2. Sonder’s culture is designed to foster rapid continuous improvement.
The only durable competitive
advantage is the speed of innovation.
3. ● Determines who we hire, promote and let go.
● Has a steep learning curve, but will change
the way you work and amplify your growth.
● Guides how we set goals, make decisions,
communicate and work together.
● Is something we take very seriously – to
succeed at Sonder you must learn and thrive
within our culture.
● Is not something we aim to preserve, but
rather to improve over time.
Our culture
4. There are two aspects to our culture:
We attribute most of
our success to their
robust application
and refinement.
Our Leadership
Principles
Our Customs
6. They encompass everything we do.
We start with the needs of our guests and extend hospitality to all – inside
and outside of our organization. We strive for better by setting bold,
ambitious objectives for the organization and for own growth. We’re creative
in coming up with inventive ways of achieving our objectives. We think
rigorously about which of our ideas is the best and make informed,
data-driven decisions. We then create a roadmap so as to enact our
strategy by prioritizing relentlessly and saying no to everything else. We get
it done by tracking our progress and overcoming roadblocks. Things get
tough along the way, yet we embrace adversity and get through it with the
support of our colleagues. We see things that don’t look right and we exercise
our obligation to speak up by communicating directly with compassion.
We’re grateful and optimistic about the amazing work our colleagues have
done and will do, and we show them heartfelt appreciation.
Our Leadership Principles
7. Our Leadership Principles
Be an advocate for the guest. Push back if
you see us take a step back.
Send detailed feedback about the
experience whenever you encounter it.
Take ownership for the improvement of the
experience. Small things matter.
Be kind and hospitable to everyone. Listen
and empathize with them.
Send shoutouts, surprises, warm welcomes
and wishes to your teammates and partners.
8. Only hire the very best talent.
Start with the assumption that better is
possible given existing constraints.
Expect that your good work receives
positive but also a lot of constructive
feedback.
Push back with grace when we set
unambitious goals.
Be passionate about getting the details
right.
Be aware of your opportunity areas and
proactively work toward improving them.
Our Leadership Principles
9. When solving a problem, ask yourself
whether there’s anything else you haven’t
contemplated that would solve the
problem more effectively.
Organize and participate in ideation
sessions.
Make creativity a part of your 1:1s with
“new actions” against OKRs.
Regularly set aside time to think and write
about novel solutions to your biggest
problems.
Our Leadership Principles
10. Actively seek the truth and others’ perspectives.
Study cognitive biases and strive to avoid them.
Gauge your uncertainty by thinking
probabilistically.
Update your beliefs when presented with strong
arguments or new information.
Get written feedback from your manager and
colleagues before making a big decision.
Push for a specific solution only when you have
a sufficient understanding of the problem.
Our Leadership Principles
11. Get fewer things done better and faster.
Prioritization isn’t about what you do, it’s about
what you decide not to do.
Document your priorities in a quarterly roadmap,
with clear ownership and deliverables.
Ensure roadmaps prioritize the highest impact
and lowest cost/effort initiatives.
Say no and accept when others can’t prioritize
your asks now, so long as they’ve heard you.
Our Leadership Principles
12. Our Leadership Principles
Write down and keep track of all commitments
in Asana. Deliver on time.
In rare circumstances where we need to push
out our commitments, notify others before
missing the original deadline.
Learn and embrace our productivity, execution
and teamwork customs.
Work hard but stay healthy and balanced.
Default to audits and visibility instead of
approvals which cause bottlenecks.
Speak and write clearly and concisely.
13. Care for your colleagues and support
them in moments of adversity. We’re all
in this together.
When things get tough, view it as an
opportunity to rise to the occasion.
Be transparent about the challenges
you’re facing, devise a plan, and act.
Keep conviction in the potential for
things to get better, and cherish the
learnings
Our Leadership Principles
14. Create a safe environment for others
to voice concerns, and show genuine
appreciation when they do.
Clearly and empathetically express
where you stand on issues.
Share your opinions, even if unpopular.
