Culture Is What Gets Obsessed Over
Culture isn’t what you say. It’s what people obsess over.
That might sound simple, but I’ve seen it play out again and again, especially on high-performing teams. Not through mission statements. Not through values posters.
But through the tiny things people care about when no one’s watching.
Someone insists on the right name for a metric. Someone fixes a definition that drifted out of sync. Someone rewrites documentation - not because they were asked, but because they know someone else will need it.
It’s not perfectionism. It’s not just attention to detail. It’s ownership. It’s care. And often, it’s because that person is on a mission.
Micro Missions Build Macro Culture
At Roku, our mission is to create the future of TV.
But no one builds the future of TV in one step. We do it through micro missions: small, meaningful efforts that ladder up to something much bigger.
My mission within that is to help run the Subscriptions business through clarity, precision, and data. Someone else’s mission might be to ensure every column in our data warehouse is clearly and consistently named - because when that’s done right, it unlocks trust, scalability, and speed for everyone else.
That might sound small. But it’s not. That single column name? It touches 10 dashboards. That consistent definition? It prevents misalignment at the exec level. That piece of documentation? It saves the next person 30 minutes and prevents bad assumptions.
Culture lives in those moments - when someone chooses to care about how their work will be used downstream. That’s the obsession that matters.
Caring About Others (Especially When They’re Not in the Room)
The best kind of obsession is outward-facing. It’s not just about making your work “right” - it’s about making it usable.
When someone asks:
“Will another team understand this?”
“Could this naming convention cause confusion?”
“What happens when someone inherits this six months from now?”
That’s culture in action. It’s generosity. It’s respect. It’s thinking like an owner, not just a contributor.
Why This Matters in Data and Strategy
In the business world, data is only as valuable as it is trusted. And trust is built in the details:
Column naming
Clear metric definitions
Documentation that’s actually helpful
Fixing things that feel “too small to fix”
The people who take pride in these small things, their micro missions, are often the ones who quietly keep the whole system running.
And here’s something else: When people see others obsessing over the details, it sets the tone. It signals that this work matters. That quality matters. That we’re not cutting corners. It creates a ripple effect - where high standards in the small things raise expectations everywhere else. That’s how culture spreads. Quietly. Through example.
It’s tempting to think that obsessing over these details slows us down. Everyone wants to move fast. Ship more. Tackle the next thing. But sometimes that speed turns frantic, like a team of chickens running around with their heads cut off, checking boxes but not building clarity.
Here’s the truth: Getting the details right may feel like a time sink, but it’s actually an investment in moving faster later. When you name things well, document clearly, and fix the foundation, you unlock velocity - not just for yourself, but for everyone around you. Sometimes, you need to slow down to speed up.
Final Thought
If you want to understand your team’s culture, don’t start with your mission statement. Start with what people are obsessing over.
Do they care about how their work impacts others? Are they building for someone they may never meet? Are they treating their work like a raindrop that contributes to the ocean?
If so, you don’t just have a team. You have a culture worth building on.
