Mission, Vision, Values Workshop

Your Company's Design Principles

Core Principle: MVV = design principles for decisions. Prevents future "architecture debates" about people and culture.

Why MVV Matters

Engineers Skip This:

"Culture comes later. Let's just build."

Reality:

Culture doesn't come later. It's already here—just bad.

MVV = Design Principles

Platform had:

• Self-service?
• Zero-trust?
• Immutable infrastructure?

Startup needs:

• Mission: Why exist?
• Vision: Success in 5 years?
• Values: How decide?

Benefit: MVV prevents 3-hour debates about things you should've decided day one.

The 3 Core Questions

1. Mission: Why Do We Exist?

Not: "What we build"

Is: "Why the world needs this"

Template:

We exist to [VERB] [WHO] so they can [OUTCOME]

Examples:

❌ Bad (too vague):

• "Make the world better with technology"
• "Empower developers"
• "Build great products"

✅ Good (specific):

• Stripe: "Increase the GDP of the internet"
• Airbnb: "Create a world where anyone can belong anywhere"
• Tesla: "Accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy"

Your turn:

We exist to ________________________________
so that ____________________________________

Test: Can you explain this to your grandmother? If no, simplify.

2. Vision: What Does Success Look Like in 5 Years?

Not: "We'll have raised Series B"

Is: "Here's the world we've created"

Template:

In 5 years, [WHO] will [BEHAVIOR] because [IMPACT]

Examples:

❌ Bad (internally focused):

• "We'll have 100 employees"
• "We'll be profitable"
• "We'll have raised $50M"

✅ Good (externally focused):

• Superhuman: "Every person who handles email as a critical part of their job will use Superhuman"
• Notion: "Every team will organize their work in Notion"
• Figma: "Every designer will design in the browser, not desktop apps"

Your turn:

In 5 years, _______________________________
will __________________________________
because ___________________________________

Test: Is this inspiring? Would you work 5 years for this?

3. Values: How Do We Decide?

Not: "Be nice" or "Work hard"

Is: "When faced with X, we choose Y"

Template:

[VALUE NAME]: [1-sentence definition]
In practice: [Specific behavior example]

Framework: 3-5 values maximum (more = meaningless)

Examples:

Value: Bias to Action

• Definition: Move fast and iterate rather than perfect planning
• In practice: Ship a v0.1 this week vs. perfect v1 next month
• Trade-off: Accept more bugs in exchange for faster learning

Value: Transparency by Default

• Definition: Share information unless there's a reason not to
• In practice: Slack channels are public, metrics visible to all
• Trade-off: Some discomfort in exchange for trust and alignment

Value: Customer Obsession

• Definition: Talk to customers weekly, build for their needs
• In practice: Engineers join customer calls, support rotation
• Trade-off: Sometimes build "boring" features customers want vs. "cool" tech

Your Values Workshop (2 Hours)

Setup

• Who: Founders + first 3 employees (if any)
• Where: Whiteboard or Miro/Figma
• When: Week 1 (before you hire)

Part 1: Brainstorm (30 min)

Prompt: "What matters to us? How do we want to work?"

Write everything on sticky notes:

• Fast shipping
• Work-life balance
• Technical excellence
• Customer first
• Transparent communication
• Ownership/autonomy
• Data-driven decisions
• Diversity & inclusion

Goal: 20-30 ideas

Part 2: Cluster (15 min)

Group similar ideas:

• "Move fast", "Ship weekly", "Bias to action" → Speed
• "Customer calls", "User research", "Build for them" → Customer-centric
• "Public Slack", "Share metrics", "Open feedback" → Transparency

Goal: 5-7 clusters

Part 3: Prioritize (15 min)

Forced ranking: What matters MOST?

Test: If you could only pick 3, which 3?

Goal: 3-5 core values

Part 4: Define (45 min)

For each value:

1. Name it: 1-2 words

2. Define it: 1 sentence

3. Specific behavior: "In practice, this means..."

4. Trade-off: "We accept [downside] in exchange for [upside]"

Goal: Usable values, not platitudes

Part 5: Stress Test (15 min)

Scenario planning:

Scenario 1: Customer wants feature X, but it'll slow us down. What do we do?

• If "Speed" value → Politely decline, stay focused
• If "Customer obsession" → Build it, ship it

Scenario 2: Engineer wants to rewrite core system for "better architecture." What do we do?

• If "Technical excellence" value → Consider it seriously
• If "Bias to action" value → No rewrites, iterate forward

Goal: Values should resolve debates

Common Value Categories

Execution

• Bias to action: Move fast, iterate
• Ownership: You break it, you fix it
• Simplicity: Choose boring technology
• Excellence: Sweat the details

Customers

• Customer obsession: Build for their needs
• Transparency: Honest about trade-offs
• Reliability: Uptime matters
• Support-driven: Everyone does support

Team

• Transparency: Information sharing by default
• Candor: Direct, kind feedback
• Diversity: Inclusive hiring and culture
• Growth: Learn and level up

Innovation

• Experimentation: Try new things
• Data-driven: Measure everything
• Long-term: Optimize for 10 years
• Ambitious: Go big or go home

Pick 3-5. More = meaningless.

