Defining Sleuth’s Values
We created Sleuth because parents deserve better guidance for their children’s care. Unsurprisingly, 97% of parents look online for information about children’s health. Yet, only 24% trust their search results.¹
We believe that parents need personalized guidance. As a result, we are mapping out the solutions parents have tried — resources, experts, programs, and pathways — to respond to the specific situations that children encounter.
We hold certain values:
- Absolute commitment to putting the well-being and humanity of each child first.
- Respect for the experience of parents, especially their concerns and vulnerability.
- Obligation to place trust and safety at the foundation of our work.
- Dedication to sourcing collective knowledge to provide the best results.
Focus
Our focus at Sleuth is on two cardinal virtues: wisdom — including knowledge, open-mindedness, and critical thinking — and humanity.²
Implicit in our focus on wisdom, our work should be data-driven (i.e. credible), seek answers from every possible source (parents, experts of all stripes, existing references), and contribute to the important conversations around children’s health.
Implicit in our focus on humanity, our work should be approachable, empathetic, trustworthy, and child-focused.
These values also have consequences for business operations. We succeed by the wisdom and humanity of the social contracts we form with everyone in our community.³
We believe that a humane organizational culture depends on the psychological safety to discuss the risks we are taking, generous consideration for others, and structure and clarity in our operations.⁴
Commitment to Equity
We want to improve conditions for children who are underserved. This includes children who face systemic bias around color, identity, income, or community, and lack access to leading experts. In response:
- We provide high-value content from parents for free.
- Our data and analysis will account for — and directly address — minorities and local conditions. Historically, research has ignored differences and diversity at great cost.
- We will maintain inclusive organizational leadership to best serve the extraordinary diversity of families.
Purpose Matters
Organizational culture drives performance. A decade-long review of Silicon Valley startups by researchers at Stanford and Harvard found that “commitment”-driven organizations were rare but their rate of failure in the study was — almost impossibly — zero.⁵
At every step of our journey so far, Sleuth has received an unanticipated lift. We benefit enormously by working with engineers, designers, investors, lawyers, and advisors who believe in our mission and the values that motivate it.
Sources
[1] Pehora, Carolyne et al. “Are Parents Getting it Right? A Survey of Parents’ Internet Use for Children’s Health Care Information.” Interactive Journal of Medical Research, Vol. 4(2) e12, 2015, doi:10.2196/ijmr.3790
[2] Peterson, Christopher, and Martin E. P. Seligman. Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2004.
[3]Robinson, Sanda L. “Trust and breach of the psychological contract.” Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 41(4), 1996, pp. 574–599
[4] https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/
[5]Baron, James N. and Michael T. Hannan. “Organizational Blueprints for Success in High-Tech Start-Ups: Lessons from the Stanford Project on Emerging Companies,” California Management Review, Vol. 44(3), 2002. Also: Adam Grant’s Originals, Penguin Books, 2016.
