This is the second of the three documents outlined in ‣ (private), the others being the Gaiwan Strategic Objective(private) and the ‣ (private).

Operating Principles are “guidelines for decision making” that will provide a framework for making moment to moment and long term decisions.

Where the Strategic Objective is the “what” of the organization, Operating Principles are the “how”. These are our personal decision making rules, based on what we believe and how we think we can make our world super efficient.

• everything we do is in accordance with the strategic objective, operating principles, and working procedures.
• we stand for technical excellence. We are here to make a mark, to push the envelope of how software is developed.
• we conduct ourselves as reliable individuals, by communicating clearly and up-front about expectations and limitations, and by living up to commitments. - communication is our life-blood. We communicate early and often with colleagues and partners, and proactively share information and knowledge.
• we market ourselves by providing real value and sharing knowledge. Spam and clickbait have no place here, they provide short term gains but damage our brand and credibility.
• charge plenty or do it for free. Either something is commercially interesting enough to make real money from it, or we do it for free for the good of the community.
• job and technology stand in service of a healthy, balanced, and fulfilling life.
• work can never be allowed to take a toll on mental or physical health. Taking breaks so that you can continue to feel whole and on top of your game is part of being a responsible professional.
• we operate by documented procedures and systems, so that the mechanical aspects of running a business tick like a clock, creating space for the inherently creative knowledge work that we do.
• client commitments come first, so that promises are always kept. If it becomes clear that a commitment can not be kept, then this is communicated with all affected parties as soon as possible, providing both an explanation of how this happened, and a proposal of what we can do instead.
• we embrace failure, using it as an opportunity to reflect and improve. After incidents we take a step back, and update our procedures and systems to prevent the incident from happening in the future.
• we are security and privacy obsessed, both in how we work, and how we consult our clients.
• we continually improve our skills through study, practice, and contemplation. we keep a finger on the pulse of technology.