Principles

Our Engineering Excellence principles guide every decision we make. They are not rules to follow blindly, but lenses through which we evaluate our work.

1. Quality is Non-Negotiable

We do not sacrifice quality for speed.

• A feature with poor quality is not “done”; it is a liability
• Technical debt is real debt with real interest
• “Quick and dirty” is never quick and always dirty

In Practice:

• Code review is mandatory, not optional
• Tests are part of the feature, not an afterthought
• Broken builds block merges

2. Automate Everything

If a machine can do it, a machine should do it.

• Manual processes are error-prone and do not scale
• Automation frees humans for creative work
• Repetition is a signal for automation

In Practice:

• CI/CD pipelines run all checks automatically
• Infrastructure is defined as code
• Alerts trigger automated responses where possible

3. Feedback Loops

Fast feedback enables fast learning.

• The sooner we know, the sooner we fix
• Delayed feedback is wasted work
• Feedback should be actionable

In Practice:

• Unit tests run in seconds, not minutes
• Production issues trigger immediate alerts
• Code review feedback is specific and constructive

4. Continuous Improvement

We are never “done” improving.

• Yesterday’s best practice may be today’s anti-pattern
• Small improvements compound over time
• Learn from failures, do not hide them

In Practice:

• Regular retrospectives drive process improvements
• Postmortems are blameless and focus on learning
• Engineers have dedicated time for learning

5. Ownership End-to-End

You build it, you run it.

• Ownership creates accountability
• Those who build know best how to operate
• Handoffs create gaps

In Practice:

• Teams own their services in production
• On-call rotations include the builders
• Documentation is written by those who know

6. Psychological Safety

People do their best work when they feel safe.

• Mistakes are learning opportunities, not blame events
• Questions are encouraged, not punished
• “I do not know” is a sign of strength, not weakness

In Practice:

• Blameless postmortems
• Junior engineers can question senior decisions
• Experimentation is encouraged, even when it fails

7. Customer-Centric

We build for the customer, not for ourselves.

• Technical elegance must serve user value
• The best code is code that solves real problems
• Feedback comes from real usage

In Practice:

• Engineers understand the customer problem
• Metrics tie to business outcomes
• Features are validated with real users

Applying These Principles

When facing a decision, ask:

1. Does this uphold or erode quality?
2. Can we automate this?
3. How fast will we know if something is wrong?
4. Are we learning and improving?
5. Who owns this end-to-end?
6. Is everyone safe to speak up?
7. Does this serve the customer?

If the answer to any of these concerns you, reconsider the approach.