The Grafana Labs operating system: Introducing our Guiding Principles

Matt Toback is the VP of Culture at Grafana Labs.

We published our original company values back in December 2020. We were a young company, growing fast, and fully remote. Our values at the time were aspirational, and painted a picture of the kind of company we wanted to be. Those values did real work and they mattered. You could hear them used in everyday conversations, and they helped get us to where we are today. 

But growth has a way of revealing gaps.

Over time, we realized something important: we had evolved a very real, very specific way of working that wasn’t fully reflected in what we’d written down, and how it helped us make decisions. The culture was here. The decisions were here. The patterns were here. But the words were lagging. In effect, we were running a newer operating system than the one published on our internal wiki and external careers page.

So we decided to upgrade it. 

But the bigger question wasn’t whether to update our values; it was how. What would actually serve us at this stage of our growth? What kind of framework would reflect who we are today and still push us forward?

Why Guiding Principles?

When we looked at refreshing our values, we were skeptical. As our CEO Raj Dutt put it, corporate values often end up as platitudes, like those motivational posters you see on office walls that mean absolutely nothing.

We wanted a set of principles that were a little bit contrarian. Ideas that might not apply to every company, but are distinctly us. We wanted an operating system that we could use daily to navigate challenges, scale our culture, and drive action as we grow.

These aren't just warm and fuzzy sentiments; they are the fundamental truths of being a Grafanista. They explain what we expect of each other and serve as the foundation for how we make decisions, especially when things get complex.

The Grafanista Guiding Principles

These ten principles define how we navigate the world, and are the code we live by:

• Long-term greedy: This is a favorite of ours. It means we prioritize enduring value over short-term gains. We are willing to take a hit today, whether in revenue or ease, if it means building a better foundation for tomorrow.
• Souls intact: We operate with integrity. We want to be able to look each other in the eye decades from now and respect not only the work we did together, but how we accomplished it.
• Do (and say) the hard things: We don't shy away from the difficult stuff. We have the uncomfortable conversations and drive necessary change, because the cost of avoidance is always higher.
• Ship constantly: Speed is our weapon. We release early, iterate rapidly, and value feedback over theoretical perfection.
• We are all in customer success: Titles don’t matter here. Whether you’re in Finance, Engineering, or Sales, our success is defined by our customers’ success.
• Seek diverse perspectives: We have team members in nearly 50 countries. We break down silos and believe that our collective responsibility leads to stronger decisions.
• Roll up your sleeves: We are a flat organization where leaders are unafraid to be involved and stay connected to the details.
• Help each other thrive: We lift each other up. Even under pressure, we act with intelligence and heart.
• Default to transparency: We share information by default, and when we can't, we explain why. Transparency builds trust and simply enables better outcomes.
• Make the work matter: We avoid activity for activity’s sake. We prioritize work that solves real problems.

Our mortal enemies

Being direct about who we are also means being clear about what we aren't. Along with our principles, we identified our mortal enemies, which are behaviors that poison the well and kill innovation.

We actively fight against bureaucracy, stagnation, finger-pointing, mediocrity, busywork, unproductive resistance, and standing on the sidelines. And, to put it bluntly, we have a "no assholes" policy, regardless of how high-performing someone might be.

The road ahead

These principles are designed to help us make independent decisions in a pinch. Whether it’s choosing to open-source a feature to build long-term trust (long-term greedy) or sharing difficult updates openly (default to transparency), this is how we operate.

We’re sharing these publicly because transparency matters to us, and because if you work with Grafana Labs, or want to join us, you should know exactly what you’re signing up for.

Let’s get to work.

Learn more about the Grafana Labs team and our remote-first culture. And to explore opportunities to become a future Grafanista, visit our careers page. We hope to hear from you!