How ZOE built a happy & high-performance engineering culture
summary
ZOE documents a ten‑page values manifesto and uses it day‑to‑day: hiring asks candidates for their favourite value, onboarding requires reading the doc and watching Loom videos, and Slack badges and peer feedback reference specific behaviours. The company scales from 30 to ~300 people with ~85 in tech, stays remote‑first with four off‑sites a year, keeps decisions and architecture records public, measures engagement, attrition and eNPS, and after a recent downsizing stabilises morale by prioritising shipping small wins and creating Moments of Joy. 10‑page manifesto.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Introduction and background
- 3:09Defining culture at Zoe
- 8:26Documenting and embedding values
- 14:02Remote-first culture and transparency
- 16:49Onboarding and feedback systems
- 21:03Hiring and cultural alignment
- 22:31Moments of Joy and team bonding
- 23:56Engineering vs company culture
- 25:01Addressing underperformance
- 26:47Culture during headcount reduction
- 29:13Measuring high performance and happiness
- 30:35Q&A and closing remarks
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