How We Work
Organizational Philosophy
We Are a Team of Player-Coaches
Every person here is expected to be in the work — not above it. Leaders build alongside their teams. Experts develop the people around them. There is no class of people whose job is to manage information up and down a chain. We trust each other with context and expect each other to act on it.
A player-coach builds. A player-coach develops. A player-coach owns outcomes — not just responsibilities.
Ownership Lives With a DRI
Every meaningful initiative, problem, or opportunity has a single Directly Responsible Individual (DRI). Not a committee. Not a shared accountability. One person who owns the outcome, has the authority to act, and is accountable for the result.
DRIs are assigned to outcomes, not permanently to roles. The best person for the problem owns the problem — regardless of title.
Three Roles. No Bureaucracy.
| Role | What They Do |
|---|---|
| Individual Contributor (IC) | Deep specialist; builds and operates within a capability domain |
| DRI | Owns a specific cross-cutting outcome with full authority to act |
| Player-Coach | Builds alongside the team; develops craft and people without leaving the work |
Most people here are all three at different moments.
Information Belongs to Everyone
We are remote-first. Every decision, priority, blocker, and outcome lives as a written artifact — not in someone's head, not in a meeting that wasn't recorded. The goal is a company where anyone can understand what's happening, what matters, and why — without asking a manager.
Hierarchy exists to route information. We route information through systems and trust. That's our competitive advantage.
Speed Is the Output
Flat structure, clear ownership, and shared context exist for one reason: speed. The fastest company wins. Layers slow decisions. Ambiguity slows decisions. We remove both.
If something is blocked, the DRI unblocks it. If something is unclear, we write it down. If something is broken, the person closest to it fixes it.
What We Believe
Titles describe domains, not authority
The best idea wins regardless of who has it
Ownership is a privilege — protect it by being accountable
Remotely
Anedot is a fully distributed company. Our team works from every US timezone. We don't care where employees choose to live and work, just that they're here to do great work on exceptional products, alongside a world-class team. We've been remote from the beginning.
You can work from anywhere, but please be sure to give People Ops a heads up before you move — especially across state borders. It may affect you or the company's tax situation. Typically we allow team members to move wherever they want but we have an employee pay new registration fees and commit to a year there if it's a new place for us.
Cycles and Cooldown
We work in 6-week cycles followed by a 2-week cooldown at Anedot. This fixed cadence gives us an internal sense of urgency, keeps projects from ballooning, and provides a regular interval to decide what we're working on next.
Our cycle structure is particularly important for the product teams, since they approach feature and product development with scope and budget in mind up front. For more on this, all employees are encouraged to read Shape Up by Ryan Singer and check out ShapeUp for Anedot (internal). All teams generally follow this cadence, with flexibility depending on the work.
During the two-week cooldown, product teams address bugs and technical debt, everyone writes up what they've worked on, and teams decide what to tackle in the next cycle. We try to avoid extending big-batch projects into cooldown, but it happens occasionally.
Communication
Since we work asynchronously and remotely, it's important to radiate information about what we're working on. We do this through several regular touchpoints:
- Cycle kickoffs — at the start of each 6-week cycle, teams share what they're building and why
- Heartbeats — mid-cycle written updates so everyone can see progress and blockers
- Written updates — decisions, priorities, and outcomes are documented as artifacts, not trapped in meetings
- All Hands — at the end of every cycle, the whole company gathers to hear about product development, business operations, new hires, and anything else worth sharing
The default is to write it down. If it's not written, it didn't happen.
Asynchronously
Most work at Anedot shouldn't require constant real-time communication. Post a message, a todo, or a document about what you need — then let others respond on their schedule during the natural lulls of the day, rather than interrupting their flow.
There will be times when you need to collaborate in real time. We have Slack, video calls, screen-sharing, and in-person collaboration for when async isn't efficient. But those should be the exception, not the default.
Managers of One
We rely on everyone at Anedot to do a lot of self-management. People who do this well are managers of one, and we expect everyone to embody this principle.
That means setting your own direction when one isn't given, determining what needs to be done, and doing it — without waiting for someone to tell you to. A manager of one will spend their time well when left to their own devices. There's always more work to be done, always more initiatives to kick off, and always more improvement to be had.
Balanced
We generally find most people stick to a 40-hour work week. Our 6-week cycle rhythm is designed to support this — focused, intense work during the cycle, then a natural exhale during cooldown. Keeping our hours limited forces us to prioritize the work that really matters.
A healthy amount of sleep and a rich and rewarding life outside of work should not be squandered for a few more hours at work. There are occasions when teams or individuals work off-hours for on-call, maintenance, or emergencies. Use your discretion to take time to make up for any additional hours you put in during the week.