You’ll get to work with talented people, deliver innovative products, and work with top calibre clients, they said.
And they were right.
But one thing xDesign didn’t tell me before I joined the company earlier this year was that tacos were a pretty big part of the company culture.
That’s right, tacos. Well, virtual tacos. Let me explain.
Sweat the small stuff
When you’re on the hunt for your next career move, it’s easy to get fixated on the big stuff - the growth trajectory, the opportunities, the title. However, if you really want to understand what makes a company tick, and if you really care about what sort of culture a company has, my advice is to look out for the (seemingly) less important stuff.
Look for a company that aligns it’s culture with its values. Ask a company how they celebrate the micro moments. How do they live their culture day to day? It’s these everyday acknowledgments that, over time, make a difference in team performance and help to create a genuine feeling of togetherness.
In my experience, xDesign is a business that celebrates its people, and one of the ways we do it is through tacos (the emoji, not the food) We use an app that’s integrated with our chat software to send each other tacos as rewards, as thanks, and as celebrations of accomplishments both big and small.
Every employee can use the app, and I’ve seen team members acknowledge one another for offering help when it’s been needed, to sharing a new skill with the wider team. At the end of each month, these tacos are tallied and everyone can see who’s received the most: it sounds like a competition, but it really feels like a giant celebration of everyone’s contributions over the last 30 days.
And the best part? After earning our tacos, we give ‘em away
Each month, employees can choose to convert their tacos into cash and donate them to charity. The donation aspect has become as important - if not more important to the team - as earning the tacos in the first place. It feels like we’ve created a taco-focused subculture centred around celebration and giving, and I have yet to meet an employee who doesn’t absolutely love the concept.
Tacos + talent: a recipe for success
Of course, working at xDesign isn’t all about the tacos. Core to xDesign is our people. I’m lucky enough to have joined the business this year as a manager for the Product Team, and I’ve gotten to experience first-hand the depth of experience, and richness of talent available within the company. The Product team is, by nature, obsessed with our clients and the craft of Product Management and, as far as I’m concerned, we’re uniquely positioned to deliver products that our clients and their customers love, because we have no shortage of interesting and unique education, expertise, and skills to draw upon.
If it sounds like I feel great about my decision to join xDesign a few months back, that’s because I do. From my first day with the business, I’ve been impressed by the collaboration within teams and across teams, at all levels of the organisation. It’s not every day you find a place to work that values performance as much as people, but xDesign does, and I’m not the only person who’s been completely won over by the tacos, and the company culture.
Here’s what two of the Product team say they love most about working at xDesign:
“I’m 7 weeks into working at xDesign and feel I've definitely made the right choice! The people who work here are incredibly supportive and very friendly, plus there's a whole load of good team building things going on, and current events include Bake-offs, Inktober, and Chocolate tastings (which is basically getting paid to eat chocolate!) Work isn’t always exciting - and there’s not always free chocolate - but the people I work with at xDesign make it enjoyable, and that’s why I'm happy here.”
-Dawn
“My favourite thing about working at xDesign (so far!) is how committed we are as a product team to excelling and doing our best work. From our laser-focus on people, to the open and sharing nature of the team, I really feel xDesign offers me - and the team - the support we need in order to grow professionally, and have a little fun doing it.”
-Nick
As the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding! Or maybe it’s in the tacos.
Either way, if you want to learn more about what it’s like to be an xDesigner, or if you're curious about joining the team, check out our careers site, we’d love to hear from you.
