Welcome to Dabble Lab. Rather a “collective” than company, we are a collaborative group of dabblers who have come together to create something larger than any one of us could alone. Tech is always evolving, so what we do adapts with the times. But our mission—free people to do things that are more human—never changes.

At the crux of this mission, you will find our values. Driving our open-minded, “always learning, always dabbling” culture, they are deeply embedded into the practices, strategies, and decisions at every level of Dabble Lab. Even at the expense of short-term lived gains, we believe our success is grounded in embracing a long-term focus, remaining true to these values, embracing a long-term focus, and above all, to be a community of dabblers ever-making meaning in an ever-changing world.

You can read our full vision and philosophy letter or find a summary of our values below.

Personal fulfillment

TLDR

1. Individual happiness and well-being come first at Dabble Lab.
2. We have very flexible work arrangements.
3. Reflect on what you want from your work and let us know.

We believe everyone should enjoy life. Take care of yourself, spend time with loved ones, and discover your passions. We're a team that generally loves what we do. Everyday isn't perfect, but we enjoy the feeling of accomplishment that we get from our work. Our relationship to work is similar to that of artists—none of us would stop as soon as we made enough money. Simply put, working at Dabble Lab shouldn't feel like a chore—we actually hate chores, which is one of the reasons why we're so passionate about automation. We work together because we want to create things that are larger than any one of us could alone, but personal fulfillment sits at the core of why each of us are working here. Barring practical limitations, we try our best to ensure our team members are fulfilled. Reflect on what you want out of your work, and talk to us so we can make sure we're all aligned.

Accountability

TLDR

1. We all take responsibility for our actions and outcomes.
2. We speak up before we drop the ball.
3. Mistakes are learning opportunities, but carelessness is not learning.

As individuals and a team, we take responsibility for our actions and outcomes. When we make commitments, we follow through. If something looks like it will interfere with our ability to follow through, we make sure the appropriate people know well in advance. If we can't accept a responsibility, we don't. We're not perfect, but when we make mistakes, we own and accept them as learning opportunities. But we don't accept careless work, bad habits, or offloaded blame. When any of us take on leadership roles, we are accountable for the actions and outcomes of everyone we lead, in addition to our own. In short, we expect everyone to have a high degree of personal responsibility.

Respect

TLDR

1. We treat all living beings with the kindness and respect they deserve.
2. We seek wisdom through others' experiences, identities, and perspectives.
3. We have empathy for people with different competencies and situations.

Our team members live all over the world and have a wide array of identities, experiences, and perspectives. Everyone on the Dabble Lab team shares the belief that all living beings should be treated with kindness and respect. Of course, we don't discriminate with regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, marital status, military or veteran status, gender identity and expression, or genetic information. But beyond accepting others' identities, at Dabble Lab, we believe everyone who's motivated is capable of contributing something valuable. We are patient with language barriers, as many of our team members' first language isn't English. We assume if someone doesn't understand something, that doesn't mean they don't have the capacity to learn. Finally, we are conscious and empathetic of the fact that people have lives outside of work that can influence how motivated they appear or how they act at different times.

Equality

TLDR

1. Everyone on our team is equal, and we speak to each other openly and casually.

Everyone on our team is equal. No factor gives anyone special privileges over anyone else. Not how long someone has worked at Dabble Lab. Not someone's past accomplishments. Everyone should feel comfortable talking with anyone—even if you don't work with them directly. We all speak up in meetings and share our ideas and insights candidly. Everyone's voice is valid. We prefer to speak with each other openly and directly. We avoid formalities and always address one another however we prefer to be addressed. Equality is not just part of our approach to work, but an ideal that we believe applies to all people. We don't want to live in a world where everyone is the same, and we celebrate the qualities that make people distinct, interesting, and valuable.

Diligence

TLDR

1. We treat our work like artists do—we put our souls into it.
2. We define our key metrics of success before we start a project.
3. Simply, we aim to be the absolute best in everything we do.

Each one of us strives to be the best in everything that we do. We all want to produce the highest quality work. Quality work is effective, stable, efficient, organized, validated, well-designed, throughly considered, and aesthetic. We're meticulous, thoughtful, and highly disciplined. We define objective measures of success before we start any project. We are artists, and we take our craft seriously—even though we also have a lot of fun.

Collaboration

TLDR

1. We're stronger working together than apart.
2. We speak openly and directly using plain English as often as possible.
3. We speak up if we disagree—and use logic and data to back up our points.

We know we're stronger working together than apart. To facilitate collaboration, we speak openly and directly to one another. We make each other aware of problems we're facing, so that we can help each other find solutions. We agree that collaboration does not mean consensus. If one of us disagrees, we speak up, and use logic and data to back up our arguments. We avoid overcomplicating and over-intellectualizing ideas that could be simpler. We are transparent about where we are currently, and where we hope to be in the future.

Growth

TLDR

1. Always be dabbling.

As individuals and a team, we're always looking to grow into better versions of ourselves. Always be dabbling; always be learning. Knowledge and hard work are the ingredients that make real outcomes. None of us believe there is a point where we're finished learning.

Pragmatic idealism

TLDR

1. We prefer to believe our ideals are achievable.
2. We prefer to believe that we have influence over our lives and destinies.
3. We focus on creating plans with measurable progress that brings us closer to our goals—disregard big-picture limits and focus on strategizing. In other words, dream for the stars, but start with getting our rocket to the moon.

We are pragmatic idealist—we're idealistic, but practical in how we approach our ideals. We want to contribute to making a world where automation enables everyone to live freely and happily without financial concerns. While this is a lofty goal, we prefer to believe that it's possible. We dream for the stars, but start with a plan to get to the moon. We ignore pessimism, and prefer to believe that we have some control over our destinies. We figure the worst case scenario is we tried our best to make the world a little bit more enjoyable. We dream, we dabble, we strategize, we work.