Inflight Magazine #3: Tips for building a trust policy
by Imogen Lees ✦ 9 January 2023 ✦ 3 Min Read
Inflight Magazine is our irregular newsletter where we share the latest product thinking, updates from the products we’ve built, and tips for happy product teams (like ours).
In Issue #3 we talk all things trust and communication.
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An inclusive culture is built on trust 💗
Trust that everyone knows what they need to do their best work. Trust that the business will create a space where people feel comfortable communicating those needs, and will support them.
Good product teams are also built on trust. Trust that we will work to each other’s strengths and communicate when things aren’t going as expected. And trust that we can say no when we need to.
Read on for more reasons to say no, tips for creating a trust policy, and how to run an inclusive event.
Trust us, it’ll be worth it.
Treat people like grownups 🎩
There is nothing worse than being micromanaged (Vantage Circle Blog).
A trust policy is a set of guidelines to help people make their own decisions in the best interest of the business. That includes doing the right thing for themselves, the team and their customers. No hand-holding needed.
Here are some examples from our trust policy:
Been up late on a client project? Take a morning off if you’re feeling burnt out.
Want to work abroad? Go ahead, just make sure you communicate it to your team well in advance and find a quiet place to work with good WiFi.
Need to buy a tool for your work but your manager is off? If it’ll help you do your job better, go ahead and you’ll be reimbursed.
You can’t run a business on unspoken agreements, so even if you have deliberately loose guidelines, they’re worth getting down on paper Notion.
Can I put that into the backlog for you 🤓
In product, ✨ everything is possible ✨
But that doesn’t mean that everything is a ‘yes’. Sometimes, it’s a ‘no’. Or at least a ‘not right now’.
Here are 4 times that you might expect to hear a no from your product team.
If something doesn't deliver on the value proposition
If it compromises the UX
If the data says so (but make sure you’re tracking the right things)
If the time or cost outweighs the return
Aligning the team – and all stakeholders – around those interests will help foster trust within the business.
Everyone is welcome ✅
When you go to an event, how do you know you’ll be welcome?
It all comes down to open communication and knowing what to expect.
At our recent hackathon, we wanted to make it the safest and most inclusive space.
First, we included questions in the sign-up process about participants' needs so we could structure the event around them.
Then we gave loads of info about the venue ahead of time, with a flexible working option to remove barriers that might make it difficult for participants to attend in person.
We provided a list of safe contacts for people to talk to before and during the event, as well as a Slack channel so people could meet other attendees in advance.
Read our guide for running an inclusive hackathon (or any event).
Products & businesses we wish we’d built 🧱
viralpostgenerator.com: Trust AI to write the perfect LinkedIn post
getstark.co: Connect your inclusive design tools
teta.so: Build a code-free app
maze.co: Streamline your user research and testing
linear.app: Track issues
Content roulette 🎯
Some of these articles are ours, some of them aren’t. Click on the ones you want to read and the all-seeing marketing tracking gods will tell us if we’re interesting or not!
