clever ad copy. So freaking much.)

You can't build a great product without great people. You can't attract and keep great people without a great culture. They need to be treated like whole people, like grown-ass adults, not micromanaged to within an inch of their lives. They need transparency, autonomy, openness, joy.

I've been lucky enough to be part of a great culture before (yeah HubSpot, I'm looking at you). And now I'm having a very good time continuing to build a great culture at Practice Better (they had a great start and a strong foundation long before I joined). I think culture, brand, and product are all inextricably entwined. I've never understood why each one is treated like separate beasts.

Culture, brand, and product are all everyone's jobs. We're all building our culture, whether we mean to or not. Every single one of us is a brand architect. And I don't care where in the company you sit, if you're not steeped in the product and involved in making it better somehow, maybe you, too, would benefit from a long walk in the woods.

Not in a sinister way, sheesh. I mean, let's all get outside more (or creating art more, or dancing in your kitchen more, or whatever you do). Then bring that chill, creative energy back into work.

We'll all be better for it. You, me, the world.