Our values aren’t emblazoned across our walls, etched on mugs, or stitched into T-shirts, but we are working to embed them into our day-to-day interactions. They are purposely phrased as verbs, as actions, so that we can do just that: put them into action.
Be curious
Lifelong learners are excited about solving interesting problems. We insatiably seek and apply new knowledge.
Be humble
A humble environment allows space for people to acknowledge their mistakes and limitations, be open to other viewpoints and ideas, and foster collaboration. Celebrating our diversity is ingrained in our daily routines and allows the work we do to speak for itself.
Be honest
Trust and respect enable more efficient and more rewarding collaborations. We build relationships through transparent, ongoing communication that allows our team members to proactively solve problems together.
Be whole
Having a rewarding professional and personal life is possible. Our team members build on their intuition, experience, and creativity to create a supportive and flexible work culture.
Be excellent
Achieving excellence is never easy, and it is hard to find. Designing meaningful solutions inspires us—we love what we do and it shows. Our experts focus relentlessly on designing meaningful solutions.
A common thread: learning
The common thread for these values—and everyone at Extension Engine—is learning. It is the goal of our work and how we continuously improve that work. As a team of lifelong learners, collaboration and openness allow us to achieve the greatest impact for our partners. At each stage of the employee life cycle, the values are present. They are on our career page, so prospective employees can see what we’re all about and decide if this is the kind of place they can see themselves thriving. Our interview process includes activities and questions to assess how candidates can add to and enhance our values. Performance and professional development is centered around technical skills as well as embodiment of the values.
Our weekly team meetings are structured to bring our values to life. We kick things off with breakout groups to allow team members to connect and share updates on their lives. We come together to share and reflect on our current project work, trends in the field, and smaller tips of the week. Shout-outs let us take pride in our craft and celebrate each other.
As we work with our clients, we focus relentlessly on designing meaningful solutions. We act as a true partner who is equally invested in their organizations, making a positive impact. We cultivate trust and transparency throughout our process, which fosters collaboration and leads to innovative design solutions.
Recently, to increase the stickiness of our values, our team created visual representations of them. The process we used exemplified the values themselves. We gathered a cross-functional, diverse team and held several interactive brainstorming and virtual white-boarding sessions. Our User Interface team translated the ideas into physical representations of the values. They gathered feedback and iterated several times until we came to consensus. The results can be seen above.
With each new experience, we’ll continue to reflect on how we can further weave these values into our decisions and interactions.
Keep Learning
To learn more about what it’s like to work at Extension Engine, please check out our Careers page.
