We Are A Team of Nerds: A nerd is someone who is enthusiastically knowledgeable about a particular subject of interest to themselves, and as a team of nerds we have a drive to learn, share, and ‘nerd out’ together.

• We believe that “A” players want to be around other “A” players, and consequently often end out hiring people who’ve been the smartest person in other rooms but are excited and energized to be around other smart people 
• Often our intellectual pursuits bring us as much (or more) energy than interacting with others, so we create safe spaces to focus and to recharge  

Strengths-Based Teamwork: We are mindful about creating clearly defined roles (in soccer, the Forwards have a very different role than the Goalkeeper) so that everyone knows what they’re each responsible for and are in roles that play to their natural strengths.  

• We believe it’s a better approach to build a well-rounded team where each member contributes in the way they’re uniquely built to shine. By surrounding ourselves with people whose strengths complement our own, we create space for everyone to focus on what they do best—and together, we go further. 
• We use personality and work-style assessment tools like Kolbe and Working Genius to better understand our gifts, so everyone can be in seats where they will thrive  
• We use what we know about our teammates to collaborate effectively, and ask the right people for help when we need it.  

We Deposit More Than We Withdraw: Trust is like a piggy bank, where we must always maintain a positive balance by putting more in than what we take out (especially because the deposits are small but withdrawals, when they occur, can be large and quickly deplete the balance of the trust bank). 

• At the company level: 

  • We give away more than 95% of our valuable content for free because we believe information should be available to anyone who wants to learn.  

  • We are mindful of the time and attention of our audience and build systems and communications that give more than we ask for.  

  • Where appropriate, we make time for team members to do volunteer work within the financial planning community by serving on committees and boards.   

• At the personal level: 

  • We proactively support each other, even when it’s outside our defined roles, because we believe that’s what strong teams do.  

  • We trust that everyone has each other’s back, so it’s always OK to ask for help when we need it. 

  • Team trust isn’t earned through tallying favors, but through a shared commitment to showing up for one another. 

We Use Feedback to Make It Better Next Time: We are constantly building feedback loops so we can understand the impact and effectiveness of the work we do. We Experiment, Measure, Analyze Outcomes, and Act Based on Results, not to criticize what happened in the past, but to continuously improve and make things even better moving forward. 

• We build MVPs (Minimum Viable Products), set clear Metrics of Success of what it takes to be successful, put it in front of others, and ask for feedback before deciding what the next step should be (or if we should even move forward at all) 
• We build feedback loops into all programs, even after launch  so that we can iterate and glean the compounding benefits of getting 1% (or more than 1%!) better each time  
• While the format may differ from department to department, retros and debriefs are a part of all projects from weekly article performance, to platform sprint processes, to 6-month research projects, as a time to review what worked, what didn’t work, and make plans for future improvements.  
• Feedback isn’t just about the numbers. We invite our external guest experts to share what it’s like to work with us, and we train our supervisors to ask their Team how they can be doing better for them.  

Outcomes Focused: We care deeply about effort — and we believe it should be recognized and celebrated. But we also know that outcomes are what ultimately move us forward. That’s why we focus on clear goals, measurable results, and meaningful impact.