This repo is a living document of Defense Unicorns' culture.

Everyone at the company is encouraged to take ownership of our culture, values and principles. You can propose changes to this document by clicking the edit button in the top righthand corner and opening a Pull Request (PR) against it. Here is a helpful guide to formatting with Github markdown.

Defense Unicorns exists to develop elegant and simple to use products, that enable mission heroes to streamline software delivery so they can focus on the most important challenges.

• We believe that people matter. Our mission heroes who sacrifice so much to make the world a better place and our Unicorns, who make the amazing products that fundamentally change the world

• We believe that people and culture is the foundation upon which all processes and products are built

“Invest in people so they can work anywhere. Treat them in a way where they won’t want to work anywhere but here”

~Andrew Greene, one of the founders of the company

A FREE AND SECURE WORLD that enables progress and innovation.

Streamlining software delivery so you can focus on the most important challenges.

Our three uniques are what sets Defense Unicorns apart and form key parts of our identity.

• Focus on Open Source Product
• Authenticity
• Talent

Our core values allow us to summarize and define who we are. We are:

• Focused
• Mission-Driven
• Humble
• Caring
• Adaptable

Stating who we are enables us to attract other like-minded unicorns in from the wild to join our company. We're excited to see how they will uniquely enrich our culture!

A principle is “a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning." Our Principles describe how we do things. We value the active application of our principles, acknowledging that they are truly principles only when put into action. Principles not lived, are not principles at all.

We strive to embody our guiding principles daily, fostering authentic habits unique to each team member at Defense Unicorns. Emphasizing the significance of incremental improvements, we believe that real progress comes from sustained efforts over time.

That being said, we welcome input from any Unicorn to propose new principles, adopting those that align with our beliefs and are reflected in our daily practices. These proposed principles start as Sandbox Values, progress to Incubating Values with widespread adoption, and eventually become Graduated Values after significant contribution over time.

Advocate for GitOps for Culture is Defense Unicorn's Culture Executive Officer (CEO) Rob Slaughter

Advocates: Rebecca Lively and Daniel Donaldson

Experimentation is critical to everything we do - it is a lifeblood of the company - from the things engineers are working on to develop products to the cultivation of shared company values - everything we do is a grand experiment.

We often have to evaluate between choices to test and determine the best solution. Experimentation is a process for choosing the “best” options — even though it is hard to know it is the “best.”

What makes a good experiment? Well-designed experiments include:

• Problem Statement
• Hypothesis
• Test
• Success Criteria Good experiemetns are characterized by their speed, a safe environment to fail, and the promotion of learning.

Proposed Habit: clearly identify the experiments you are running, how you are going to run them, for how long you are going to run them, and what the success or failure outcomes are.

Advocates: Greg Horvath, Julia Monford, and Sam Peckham

When new problems arise, don't admire them, own them. Ensure others aren't working the same issues (or working against it), but do default to taking action for the problems that you can own. See solutions to completion, or until there can be a successful (slow) transition of ownership to another unicorn.

What does Ownership mean in Defense Unicorns?

• Being fully accountable for a task even if not explicitly asked

Why is Ownership important to Defense Unicorns?

• it is how trust is built; being accountable and always having your team’s back
• encourages inward reflection to continuously grow
• drives decentralized execution and greater efficiency
• ensures customers have a great experience and get the outcomes they were looking for
• Not only the identification of problems but taking point on solutioning.

What is the expected behavior we are looking to drive with development of ownership principles? Said differently, what is the expected outcome?

• Unicorns build daily habits that display ownership in their work in order to better deliver value to our customers

How can a new hire demonstrate habits related to ownership?

• Participation in monthly ownership meet ups in Gather
• Approximate number of Jocko emoji tags
• Customer satisfaction survey

How has this value evolved over time within Defense Unicorns?

• Default to action - follow up and accountability
• Evolved to ownership to bookend beginning the work

Advocate: Devin Allen, Giles Walger, and Wayne Starr

What does Velocity mean in Defense Unicorns?

We define Velocity as the efficiency at which mission-value is delivered. We achieve this by focusing on speed (simplicity + time to value) and direction (quality + value delivered). It is characterized by how we learn, adapt and the urgency at which we move towards mission value.

Why is Velocity important to Defense Unicorns? The world is constantly evolving, and software is at the forefront of that change. Velocity matters because we need each other to deliver mission value faster and better than our adversaries in order to provide the mission outcomes that our heroes depend on.

How do we embody Velocity?

1. Learn by Doing - Actions influence thought inasmuch as thought influences actions.

2. Move with a Collective Purpose - Speed Matters and we are better together.

   • Default to Urgency: Rapidly pursue mission value & guard against complacency.
   • Collaborate Cross-Functionally: We foster a collaborative environment where Unicorns from different segments can share their knowledge and expertise. We intentionally create space for continuous learning, enabling our Unicorns to gain insights from diverse perspectives and applying them to the mission at hand.

3. Direction Matters - We can be very busy and accomplish very little.

   • Default to Mission Value and Quality
   • Cultivate a Feedback Culture: Feedback is encouraged and celebrated. Open communication channels, (internal & external) are actively promoted. Questions, ideas and suggestions are welcome and incentivized.
   • People over Process: Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools. Trust is the fuel for velocity and powers the engine while charting the course together.

Advocate: Eric Wyles, Phil Cole, and Steven Ollek

We can't shy away from the tough conversations -- whether sharing important context or insights -- we owe each clarity to one another.

“Over-communicating is the glue that holds a high-performing team together and keeps them focused in the same direction. And, it circles back to clarity. Without good, consistent communication, you don’t have clarity.”

*~ Lee Ellis, leadership consultant, author, presenter, retired colonel USAF*

"Clear is Kind. Unclear is Unkind"

*~ Brené Brown

How has this value evolved over time within Defense Unicorns?

Defense Unicorns has always encouraged the sharing and receiving of insights and context as desired behaviors. This evolution helps connect the importance of both context and insights to the kindness they provide to others.

Advocate: Jessica Hardin, Jimmy Ungerman, and Tom Clapper

People are at their best when they are having a good time. By making fun a core part of our values, we allow ourselves to have a good time, at the same time that we are helping to change the world.

What does Fun mean at Defense Unicorns?

• Life as a Unicorn is about more than just work, it’s also about having a good time. Defense Unicorns has an amusing name and an adorable logo, but our Unicorns are working to solve hard problems that have huge impact for our Mission Heroes, and the world! By encouraging Unicorns to have fun, both at work and outside of work, we’re combatting burnout and making our work more enjoyable.
• We want Unicorns to look forward to coming to work and part of what makes Defense Unicorns so wonderful is our playful and silly culture where everyone can play a role in making sure that we take time to laugh and do things we enjoy. Not everything we do is inherently fun, but there are so many ways to incorporate fun into our daily lives and give our brains a much-needed break from focusing on the hard problems we’re trying to solve.

Why is this important to Defense Unicorns?

• Having fun together builds trust, communication, and vulnerability for our team. If we’re able to have fun and laugh together, we’ll be able to more effectively address problems and make tough conversations easier. Having fun is an important way to establish rapport, build trust, and demonstrate approachability which becomes critical especially in a growth all-remote company.

How do we embody Fun?

• We realize that fun looks different for everyone and this habit in practice will look different for everyone, too!
• You’ll hear Unicorns say this often: choose happiness.
• As Unicorns, we all sparkle differently and we all have fun differently - find what fun means for you and go for it! But also, recognize that what you find fun might also be fun for someone else - we encourage Unicorns to be unapologetically themselves and share that with the Blessing every day.