Howdy Professional Principals

On Howdy FC’s turf, our players act upon that little voice in our head that tells us when something is wrong. Courage is important because, to build a successful product or successfully integrate into partner teams, you have to navigate many obstacles, at night when the floodlights are off — obstacles like unexpected complexity, unplanned work, misunderstood requirements, and other blockers. 

Howdy Players have the courage to speak up, to call out obstacles productively, early, and often. Our players inform each other of new risks on the horizon so they can be avoided. Fear, shyness, insecurity or ego never get in the way of accurate communication. 

Carpenters have a saying when building: "measure twice, cut once". Howdy Players have the same philosophy. Game plans are often like mysterious puzzles, and surprise curveballs love to join the match. Howdy players slice through 80% of the risk with meticulous planning—yes, that includes sharing it with the team—before the first kick.

Howdy players always consult whomever they report to, whether it be partner’s managers, designers, or department heads, to clarify the objectives before starting a play. We use planning to uncover hidden complexity. We don’t expect absolute perfection but we do expect our players to identify the riskiest blockers in every project. Sure, it might seem like skipping the planning step speeds up the game, but trust us, it's like trying to score without a strategy. Planning is our playbook, our roadmap to a smoother, faster game.

The most important commitments you make as a Howdy Player are related to communication, especially during your first few weeks. First impressions regarding communication are extremely important; when you promise to update someone later you must keep that promise or you will immediately lose trust; the reverse is also true. We understand, working hard all day makes it easy to close your laptop in exhaustion and forget to check back in, so be sure to create a Slack or calendar reminder. Hold onto your promises like they're the golden trophy, especially in your early matches because everyone knows you can’t play the game without trust. 

Howdy works hard to foster an amazing and collaborative community. When your team is spread out among several countries, it’s understandable that you could feel like you’re all alone. But keep in mind, Howdy is a company of almost 250 people and growing. Within our community we have experts in React, AWS, GCP – we have mentors with engineering, communications, marketing, and accounting experience. Everyone at Howdy makes the commitment to help each other so be sure to take advantage of the community.

The best way to dive into the community is by attending our events (in-person and online) such as our Howdy Tech Talks, happy hours, and office lunches. We also have a very active Slack community with featured channels for every interest! We encourage every Howdy Player to get out there and meet the people that make Howdy run smoothly– from community admins, to recruiters, to directors, to developers– the more people you know the more valuable the community becomes to you.