Company culture can be amorphous: it’s often hard to pin down exactly this term means. Is it employee-focused, how the company views its role as a business, or something else altogether? Over at Feld Thoughts, there is an account of Glowforge that highlights the different components of company culture, what the term means, and the role it plays in building a successful business.

Every Friday, their office gets together for an all-hands meeting where Dan updates everyone on everything from financials, product, and shipping status to sharing the latest projects customers are making with their Glowforge. I get a copy of the presentation by email, so I can keep current on what’s happening…

I regularly share this presentation with my partners at Foundry, especially the projects. It’s a perfect example of customer-centric thinking: Did we make something that people actually want to use? How are people using it? And how can we make it better?

Company culture here is twofold. One is pretty straightforward: a business that is customer-centric. But also worth dwelling on is internal transparency.

By demonstrating what customers are doing with a product, a company and leadership team connect the internal components of a business to the finished product–showing how end users use and value it. By incorporating this into regular practice (and inculcating this culture), you’re encouraging team members to consider how what happens after the product leaves the warehouse relates to what the employees and company are doing on a daily basis. As an ongoing exercise, this helps short-circuit problems like siloing and myopia.

Above is a beautiful laser cut and a concrete example of what our Glowforge customers are doing with their product. Presented to the employees of Glowforge, this is perspective.

By also reporting on financials and other important stats, the company culture is focused on key metrics and encourages employees to position themselves in a way that facilitates a healthy company that is driving towards customer-centric goals.

At Adafruit we have our weekly State of the Fruit, with these key goals in mind. The customer-focused component shows teams how Adafruit is positioned in the market and how customers interact with content, learning materials, and products. Internal company statistics show how each individual and department plays a role in that goal. This provides a holistic company culture that strives for progress internally in an effort to provide external utility and satisfaction. These loop naturally together and drive a company forward.

Check out the whole article over at Feld Thoughts.