ENGINEERING PHILOSOPHY
"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both." L. P. Jacks
Engineers at WeArePercent are known as Melon Twits. Monday to Friday we spend at least half of our sentient hours at play. It is imperative that these hours meet the goal of a life well spent. A life well spent varies depending on an individuals perspective and so at WeArePercent we maintain seven key pillars in the hope of keeping all perspectives fulfilled. We believe that a philosophy of "a life well spent" fundamentally encourages the engineering team to make well informed, productive decisions to benefit both the product and the environment in which we joyfully play.
LEMON TWIST
What is a lemon twist? It's the little bit of extra magic, the secret sauce, the spark of unusual, or the element of surprise. When we finish a feature or a meeting, if we haven't considered the lemon twist we have failed. Lemon twists differentiate us from the crowd, we are different, we want to be different, and we want users of our products to feel different and special. We care deeply about our products and our users. We believe that the lemon twist is critical to enable us to differentiate ourselves.
FREEDOM
We believe that when at play with freedom and choice, we are empowered, passionate, and driven to add value to both our fellow Twits and our products. We are happier. Freedom is essential in enabling us to strive towards creating the ultimate engineering environment for all Twits to roam freely within. We believe that playing with freedom provides the open minds and embracing nature necessary to allow freedom of thought, speech, and expression. Freedom helps to maintain a positive, collaborative atmosphere where we all feel able to contribute to the steering of the ship.
LEARNING & TEACHING
We believe that engineering is a life long learning experience. Teaching helps both the teacher and the learner evolve their skills and improve themselves. As teachers we aim to inspire through sharing our passion and knowledge of a subject. We believe learning and teaching provides the motivation to grow and the inspiration to achieve beyond the limits of what we thought was possible. Learning and teaching serves as a reminder that helping and inspiring the play of the group is the most valuable contribution an individual can make.
COLLABORATION
We believe that collaboration significantly strengthens the team bond and therefore increases time well spent. Collaboration significantly improves our communication, our appreciation of the skills of our fellow Twits, and allows us to derive insight from the perspectives of others. When collaborating we aim to listen carefully and speak with great thought and kindness. We believe that collaborative effort sails us towards a more enriching experience for our users and a more comfortable environment in which to play.
RISKY
We believe that taking risks is fundamental in providing us the ability to achieve the company's goals. If we are not taking risks we run the very real possibility of creating another unremarkable, mediocre entity. This may be acceptable to some but not to us. We believe that taking greater risks leads to greater innovation and the ability to compose novel solutions to the problems that we face. Taking risks should encourage us to think globally and to view the world from varying perspectives. We don't believe in small, incremental change, we believe that we can be a force for good by taking bigger risks. We all believe in setting sail on the risky path to creating novel, innovative solutions to the challenges we face.
OPENNESS AND RESPECT
We believe in providing an open and mutually respectful environment in which to play. We know that play is always more fun when we speak well of each other, are welcoming, open, and attempt to embrace all we see and do. If we are open and respectful we believe that we will form beautiful, lasting relationships with all those that we encounter.
CURIOUSITY
Melon Twits are curious by nature. We believe this allows us to maintain motivation as the ship sails onward. We remain curious of the latest developments in our domain, we aim to motivate our fellow twits through our interest in what they are doing and how they are developing as humans. We believe that maintaining an intense curiosity for all areas of the business helps us to maintain awareness and allows us to make the right decisions to keep the ship afloat.