Monday, November 4, 2013

We had our first HF getaway event in Half Moon Bay, one of the best vacation resorts on west coast.

Growing fst - so fast to skip the "a"

I joined HF 2 months ago as the 19th member, and now, we are a team of 25. As our co-founders said,

The first 25 employees are essential to the culture of a company.

It's time to spend some quality time to think about what HF really means to us, and what the next 50 people will see and feel when the join us. I am very impressive by how our co-founders put emphasis on every one of us. They are not those who lead without constantly listening to their team members. They make me feel that HF belongs to all of us by giving us the power to define how we see it to be.

Find out what we want HF to be

Gathering information and consolidating to consensus isn't easy. Luckily there are many ways to help guide us. And to get the most out of it, we have to be good thinkers and listeners.

Before the getaway, we all did an employee happiness survey which includes satisfaction levels of salary and working environment, understanding of responsibility, feeling of importance, possibility to refer friends, ways for HF to help with career development, etc. In the morning of Saturday, we sat down in a circle and discussed each of them, figuring out what current situations are (satisfaction and concern), what open ended thoughts and suggestions are there.

Then we were asked to rank a list of values that are gathered from other companies. Based on the results, we were asked to stand by the numbers (representing frequency of the same feeling), and explain the reasons. The values include "Faster is better than perfect", "We have the will to win", "I have the autonomy to work well", "We constantly question the status quo", etc. It is surprising to see people vary a lot on some values, and by listening to their explanations, we learned in detail how same things mean different to each individual, and how individual holds different perspectives. And it's fun to see a good love for our marketing guy who always shows his endless passion about HF.

In the afternoon, after a little game, we wanted to figure out what the most important values we want HF to embody. Divided into 4 groups, we each selected 3-4 values out of 50+ value cards and some of the values from the morning exercise. Then everyone got 2 votes in all 14 values, which were grouped into 4 general values:

1. "Never satisfied with status quo"/"Always do better".
2. "Empathy and simplicity"/"Customer success".
3. "Make work fun".
4. "Loves for mission".

Then again, divided into 4 groups, we brainstormed how to keep and embody each value. There were brilliant ideas from all groups. We had to make sure they got realized properly.

Why we joined HF

By the end of the day, we sat in a circle again, sharing the reason why we chose to join HF. It's fun to listen to the stories of the very first 6 people and the new comers. We are such a diversified group in terms of nationality, age, background, and sex (hah). I am so glad that somehow we all magically gathered together in the family of HF.