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Inspired to evolve: Pinterest’s values reimagined

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How Pinterest went about evolving our values as the company grew and transformed

By: Christine Deputy

Our values. Who we are. Who we aspire to be.

Earlier this year, Pinterest announced an evolved set of company values. Our values have always helped us live our mission, to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love. As Pinterest continues to grow and transform, we want to ensure our values do as well.

Through deep listening and survey research across all levels and functions of the organization, our evolved values were created together by all Pinployees. We updated them based on collective feedback from across the company, and with guidance from the Pinterest Change Network – a group of employees established in 2020 to advise on company initiatives aimed at enhancing our inclusive culture. Pinterest has come a long way since our very first set of values was formed. They went through an evolution back in 2019, and since then our lives, world, and work changed drastically. As we grow and evolve as an organization, so do our priorities and the core tenets we should anchor on to guide them. Our former values didn’t go away, they’re still embedded into our culture and foundation, and our evolved set of values will help us bring the Pinterest of today and the future to life.

As we thought about the ambitious goals that Pinterest has set for this year and beyond, we knew that reimagining our values and integrating them deeply into our culture was going to be key in inspiring us and guiding us forward.

Our values are:

  • Put Pinners First – We are relentlessly focused on Pinners’ diverse needs so that all our product, business and policy decisions are centered on their well-being. We actively invite Pinners to the conversation, so that we’re creating with them, not just for them.
  • Aim for Extraordinary – We build extraordinary products and experiences because we start with a higher bar. We push ourselves—and each other—to bring the courage, craft, and quality of execution needed to win big.
  • Create Belonging – We each take responsibility for creating a culture of belonging, we value individual perspectives and life experiences. Divergent thinking, honest debate, and real-time feedback are understood as the fuel for innovation and growth. By extending ourselves to others we build strong connections and support the well-being of our people
  • Act as One – We put energy into helping others succeed—and our wins belong to the entire team. We are resolute in our commitment to eliminate silos in how we work. Once a decision is made, we enthusiastically rally behind a chosen direction.
  • Win or Learn – To achieve our mission and grow, we must constantly evolve. We make big bets and take smart risks to increase our chances of step-change results. Whether we succeed or stumble, we ensure the learning is never lost by working hard to actively bring the lessons to our next effort.

The order of these values is intentional. We start the list with Put Pinners First, which is our longest standing value, and has been part of the set since Pinterest’s earliest days as a company. We round out the set with Win or Learn, which was part of our previous values set and continues to be an important tenet of our culture.

So how do we bring it all together? Here are a few examples of some of the things we’re working on to integrate our evolved values into Life at Pinterest:

  • Hearing from our leaders – We know that in order for employees to truly understand what the values are and how to bring them to life in practice, they should see these behaviors modeled by our leaders; Follow along with our Living our Values series to see how our leadership team lives our values in their day-to-day work
  • Vision & Values World Tour – To ensure employees understand the behaviors that exist within these values, we’ll host sessions for each unique team to dive deeper on what the values mean within their organizations
  • Awards and Recognition – In order to create the culture that we want, we are ready and willing to recognize and reward employees for living out the values in the role; we’ll be focused on how to do that in a meaningful and true-to-Pinterest way

Though our values and goals will change as we grow as a company, they’re always in service of our mission, to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love. You can’t inspire the world without an inspired team, and we’re working hard to maintain a nourishing, positive culture rooted in intentional values that support our employees and guide us forward.

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