How We Work
We play the long game.
Since the company is not owned by venture capitalists, but by founders and employees, we are not a growth-at-all costs company.
Growth-at-all-costs is great for investors but does long-term damage to company culture, team morale, and employee happiness.
Instead, we play the long game by investing in good people and good process. This gives us a solid foundation so that we can focus on customer happiness and then we don’t have to constantly worry about hitting projections in the short-term or obsess about what our competitors are doing.
Deep Work
Eliminate wasted time and get more done.
Hopefully you’ve heard about the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. Deep Work is one of our core values.
According to Deep Work, truly impactful work is created by focus and concentration.
However, the typical work environment, including most remote work, is the opposite of what you would design for focus and concentration. Constant Slack notifications, useless Zoom calls, and endless emails invade the precious time we need for deep work.
So, at Nadine West, we primarily work asynchronously, meaning that we do most of our work across different time zones, using an internal message board called Basecamp. Only when appropriate do we use synchronous channels like chat, phone, and video calls.
Strong written skills are important. Writing a good message takes more energy and time. But in the end, it helps move things forward more quickly because it saves the rest of the team time and reduces confusion.
Freedom from the constant interruptions of phone, Slack, and Zoom means that we are able to move the needle more with less effort. It also means a calmer work environment (instead of long, stressful work days) and more time to develop better processes (instead of constantly putting out fires.)
Process First. Outcome Second.
Focus on the system and the score will take care of itself.
Though outcomes are very important, we believe that developing good systems and processes is more important in the long-term.
The most enduring franchises in sports do not just try to score more points. They carefully design every process leading up to the game, including meticulous recruiting, deliberate practice, and thoughtful game-planning.
At Nadine West, we spend a lot of time creating, implementing, and improving our processes. This goes from files organization and team communication to the different SOPs of every team.
We may not necessarily hit our goals all the time and we’re fine with it as long as we are improving our processes.
In the long-run, good systems drive consistent execution and winning on the field.
Want To Learn More?
Want to learn more? Watch these Youtube summaries of some of Nadine West’s favorite books.