It’s Values Week at Ellevation, a moment to celebrate the shared principles that guide us and ground us. Whether we’re designing new features, running user interviews, writing briefs, or reviewing pull requests, our values show up in the ways we collaborate, take risks, and learn together.
Here’s how each Ellevation value comes to life in the way we work, every day.
Impact + Sustainability
At Ellevation, we don’t just build features. We build to learn. We make deliberate choices to understand what matters most to educators, even when that means throwing away code we’ve already written. Because that learning is what creates long-term impact.
We balance social impact and profitability to drive outcomes that can scale and endure. In DevPro, that means assessing both partner and business impact when shaping ideas. What will this enable for educators? What will it mean for Ellevation five years from now?
This mindset helps us deliver products that matter — not just now, but for the long haul.
Go and See
At Ellevation, teams embrace firsthand discovery. We believe that understanding happens not through abstraction, but through presence—through building real things, using real data, and talking to real users.
We don’t rely on hypothetical flows or idealized personas. We go to the source: conducting user research, reviewing data, and observing how our work performs in real contexts. It’s baked into our principles: build in-app to learn, and go see for yourself before making assumptions.
(If you missed it, there’s a great example of this in our recent user research post right here on the DevPro blog.)
Stay Curious
Curiosity is embedded in how we plan and prioritize our work. When we ask “What could cause this to fail?” we’re not being pessimistic. We’re opening the door to insight. We turn those questions into action, building to uncover the truth behind the uncertainty.
We also stay curious with each other. We share briefs early to invite feedback, surface open questions, and clearly frame tradeoffs. Across the team, we’re continuously improving how we give and receive feedback. That helps us create space for dialogue, learning, and stronger outcomes.
We’re always seeking better answers—not just faster ones.
Build Belonging
At Ellevation, every function has a seat at the table. We believe that all leads are product leaders, and that great ideas can come from anywhere. That belief translates into behavior: early collaboration, shared ownership, and an intentional rejection of siloed thinking.
We also design rituals to support inclusion. Our Heartbeat updates help partner-facing teams stay aligned. These rhythms create space for all voices and help every team member feel seen and supported.
We foster a culture of belonging by ensuring diverse perspectives actively shape what we build and how we build it.
Win Together
Our success is shared. So is our learning. Whether it’s a risky bet that pays off or a prototype that gets tossed, the value lies in what we discover together. The way we work emphasizes visibility, feedback, and joint decision-making.
We invest in each other’s growth, create opportunities for collaboration, and celebrate wins as a team. From cross-functional ideation to shared responsibility for outcomes, we move forward as one team, in service of one mission.
Winning together means creating the conditions for great people to develop, collaborate, and thrive.
Closing
At Ellevation, our values aren’t just words. They show up in the way we work. In the questions we ask. In the time we take to understand. In the risks we pursue together. Our values help us build better products, stronger teams, and a company we’re proud to be part of.
This Values Week, we’re proud to say: the way we work is one of the clearest ways we live our values.
