.. post originalmente publicado en el blog de tuenti engineering, nuestro site de developers 😉 .. estos son los valores que se viven en el día a día al trabajar en Tuenti, los valores que compartimos todos los que trabajamos en el nuevo e ilusionante proyecto que tenemos ahora entre manos: Novum ..
Once Tuenti, always Tuenti
That’s what we call the sense of togetherness that is created in every team member once they become part of this family. Not only because of the great atmosphere, the people who make up the team and the incredible project we’re working on, but because here we develop top-level professionals, create bonds and friendships for life and even marriages! I myself have had the pleasure of attending some of the Tuenti weddings (and there is another still to come). There are even Tuenti babies!!
The basis of all this is our work and team culture. Ours is a culture of excellence based on 8 values that we call upon at all times to guide our goals and our actions. In fact, our office walls breathe these values but, as I always say, the best thing is how this all began. I still remember how Coque, one of our engineers, encouraged the management team to spell out what it means to work at Tuenti. It was a bottom-up job where lots us who worked at Tuenti wrote down what best represented day-to-day life at the company for us. And this is the result.
Go big or go home!
We’re here to do something big and to change the rules of the telco sector. Ours are high-impact projects, not only within Telefónica’s innovation department but with the goal of disrupting the sector. The goals we set ourselves are tough and very ambitious. But that’s just the way we all like it: if the project itself and our goals were not tough and ambitious, we’d be wasting time and squandering talent.
Be your own CEO
We encourage teamwork but everyone is responsible for their own project: this value is repeated almost daily, like a mantra. Nobody here waits around for someone else to come and do their work for them. There are no excuses, get shit done. We are not powerpointers. We are doers, not brown-dispatchers!
Customers come first
We’re always thinking about the customer in everything we do, because, at the end of the day, it’s the customer who keeps us where we are. Now, with Novum, we’re working to make the best digital product for customers all over the world: Latin America, Brazil, UK, Germany, Spain… We want to really understand how our customers use what we do, what their real needs are and how we can improve their experience. At the end of the day, it’s a virtuous circle: we make useful products for the customer, the customer is more engaged with the product; we repeat the process and improve things based on their needs, the customer is happier and their life as a customer therefore generates a greater ARPU and a lower churn than if they were simply a telco client who didn’t use everything that our app has to offer.
Strive for excellence
Good people want to work with the best. We don’t accept mediocrity or anything less than world class. We’re very demanding of ourselves. We only hire the best and that’s why we’re a leading company. And we’re very careful to maintain this culture of excellence through our system of four-monthly reviews. We measure ourselves against what we, as a team, committed to be able to do and we share honest feedback among all team members to help others improve. At times, we have to let team members go to ensure that we are prioritizing excellence and meritocracy.
Challenge and expect to be challenged
Anyone is able to challenge the project. We question everything: what a co-worker says, what the manager says or what is established as the status quo. Of course, we don’t accept jerks; feedback is always constructive and valuable for co-workers.
No bullshit!
Communication is key in our work culture. The company’s horizontal structure encourages work between teams and between employees (not only equal to equal, but also from junior to lead between different teams). We prioritize transparency and internal communication through company Q&As and All Hands. In addition, we make decisions based on data and merit, rather than based on politics. Sometimes (especially at certain levels) this is very difficult but we remind ourselves of it every day. We are a data-driven company.
Move the needle
Focus. Focus. Focus. This is a key value in our day-to-day life. Always ask yourself if you’re going to spend time on something that won’t end up moving the needle. If this is the case, it’s best not to do it. If it’s not going to improve something radically, we set it aside and focus on things that really deliver. I’m that guy who’s always saying “FOCUS!” in the office as a bit of a joke, but it’s something that’s very important to me: we invest our time in things that are really going to make a difference.
Work hard & party hard
This is definitely my favorite value 😉 We enjoy the journey. We not only enjoy achieving the results, but also what it means to travel that road together. We work very hard, but we also celebrate our successes. We have fun together in the process of taking a project forward and especially when we celebrate it, whether it’s in teams or as a company. This is key to creating the family I was talking about at the beginning. Personally, I feel very proud to be part of a team of people who respect each other for their professional expertise, and at the same time can celebrate successes, both big and small, whenever — for example — we are able to achieve one of the goals we have written on the board. What’s more, they always enjoy a nice cold beer or a Jäger on a Friday afternoon in La Chula or one of the other bars near our offices.
Our values reflect our spirit, our way of seeing things and, ultimately, our DNA. Some people may think that values are defined by companies for employees, but in this case, it was the team who inspired the values based on their actions and I know that many of those who are no longer part of the team still permeate this culture wherever they have gone. Because, at the end of the day, once Tuenti, always Tuenti. I am convinced that many people will return to be part of our project (especially now that we’re growing) and one of the things that always amazes me about working at this company is that they are sure to find the same atmosphere because, although the faces have changed, we are still the same.
