APIs are what make the modern world go 'round, and Redocly sits at the heart of it all. Our mission is to make APIs easier to design, build, and use to advance technology even further. With such a future-oriented mission, you might be surprised to learn that when it comes to becoming experts in our own product and fostering a culture of transparency, ownership, and respectful disagreement, we look to the past. Like, the ancient past.

With a little inspiration from Aristotle, we developed a program called “phronesis” that is named for a concept he championed. Phronesis is the ability to determine the best course of action in a given situation. It is the practical application of wisdom and intelligence in the service of making conscientious decisions. At Redocly, we strive to embody phronesis in the way we build our products and serve our customers, but just as importantly, in the way we work together.

Simply put, phronesis has been a game-changer on multiple fronts. Our teams are stronger than ever and our free trial conversion rate has shot up 630%. When something is this good, it deserves to be shared. So we’re open-sourcing phronesis with this blog.

At first glance, phronesis might look like a glorified dogfooding initiative – and we eat plenty of our own dogfood, to be sure. But under the surface, it’s a way to build connections between colleagues who wouldn’t normally cross paths. The kind of networking that comes in handy in an emergency or when navigating unknown territory. It’s also a way to foster customer empathy in teams who don’t otherwise get a taste of the user experience first-hand.

I want every job candidate that comes through our doors to understand what this program is about and how it will help them professionally and personally. I also believe our customers and peers could benefit from a program like this. Replicate it, riff on it, and let us know how it goes.

Phronesis' origins at Redocly

We have a long-standing tradition of making sure every “Redocker” understands the values that guide product development here: zero config, universal config, simplicity, and dogfooding. About a year ago, I realized that while the first three were upheld beautifully, dogfooding was at risk of falling by the wayside. We had loads of “happy paths” (in other words, use cases) mapped out in the product, ready for anyone to step through and report back on. But relatively few people participated, and many areas of the product were untouched by dogfooding.

Around that same time, my family was planning a trip to Greece. Like any good nerd, I dove into the ancient philosophers to get myself into the spirit. This trip is where I met my mentor. Aristotle’s teachings on phronesis – the idea of practical wisdom and ethical decisions – struck a chord immediately because that’s what I want at the core of Redocly’s culture.

Then it hit me. We could reinvigorate our dogfooding practice by giving it more structure, more discipline, and a healthy dose of phronesis. The happy paths in our product are examples of practical wisdom. And when those paths break, we have to balance a variety of factors to arrive at an ethical way forward. The parallels were uncanny!

I returned from that trip refreshed and ready to put this epiphany into action.

How it works

We started with two big changes. First, phronesis is considered top priority and managers are expected to save room for it on their teams' plates. Only a severely critical incident would trump phronesis work. Second, we got the whole company involved. Phronesis is designed to be part of Redocly’s culture, not just engineering culture.

Redockers work in pairs (teamwork is our #1 value, after all), which are selected at random and changed up about every two months. Pairs might work synchronously, asynchronously, side-by-side, remotely, or any combination thereof. It depends on the project.

We send out a new phronesis project each week. Everyone works on the same one so we can gather and learn from a wide array of observations and perspectives. The task is to step through an operation or workflow in the product that a customer might encounter: anything from editing an API configuration to setting up a new landing page. We make sure pairs have access to all the documentation, tools, and permissions they’ll need, as well as provide a #phronesis channel in Slack for additional support if they get stuck.

Once they’ve completed the project, pairs write up a summary of their experience, noting any bugs they found or ideas for improvement. Our phronesis admin* then reads through all the debriefs and provides an overview at the next week’s all-hands meeting.

For new Redockers, the experience is a bit different. A new hire’s first four weeks is focused on playing catch-up. That is, they work through a set of archived phronesis projects, selected to cultivate broad-based knowledge of the product. By the end of that first month, Redockers are proficient in every area and well on their way to becoming power users.

*Did someone say discipline?? Phronesis is important enough that this is an official job duty!

Big benefits for our teams and customers

Phronesis is a truly special program with tremendous benefits for our customers and our team. For Redockers, the headline is professional development. Teams like legal or finance don’t usually get educated in customer empathy because most companies don’t consider it important for those roles. Redocly disagrees. We believe every action, every decision, should take the customer into account. Having every team member walk a mile in their shoes every week goes a long way toward making that a reality.

Due to the nature of phronesis projects, Redockers also get a chance to flex and/or build some technical muscle, even if they’re not in a technical role. How often does a customer support agent learn how to stand up an API while getting paid for it? They can also “be the change they seek” and demonstrate leadership potential by suggesting new phronesis projects when they identify an area of the product that needs attention.

“Taking a hands-on, project-based approach to learning Redocly has been amazing. It's made it easy for me to see how different areas work, with clear objectives for each project. The hints along the way have been super helpful, giving me confidence as I track my progress and really get a feel for how to use the features effectively.” – Dan English, Technical Account Manager

Obviously, our customers benefit as well. The more customer empathy we bake into our culture, the happier they are. The features we build meet their needs better, and the product as a whole is evolving to anticipate future needs and preferences. Not to mention out-of-product components like purchasing, technical documentation and customer support. Looking through the customer’s eyes sharpens our thinking and sets a clearer direction for us in every area of the business.

And it goes without saying that all of the above boosts Redocly’s bottom line. That 630% increase in conversions I mentioned earlier? There’s a direct line from there to phronesis. Customer empathy and deep product expertise for the win.

Phronesis is unique to Redocly, although I hope open-sourcing it will change that. New hires often mention it as one of the reasons they chose us over other employers. Turns out professional growth, cross-departmental collaboration, and the chance to influence the direction of the product count for more than free lunches and ping pong tables. (That said, I’m always up for a chance to work on my drop-shot. 🏓)

If you’re a job-seeker and all of this resonates with you, then perhaps joining the Redocly team will be your first act of “practical wisdom” – with many more to come!