Culture at Hardcore Engineering

Our startup, which was founded in May of the distant year 2020, is beginning to take off. It was back in May that I wrote this article Go, having created it after a couple of weeks working on the Platform, and now, nearly four years later, the first products on the Platform are starting to emerge. Among the products, of course, our flagship is Huly, a solution for managing projects and processes, currently focused on software engineering teams, although it is also successfully used in a large staffing agency with 50 people (and for a recruiting agency, believe me, that’s a lot).

In addition, in collaboration with an expert from France, we are developing a solution to automate all kinds of European and American bureaucracy, which is impossible to escape if you are making software for MedTech, Automotive, Aerospace, and other highly regulated industries, and this product, TraceX, is also entering the market in March 2024. Besides, we are working on CRM modules, test management, graphic asset management for game development teams, a virtual office, interesting AI features, and in general a lot more, and here I would like to talk about the culture that allows us to do so much with a small team.

Culture

We are a small team of 14 people, including non-programmers. Working at Huly is more like playing in the yard with friends, back when you were kids, and we actively practice this model. What this means in practice:

If it’s not interesting to “play” with you, no one will play with you, and no one will run after you. Just like in childhood, it’s impossible to imagine a situation where classmates come every day to a boring, uninteresting child and say: “you didn’t play with us today, and you have to play for 8 hours a day, so come on, our boring one, you’ll account for what you played yesterday, and you will play with us under our supervision”.

Of course, in our childhood, we simply ignored such a kid, which is what happens at Huly. You’re not interesting, you don’t bring benefits, you don’t build the “fortress” with us — no one touches you or plays with you because there’s no desire to waste time and attention on such people. Practically, after some time, we part ways with people it’s not interesting to play with, so they don’t suffer and don’t distract the team’s attention.

Naturally, no one runs after anyone and no one has to report to anyone. If you have time — come out to the yard to dig a dugout or make a snowman with us. Got sick — get well soon and come outside. Went to the country house with your parents? Well, that’s not cool, come back, we’ll be waiting for you in the yard. Decided to work at night? Maybe someone will keep you company. That’s our culture. You need to be useful and interesting to the team.

The level of remuneration is determined in much the same way. Everyone knows who gets what and how much. If someone has questions about why Vasya gets more than Petya and thinks this is unfair, the issue needs to be addressed. In any case, the goal is to leave everyone satisfied.

Oh, yes. We don’t have sprints, and me, being a fan of Agile and Scrum since the late ’90s — early 2000s, got disappointed in both around 2010. On the other hand, many values of Agile are certainly beautiful and useful, and what we practice, I would call post-Agile. In any case, just like at the dawn of Scrum, it’s all about controlled chaos.

And for those who are interested in working with us, I remind you that we are always looking for people to join the team: Working with the Huly team.