Err On the Side of Whimsy

Shinae takes a look at what Err On the Side of Whimsy means for ReadMe’s company culture, offsites, and the product. What she uncovers leads her to some clues about which value might be the most important.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1942051/10097331

Transcript

Shinae Lee: 0:00

Previously on values was incredibly complicated to write in public documentation. And with readme, it's not.

Kanad: 0:07

It was like a huge lightbulb moment for me because, you know, it made me immediately appreciate what API's can do for regular people.

Gregory Koberger: 0:16

I think it's a really important value. I sometimes wonder if it's, you know, not the most important or the one that we should be starting with.

Shinae Lee: 0:32

From ReadMe, its values I'm Shinae Lee. ReadMe has six values, and in this six part investigative podcast, we're going to explore the company to figure out which readme value is the most important. Today I'm taking a look at err on the side of whimsy. People love this value. It brings fun and joy into a company that could be pretty boring instead. But I got the gist right off the bat that err on the side of whimsy isn't our most important value, as on mafi has our product specialist. And he says it's the product and the company culture aren't already amazing. Having that extra whimsy doesn't do much,

Ehsan: 1:29

it's the cherry on top is the way I like to think of it. And that's important because it's you know, it has to come after the rest of the sundae is made. If you gave someone like a single scoop of ice cream, and smashed a rotten banana, and no whipped cream, and then you put the cherry on top. That's not, that's not going to help. But if everything else is executed, and you have a well oiled machine that cherry on top is just it's that feeling that you give people that they remember

Shinae Lee: 1:59

an example you brought up was when you log in to read me there's an illustration of Albert above the username and password fields. When you click on the password field, Owlbert covers his eyes so he can't see what you're writing. Most login experiences are just that you log in. But having Owlbert there leaves that extra delight or a lasting impression that as long as talking about. But why put extra time and energy into something like whimsy. I caught up with Greg,

Gregory Koberger: 2:30

if you go to the office, there's like pictures everywhere. And like there's little things you can press the play songs. And there's a lot of like hidden little things in the office or off sites, we always try to make a little whimsical and have like cool themes, things like that. And the reason I do it is I think if you want anything to end up in the product, it has to come from the people and the people have to kind of like feel that day to day as well. So I put a lot of effort into whimsy in the office and off sites when they're on Zoom now or in person, because then I think hopefully if when people are building stuff out, they add a little sparkle of whimsy to stuff and so far that's a that's definitely played out that way.

Shinae Lee: 3:04

As you might imagine, whimsy isn't just for the product. It's got a huge impact on company culture, too. I really wanted to talk with Emily Kuo about this. She's an enterprise Engineer here at readme and in a previous life she worked in the health industry. She joined read me remotely after the start of the pandemic for her first job as an engineer. She says even though err on the side of whimsy isn't the most important, it's still her favorite value.

Emily: 3:32

I've worked at places before where fun is pretty much discouraged. And employee appreciation is like an annual pizza party that gets thrown by middle management. And that's what makes work just a job. But I think keeping things whimsical and fun helps us laugh about things together. And it makes me feel like more than just work. The memory that stands out the most is my first startup at readme where we went on a virtual tour of a farm full of far rescued farm animals. And it was definitely the most fun and ridiculous way to start a job and I totally love it.

Shinae Lee: 4:11

Even during a pandemic, Greg found a way to make someone's first day delightful and a little ridiculous but absolutely whimsical. And there's no shortage of these tales and read me lore. I caught up with Mary, our former People Operations Manager started at read me four years ago as an office manager. That whole time she's been entrenched in ReadMe culture oftentimes being the company's catalyst for whimsy.

Mary: 4:38

One of my favorite whimsical off site experiences was our off site in Austin, Texas after we raised like our Series A so all we knew was that we should dress formally like we all brought like fancy clothes to Texas. And then we got picked up in John Denver's tour bus so the tour bus took us to this beautiful like remote garden like the most magical place you've ever seen event space where it was like this kind of like Spanish style house with the most beautiful flowers everywhere. And we had a private party there, it was so fun.

Shinae Lee: 5:46

offsites are a huge part of read me culture because they're our chance to come together and have spontaneous adventures and connect with each other in whimsical ways. We have a semi distributed team, even when we're not all working from home, social distancing. So getting to come together in person or on Zoom quarterly is important for us to connect on a more human level. And that kind of brings me back to what Ehsan was saying earlier. Sure, we can have parties on Austin estates to celebrate milestones, but even that isn't whole without the soul of readme underneath. What made it fun was getting to connect with people you work with in a way that's not work at all. Mary agrees with Ehsan that whimsy is the extra delight and even took a more controversial take.

Mary: 6:35

I do think that whimsy, without soul is just cheap cartoons. I do think that it's essential, and it is like the fun and the delight. But then I think that it's really the truly caring about each other. That is like the core of ReadMe culture.

Shinae Lee: 6:54

Mary here is referring to something that Greg has also alluded to. Whimsy and simplicity are values we should strive for, but there's something underneath that holds them up. We don't err on the side of whimsy for whimsy sake. It's that caring and soul and humanity that Mary talks about that makes it magical. I'm starting to think a lot about our last few values left, polish the product and always do It's human. And the start of the series, I wasn't sure that we'd find one most important value because all our values support each other and work together in the way we operate here every week. But after everything I've heard, I'm starting to think we might find an answer more next time on values