From the moment the idea of Discord was born – baby Wumpus, you might say – our CEO, Jason Citron, was focused on one of the most important questions for a growing company to answer: “How do you create a place where people can thrive doing their best work?”
Since then, we’ve grown our team and heard how they would describe and capture the essence of what makes working at Discord special. At Discord, we live by these seven Wumpus principles!
Take the time to get to know people and find common ground. Remember that we are all working towards the same goal. Start from a place of trust, assume good intent, and seek to understand other points of view before passing judgment.
Deliver solutions that meet the needs of the people we serve. Strive to deeply understand how what you are working on helps customers from first principles and invent creative approaches to meet them. Focus on their needs, not what the competition is doing.
Surprise & delight comes from caring about the million little details of how a person experiences your work. Put the right emotion in when they least expect it to deliver the magic. This applies to how we show up with each other too!
When you own a decision, involve your stakeholders, get informed through data, have constructive debates, and make a decision. When you are part of a decision or when you aren't, share your thoughts respectfully. When a decision is made, regardless of whether you agree with it, commit to bringing it to life with excellence. Transparency is our goal, not consensus.
All big things start small. Think long-term and break ideas down so you can start delivering value and learning right away. Strive for an 80/20 approach and compound from there. This is the essence of moving fast with both excellence and surprise & delight.
Take risks (big and small) to do things that matter and don't be afraid to change directions based on what you learn. Inspect reality — using data when you can — to determine whether it is working or not. If it's working, keep going. When it's not, don't be afraid to cut your losses. Always learn what went right and wrong to do better next time.
Seize the opportunity to do incredible work that you can be proud of every single day. Learn more, ask questions, improve yourself, improve our company, and help those around you reach their maximum potential.
Throughout Discord’s history, these principles have shown up in nearly everything we've done. We've made huge decisions that have shaped the future of Discord. We’ve added tiny details throughout the app that Surprise and Delight users, including special sound effects that sound when buttons are pressed, and fun animations that play after idling on specific menus for too long.
These principles listed above help Discordians contribute their best work, whether in person at our San Francisco office or at their family’s ranch they’ve lived on for generations. (Maybe they feed their chickens using Discord, too?)
We encourage you to embody our seven principles in any way, shape, or form! Even if you’re not looking for a new gig, these principles can inspire you in life outside work; personal development is just as important as, if not more than, career development.
Wanna come along for the ride? Join us in our mission of building genuine friendships around play and shared experiences, where human connection is a click, text chat, or voice call away. Take a peek at our jobs board by using our big blurple button below:
