Company Principles
We believe that the key to Jest's success is to recruit and empower a world-class team
Recruit
Recruit True Owners
- Owners take full responsibility for their part of the company: figuring out what matters, setting the right goals, choosing the best approach, delivering results, and communicating clearly.
- Ownership isn't just about raw talent - it's about the right person in the right role at the right time. Fit matters more than fixed traits.
- Owners can be found anywhere, which is why we're building Jest as a distributed company from day one.
Recruit by Working Together
- We've conducted thousands of interviews at prior companies and learned a simple but painful truth: traditional interviews filter out bad fits but rarely reveal great ones.
- The best way to assess fit is to actually work together - on a real project, in real conditions, with real feedback.
- No process is perfect, so we keep the bar high. When it's not a match, we part ways with clarity and compassion.
Empower
Divide and Conquer
- To make ownership work, we collaborate through clear interfaces so handoffs between people and teams are smooth and intentional.
- We practice “disagree and commit”: share your perspective, then support the final decision as a team.
- When things go off track, a manager may step in - but that's a signal we need to zoom out and resolve a deeper misalignment.
Lead with Purpose and Context
- Empowerment only works when people understand both why we're doing something and how we're doing it together.
- That's why we default to async communication, invest in a single source of truth, and work in the open.
- The goal: Owners that can stay aligned and move independently - making decisions without being blocked by someone else.