Don’t harbor resentment, or keep
concerns for yourself until it’s too late.
Our Leadership Principles
15. Our Leadership Principles
Learn how to properly give and receive
feedback.
Leverage the communications
techniques we teach.
Assume positive intent (API)
Empathize with others and listen in a
way they feel heard.
Never complain about others privately
– avoid gossip.
16. Give positive feedback to your
manager or report at every 1:1.
Give frequent and unexpected
appreciation to your colleagues.
Acknowledge how far we’ve come in
a short period of time.
Start with the belief that we can and
will accomplish our vision, and
become a champion for it.
Our Leadership Principles
22. Asana
Our customs - Productivity
Use Asana for 1:1s, task management, meeting
follow ups and day to day collaboration.
Learn how to use the tool to its full potential,
including rules and custom fields.
Avoid tagging more people than needed in a
thread, and don’t hesitate to take yourself out of a
low-utility thread.
Keep your Asana tidy with no past-due tasks and
a clean inbox.
23. Strive to achieve inbox zero every day across all
comms platforms.
Leverage shortcuts to process inboxes faster.
Touch it once: if you open/read a thread, respond
immediately or create a task to follow up.
Unsubscribe or mark as spam undesirable email
to reduce low-value inflow.
Block off time to clean out inboxes if you fall
behind.
Inbox zero
Our customs - Productivity
24. Time management
Our customs - Productivity
Batching increases productivity – block off time for
focused work.
Each meeting has a pre-read sent out 24 hours
before or a shared agenda (otherwise cancel the
meeting). Everyone shows up ready.
Avoid walking people through pre-read contents in
a meeting. Focus on questions and decisions.
Keep meetings as small as possible.
25. Learn to type faster. A fun one is
http://typeracer.com/
Shortcuts
You can dramatically increase
productivity by using shortcuts in
email, Asana, Slack and other tools.
A variety of shortcuts exist to select
text, change tabs, close windows,
etc. They make accomplishing
tasks without using your trackpad/
mouse fast and easy.
Learn Asana shortcuts for archiving,
task creation, date setting, marking
complete.
Our customs - Productivity
27. Consistently beating ambitious
objectives is the surest
way to succeed at Sonder.
Every quarter, score performance and
align on next quarter’s objectives and
initiatives.
7
Our customs - Execution
28. Key Results are the 3-5
output metrics that
prove whether the
objective was reached.
We set bold OKRs, in spirit with Strive for
Better. Strong outcomes start at 75%+
achievement versus baseline.
Objectives are
desired outcomes in
one short sentence.
Our customs - Execution
OKRs
Every team should use OKRs to gauge
what impact they’re having on the
company.
We use Objectives and Key Results to measure impact.
Key Results shouldn’t be a list of to-dos.
Rather, they should measure whether our
initiatives had the intended impact on
the business.
29. Our customs - Execution
Initiatives are the bets we’re making to beat our
OKRs.
We size impact and effort to pick the initiatives with
the highest return; the rest goes to the backlog.
Fully completing 75%+ of initiatives in a quarter
shows strong execution.
Initiatives that move the needle on OKRs
demonstrate strong strategy.
Roadmaps
How we track and prioritize initiatives
30. Our customs - Execution
I’m unaware
I blame and complain
I make excuses
I wait and hope
(nothing happens above this line)
I see it
I own it
I seek solutions
I make it happen
The ladders of
accountability
31. Our customs - Execution
If you want to do a deep dive into a multi-faceted
challenge, like how to boost a property’s customer
satisfactions core, create an issue log.
Issue logs are also where you can park issues that
can’t be actioned on immediately.
Making issue logs transparent makes people feel
heard, and better aligned against the solutions and
their resolution timeline.
For cross-functional issues, create “task forces” to
align on solutions and hold everyone accountable
to delivering on them.
Issues Logs
When problems are complex or can’t be solved now, keep track
of issues through an issue log.
32. 1. Intro: Hear their life story, ambitions and pitch Sonder.
Take notes to accelerate relationship building.
