Freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.
Viktor Frankl, “Man's Search for Meaning”
At Matter Labs, we embrace a culture of extreme ownership. Here is what it means.
At Matter Labs, you have freedom to work how you want, when you want and from where you want. The only thing that matters is the results of your work. As a remote-first company, we operate in a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE).
The harsh truth is: the world values outcomes, not the efforts. While many things are out of our control, we take radical responsibility for everything we do, and commit to continuous self-improvement and learning from mistakes, striving to understand the reality better to maximize the chances of success. This mindset encourages us to be proactive, decisive, and accountable, leading to a more resilient and high-performing team.
We hire, retain and promote people who are getting things done more often than not. We evaluate performance based on what was accomplished, not based on how much work was done.
Collective responsibility leads to collective neglect. At Matter Labs, every task, project, and area of expertise always has exactly one owner, or directly responsible individual (DRI).
As the owner, it's your responsibility to complete the task or project as fast as possible, while ensuring you are receiving all necessary inputs and reviews on the path to deployment.
The DRI is the CEO of the task. The DRI is responsible for pushing the task forward, identifying and removing blockers, and bringing it over the finish line.
Your job isn’t done until the task reaches the state of completion. For example, if you are a developer and own a feature, your job is not done when the feature is coded, but when it goes into production. If you are a BD person working on a deal, your job is only done when the contract is signed.
If your part of the job is done and it doesn’t make sense for you to own it anymore, make sure that the ownership is explicitly passed over to – and acknowledged by – another DRI.
80% of results come from the 20% of efforts. Whatever we do, we start by focusing on the few inputs that's going to drive large part of the outcomes. And we demand it from others. When someone comes with a proposal, always ask: what are the top 3 things that will get us 80% there?
This applies to 1:1s, meetings, product priorities, business priorities, etc.