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The HubSpot Culture Code [slides]

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Re: The HubSpot Culture Code [slides]

#61

Post by Fumtumi »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #9

That's nice. Thanks for sharing it. Expect loads of cynicism. I've found that talking about having Principles and Integrity in business and professional endeavors, usually results in being accused of "virtue signaling," which is ridiculous, as we are only talking about simple, basic, realistic human values; not some kind of Mother Theresa code. That said, it is extremely easy to let a focus on "culture" turn into a t…

Funny enough, while i have worked in a company like HubSpot and we did those excersizes and stuff, we were just a normal company.

In my current company, all those culture things are also communicated, they are just not a blog post on the internet and they do not feel like a cult :)

Re: The HubSpot Culture Code [slides]

#62

Post by commandlinefan »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #9

That's nice. Thanks for sharing it. Expect loads of cynicism. I've found that talking about having Principles and Integrity in business and professional endeavors, usually results in being accused of "virtue signaling," which is ridiculous, as we are only talking about simple, basic, realistic human values; not some kind of Mother Theresa code. That said, it is extremely easy to let a focus on "culture" turn into a t…

> Expect loads of cynicism.

Well deserved, too. When somebody makes a point of saying something that doesn't need to be said - and makes a point of saying it over and over again as if it were profound - anybody who's been around for a little while gets really skeptical really fast. There's a famous Reed Hastings (of Netflix) quote along the lines of "do not tolerate brilliant jerks". Naive people love to share that quote - and it's undoubted that they have somebody in mind who they'd prefer not to tolerate when they share it - but there's literally not one single human being who's ever lived who has said the opposite. Why does it need to be said, then? Because he (and the repeaters of the quote) needs justification for not tolerating people who's face he doesn't like, no matter what performance numbers they can produce in their defense. This slide deck includes a good quote from Grace Hopper: one measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions - but anybody who puts together 100 slides about "culture" bases everything on "gut feel" and ignores actual data.

Re: The HubSpot Culture Code [slides]

#63

Post by xkcd-sucks »

nomadrat wrote: post #14

Love the product, but this deck... jeez. It's like all this companies that claim that you're in the family and then this family ask you to leave. I've seen too much places with "culture" when in reality it's a toxic as hell.

One is most likely to be molested as a child by a family member, and, most of these companies prefer young hires

Re: The HubSpot Culture Code [slides]

#64

Post by gputhrowaway630 »

gk1 wrote: post #23
Kharvok wrote: post #12

There's literally an entire book on how this is all bullshit

Worth noting the book is from 2016. Some times it takes a punch in the gut to make a change, but that change is possible. See: Uber after they replaced their CEO. I have no idea how things look at HS now, but I can't imagine it's exactly as bad as it was four years ago.

This deck seems to explicitly confirm that HubSpot has not meaningfully changed in the last four years.

Re: The HubSpot Culture Code [slides]

#65

Post by Tade0 »

Just recently I started working at the sixth place in my 9-year career(excluding side jobs), so I am somewhat cynical.

Here's the main problem with having a culture code:

It's often created and agreed upon by a clique of employees who've been working there for years - newcomers get a say inversely proportional to the number of employees they encountered on their first day.

The best culture I participated in was in a project where we were all contractors in a freshly formed team - working remotely at that, with no code of conduct aside from maybe "don't be an asshole" - enforced by our leader, who was by the way great at her job.

I'm still in touch with these people even though we were disbanded after six months and that was there years ago.

Re: The HubSpot Culture Code [slides]

#66

Post by dshah »

offbynull wrote: post #26

Who is this for? Are they using it to attract interns / new grads?

First and foremost, it's for the ~4,000 people that work at HubSpot and who actually create the culture and live it day-to-day.

Second, it's for those that want to better understand HubSpot and how we work. It may be because they're considering joining the company. Or becoming a customer. Or becoming a partner.

Third, it's for the community of entrepreneurs that are building businesses. My hope is that it can be a useful example of how one company (that has done reasonably well) thought about culture -- and articulated it.

Re: The HubSpot Culture Code [slides]

#67

Post by switch007 »

thinkr42 wrote: post #54

Company "culture" always makes me a little skeptical, particularly when they're used for hiring decisions. I can't help but think it is just another way to discriminate against folks - I mean if you're saying some one isn't a culture fit what are you really saying about them? I get it if you're telegraphing that you just don't think they'll fit with you team, but having seen a lot of culture interviews in practice, t…

> I can't help but think it is just another way to discriminate against folks

I've had company owners admit this to me in private.

Re: The HubSpot Culture Code [slides]

#68

Post by jerrycruncher »

layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #60
kodah wrote: post #55

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disrupted:_My_Misadventure_i... > FBI documents accessed by journalists via a freedom of information request revealed that HubSpot attempted "multiple failed attempts to manipulate and extort people” with the intention of stopping the book's publication. > HubSpot executives considered the book "a financial threat to HubSpot, its share price, and the company’s future potential." I'm in…

Off topic: why is "Black" capitalized but "gay" is not? What's the rule here? I'm not a native English speaker, sorry!

It's a very recent development in the language; one of the ripples that radiated out from the George Floyd protests.

The NY Times hosted a piece that explains the reasoning behind it: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/05/insider/capitalized-black...

Re: The HubSpot Culture Code [slides]

#69

Post by commandlinefan »

Tade0 wrote: post #65

Just recently I started working at the sixth place in my 9-year career(excluding side jobs), so I am somewhat cynical. Here's the main problem with having a culture code: It's often created and agreed upon by a clique of employees who've been working there for years - newcomers get a say inversely proportional to the number of employees they encountered on their first day. The best culture I participated in was in a…

"We're super inclusive! We ooze inclusivity! We've never been non-inclusive ever, not even once!" This whole thing reminds me of a post I saw on reddit a few days ago:

My 4-year-old: "Daddy, I didn't go peepee anywhere in the house. I just want you to know that."

Re: The HubSpot Culture Code [slides]

#70

Post by rchaud »

gk1 wrote: post #23
Kharvok wrote: post #12

There's literally an entire book on how this is all bullshit

Worth noting the book is from 2016. Some times it takes a punch in the gut to make a change, but that change is possible. See: Uber after they replaced their CEO. I have no idea how things look at HS now, but I can't imagine it's exactly as bad as it was four years ago.

Quite a big difference between the two examples, wouldn't you say?

The worst thing said about Hubspot in the book is that it's a cold-calling meat grinder for new college grads, and that company basically embodied all the ridiculous rah-rah stereotype of startup culture. That's what I remember at least.

Uber OTOH had a culture of sexism and sexual harrassment that the CEO failed to address, while also flouting taxi laws in several countries and losing unimaginable amounts of money chasing pipe dreams like self-driving cars.

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