2. Domain expertise: Do they master their craft and have
innovative ideas? The best people will teach you things
you didn’t know and are excited to try.
3. Hiring Panel: Assign each interviewer a specific mission,
with 2-3 principles and risk areas.
4. Due Diligence: Challenge them to a written exercise.
Share your latest 360 review, ask for theirs, discuss
strengths/weaknesses.
5. Pre Close: Refer to your previous notes to begin the
conversation. Ask if they’re ready to join.
6. Close: Offer presented verbally, templated letter follows.
Keep in contact from sign to start date.
Hiring great
managers.
Best practices devised to identify outlier
talent and convince them to join us.
Our customs - Execution
33. Teamwork
We work better together with efficient communications, structured
feedback and productive meetings
34. Our customs - Teamwork
Slack will ping your phone and
distract you – only Slack others if
it’s urgent and a response is
absolutely needed within a few
hours.
Turn off Asana and email
notifications from your phone. This
will help you manage your inbox.
Emails are best for external
comms, not internal (use
Asana!) The exception to this
rule is for distribution lists.
Communications
Meetings can be a waste of time
– it’s usually best to try to solve
problems asynchronously
before calling a meeting.
Use the right communication channels
35. Writing forces rigor and will clarify your thinking.
Write down things you repeat many times
(make it into a playbook) so you can share a
complex idea at the touch of a button.
Reading retention is better than verbal, and 2-5x
faster than listening.
The focus is on the quality of ideas, not the
charisma or passion of the presenter.
Writing instead of talking
Our customs - Teamwork
Leverage the power of the written word
36. Ask for feedback. At the end of a meeting, in 1:1s,
or a soon as you notice something that’s great
or an opportunity.
Appreciate it. And if you agree with it, accept it.
Acknowledge feedback – paraphrase it,
intensify it, and ensure you got it right.
Act on it. Create action items you can hold
yourself accountable to with a due date.
Our customs - Teamwork
Feedback
Give and invite feedback frequently, and do it the right way
37. Pre-write your 1:1 so that your manager can come
prepared to the meeting.
1. Wins: start with wins to create space for meaty
issues.
2. Action Items: Any action items created during the 1:1
are tracked in the Asana project and checked for
completion in the next 1:1.
3. Problem/Solution: write the biggest problem you
face, what you did to create it and your proposed
solution
4. Topics: list of subjects
5. OKR status: green/yellow/red for each OKR
6. Feedback: Give bi-directional like/wish that
feedback.
1:1s
We believe that the most productive
1:1s follow a clear structure.
Our customs - Teamwork
38. The following framework is used during the meeting:
1. OKR & Roadmap Statuses: Initiatives are marked as
green/yellow/red. We compare KRs with the latest metrics.
Action items are documented.
2. Accountability: Previous action items are reviewed to
ensure they were completed.
3. Problem/Solution: A decision maker reviews feedback from
P/S statements in the memo and writes down their
decision.
4. Feedback: Feedback is collected by participants to make
the meeting better in the future.
We use our time together to drive action and expect everyone
to come prepared. We never “read out” contents of a memo
or walk through slide decks.
Business reviews
Monthly/Quarterly Business Review meetings
enable teams across the organization to stay
on track and solve problems faster.
A memo is sent out 24 hours ahead
of time; all attendees need to
read/comment in advance.
Our customs - Teamwork
39. When roles require being in person to serve guests,
we are there with them.
Some of our people can effectively do their work
whether they’re in an office or not – we leave the
decision of what works best for them to them.
As we reopen offices, our aim is to offer drop in
offices in our hub markets.
We encourage teams to frequently meet in person
in Sonder markets for team retreats.
Work Choice
Our customs - Teamwork
What’s our approach to work from home? We leave it up to
you, if your role can be done remotely.
41. Our culture and our
brand are respectively
the inward and outward
expressions of who we
are – both created to
support our mission of
revolutionizing
hospitality.
Mission
Vision
Values
Internal
Culture
Brand
External
Leadership
principles
Customs
Service
principles
Experience
standards
The Sonder Identity
