A short talk (YouTube video) by Jason M. Lemkin arguing that company culture should be treated like a product: employees are the customers, culture requires continual iteration, and teams must be consulted when shaping culture. The speaker contrasts static preservation of culture with an iterative, product-style approach.
I think we should think about culture as a product, and the team, the people, the employees, as the customers of that product. And so all the things that apply in building a product. You would never build a product without talking to customers. Unheard of. You would never try to craft a culture without getting the team's input. Product is never done. Culture is never done. So we don't say, oh, we shipped the product. We're done here. We're not going to iterate on it ever again. One of the biggest mistakes people make is like, oh, we want to preserve our culture as if it's a static thing. And we want it to not look any different two years from now, five years from now, ten years from now. And I think that's wrong. It should iterate in the same way.
