Chapters · 3 min read
Our values
The four things we actually mean, what they look like, and what they don't.
Most company values are wall decoration: nouns nobody could argue with, printed nicely, meaning nothing. Ours are supposed to help you decide things when the answer isn't obvious. There are four. Here's what each one means, what it looks like in practice, and the way it goes wrong.
Make good things
Quality over quantity, always. One thing that's genuinely good beats a pile of features nobody asked for. We'd rather ship less and be proud of it.
In practice: you take the extra day to make the thing right instead of shipping the version you'd be embarrassed to demo. You say no to features that would bloat the product. You care about the parts users never see (the error message, the empty state, the thing that happens when the network drops) because that's where good and fine part ways.
What it does not mean: polishing forever. "Make good things" is not a license to gold-plate or to never ship. Perfect is a way of not finishing. The bar is good and out the door, not flawless and imaginary. A good thing that shipped beats a great one that didn't.
Open by default
If we can't explain it in public, that's a signal something's off. The handbook, the roadmap, the reasoning, the misfires: readable by anyone.
In practice: you write the decision down where people can see it, not in a DM. You default to the public channel. When you're unsure whether something can be open, the question is "why not?" rather than "why?" This whole handbook is the value in action; see how this handbook works for the test we apply.
What it does not mean: open with no judgment. Someone's personal situation, an unannounced security fix, private details people trusted us with: those stay closed, obviously. Open by default is a default, not a compulsion to overshare. The point is that secrecy should have to justify itself, not the other way around.
Built in public
Ship early, listen hard, and let the people using the work shape what comes next. No vaporware, no big reveal.
In practice: you put the rough version out and learn from real use instead of guessing behind a curtain for six months. You take the feedback in the Discord seriously. You're comfortable being seen while the work is still in motion, and you let the people using it help shape where it goes next.
What it does not mean: shipping junk and calling it transparency. Early isn't an excuse for careless. It still has to be a good thing, just an honest, unfinished one. And "built in public" doesn't mean built by committee; we listen hard, then we still decide.
The long game
No quick exit, no growth-at-all-costs. We're optimizing for still being here, still making useful things, years from now.
In practice: you make decisions you won't resent in three years. You don't borrow against the future to make this quarter look good, not with the code, not with the trust, not with people's energy. You'd rather build something durable slowly than something impressive that collapses.
What it does not mean: slow as a personality, or using "long term" to dodge every hard call. The long game is a reason to be decisive now, not an excuse to defer forever. Patience isn't procrastination with better branding.
Values are behavior, not posters
A value you won't act on when it's inconvenient is just a slogan. These count when they cost something.
The test for any of these is what happens when it's expensive: when "make good things" means slipping a date, when "open by default" means publishing something awkward, when "the long game" means turning down easy money. That's when they count. We'd rather have four we actually use than twenty we recite. If you catch us not living them, that's a bug; say so, here or at hey@flagon.io.