Writing Your Values Doc

Template

# [Company Name] Mission, Vision, Values

## Mission: Why We Exist
[1-2 sentences]

## Vision: Where We're Going
[2-3 sentences describing 5-year future]

## Values: How We Decide

### 1. [Value Name]
**What it means:** [1 sentence]

**In practice:**
- [Specific behavior 1]
- [Specific behavior 2]
- [Specific behavior 3]

**Trade-off:** We accept [downside] for [upside]

**Example:** [Real story of this value in action]

### 2. [Value Name]
[Repeat structure]

[Continue for 3-5 values]

How to Use MVV Daily

Hiring

Question: "Does this candidate align with our values?"

Test: Ask behavioral questions about each value:

• "Tell me about a time you shipped something imperfect to learn faster" (Bias to action)
• "Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager" (Candor)

Decision: Hire for values fit + skill, not just skill

Performance Reviews

Framework: Evaluate on values + outcomes

Example:

Engineer X:
- Technical output: Strong (shipped 3 features)
- Customer obsession: Weak (hasn't joined a customer call)
- Transparency: Strong (shares progress weekly)

Action: Keep, but coach on customer value

Conflict Resolution

When two people disagree:

"Let's look at our values. Which value matters more here?"

Example:

• Engineer wants to refactor (Technical excellence)
• PM wants to ship new feature (Bias to action)
• Resolution: Check roadmap. If feature is critical, ship first. If tech debt is blocking, refactor first.

MVV removes ego from debates.

Real-World Examples

Stripe Values

1. Users first: Align with users' success

2. Move with urgency: Fast decisions and execution

3. Think rigorously: High-quality decisions with evidence

4. Trust and amplify: Default to trust, empower others

5. Optimism: Believe we can solve hard problems

Why it works: Specific, opinionated, guides decisions

GitLab Values (CREDIT)

1. Collaboration: Work together, transparently

2. Results: Outcomes over activity

3. Efficiency: Boring solutions, write things down

4. Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging: Everyone can contribute

5. Iteration: Smallest viable change

6. Transparency: Public by default

Why it works: Memorable acronym, detailed handbook

Coinbase Values

1. Clear communication: Transparent, direct, written

2. Efficient execution: Move fast, bias to action

3. Acting with integrity: Do the right thing

4. Continuous learning: Growth mindset

5. Customer focus: Build for users

Why it works: Balanced between execution and culture

Anti-Patterns (What NOT to Do)

❌ Meaningless Platitudes

• "Integrity"
• "Excellence"
• "Innovation"
• "Teamwork"

Problem: Every company says this. Meaningless.

Fix: Be specific. "Integrity" → "Transparent by default"

❌ Too Many Values

• 10+ values = no one remembers them

Fix: 3-5 values maximum

❌ Values ≠ Reality

• "Work-life balance" (but everyone works 80-hour weeks)
• "Customer first" (but no one talks to customers)

Problem: Destroys trust

Fix: Only write values you actually live

❌ Static Doc That's Never Used

• Write once, forget forever

Fix: Reference in every hiring decision, every conflict, every review

MVV Evolution

When to Update

• Major pivot: Business model changes
• New funding round: Scaling to next stage
• Team grows 10x: Culture drifts
• Founder exit: Leadership change

Frequency: Review annually, update as needed

How to Update

1. Survey team: What's working? What's not?

2. Identify drift: Where have we strayed?

3. Workshop (again): 2-hour refresh

4. Communicate changes: Why we updated

Key: Evolution is fine. Abandonment is not.

2-Hour Workshop Agenda

Materials Needed

• [ ] Whiteboard or Miro/Figma
• [ ] Sticky notes (digital or physical)
• [ ] Founders + first employees
• [ ] 2 uninterrupted hours

Agenda

0:00-0:10 - Context: Why MVV matters

0:10-0:40 - Brainstorm: All ideas

0:40-0:55 - Cluster: Group similar ideas

0:55-1:10 - Prioritize: Pick 3-5 values

1:10-1:55 - Define: Write each value

1:55-2:00 - Commit: We'll live by these

Output

• [ ] Mission statement (1-2 sentences)
• [ ] Vision statement (2-3 sentences)
• [ ] 3-5 values (name, definition, behavior, trade-off)

Resources

• Click by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
• Sprint by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
• Good to Great by Jim Collins: Core values framework
• Powerful by Patty McCord: Netflix culture deck
• GitLab Handbook: Open-source values in practice (handbook.gitlab.com)

Download all 12 templates: sanscourier.ai/qconsf-2025

*From the QCon SF 2025 talk: "From Staff Platform Engineer to a16z Founder: What I Wish I'd Known" by Gonzalo (Glo) Maldonado*