KLIM is an anomaly. It was founded in 2015 with a $521 investment, and we now have millions of people using our products daily. While evolving, we also want to retain what makes us different.
We have grown very quickly with a focus on operational excellence (not making too many mistakes), customer-centric development (giving people what they want) and exceptional customer service (taking our responsibilities when we fuck up).
The company is 35-people strong, with an office and warehouse in Shenzhen and an otherwise fully distributed team.
Our Strategy is unglamorous, simple, but challenging to execute:
These values underpin all of the principles you will read.
Why? No one has ever been great at something they don’t care about.
Expectation : You’re emotionally invested in becoming great at what you do, you derive mastery and enjoyment out of your job.
Tradeoff : You take failures personally, you have high expectations of yourself.
Why? There are always things we can improve, with intention and effort we can be slightly better today than we were yesterday. If the entire team lives this value we can only succeed.
Expectation : You set high expectations for yourself, and self-reflect on your shortcomings. You take pride and enjoyment in improving every day, you own your craft and are relentless in improving it.
Tradeoff : No one says they are against “growth”, but growth whether in work or at the gym, comes with some amount of discomfort.
Why? Faced with events we create meaning in our head. While remaining grounded in reality, we want to go with the most energizing interpretation of any event.
Expectation : When faced with a challenge, you interpret it in the most useful way possible. When a colleague is down, you help them reframe their challenge.
Tradeoff : Unless you’ve been blessed with parents who taught you this, it’s not natural. We all need to practice it.
Why? Every problem is an opportunity for creative thinking. Your value to the team is proportional to the problems you are able to solve.
Expectation : You dig deep within your mental resources to find solutions, you are resourceful, you don’t hand your problems to other people.
Tradeoff : This requires intentionality & effort, and can be frustrating at times.
Why? We get stuff done, we are fast-paced and effective.
Expectation : We don’t expect very long hours, but we want intensity, pace and rhythm. Patient with results, impatient with action. You speed up the entire company. You help your colleagues by keeping them accountable.
Tradeoff : This level of intensity is not natural, it needs to be proactive. We’ll also sometimes take bad decisions we’ll need to revert.
Why should you read this Playbook?