Saielle DaSilva discusses how to design workplace cultures through the "Culture Stack" framework. The Culture Stack includes values, vision, mission, and psychological safety as key beliefs that shape behaviors and team performance. DaSilva emphasizes the importance of psychological safety for software teams and outlines strategies for building inclusion, learner, contributor, and challenger safety. The document also provides recommendations for hiring practices that assess culture fit based on behaviors and outcomes.

1. blossomat.work
@Intentionaut
hello.saielle@icloud.com
How to Hack the Culture Stack
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

2. Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

3. “We think in story. It’s hardwired in our brain. It’s how we make strategic
sense of the otherwise overwhelming world around us.”
-Lisa Cron, Wired for Story
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

4. Culture is the human operating system
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

5. Photo by Trnava University on Unsplash

6. “Since large-scale human cooperation is based on myths, the way
people cooperate can be altered by changing the myths
– by telling different stories.”
-Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

7. About Me
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

8. About Me
✨ Director of User Experience at
🏳🌈 White House LGBTQ Tech Fellow
✨ Product Leadership Coach
🇧🇷🇺🇸 Immigrant
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack
blossomat.work
@Intentionaut
hello.saielle@icloud.com

9. 1. Over 40,000 units sold
2. More than 17,000 5–Star customer reviews
3. From 0 designers to IPO in 2 years
4. 100’s of customer research interviews
5. ~60 UX people
• User Research
• Service Design
• Content design
• Product design
By the Numbers
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

10. How might we design better
workplace cultures?
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

11. The Culture Stack
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

12. “Culture is the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.”
-Clifford Geertz, Anthropologist
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

13. Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack
blossomat.work
@Intentionaut
hello.saielle@icloud.com

14. A way to connect culture to strategy when
thinking about and building high
performing software teams.
To change behaviours, ensure you have
the right beliefs held in common.
The Culture Stack
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

15. Values, Vision & Mission
In corporate culture, it’s important to
acknowledge that these are beliefs.
They reflect what we think is important
and held in common.
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

16. Great software is the result of teams that are
psychologically safe
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

17. “{Psychological safety is]…a shared belief held by members of a team that
the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking”
-Amy Edmonson, Harvard University, 1991
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

18. Psychological Safety
I feel safe and even expected to challenge the status quo
without people thinking I’m negative or an upstart
I feel safe to use learnings and make suggestions about
improving things without feeling intrusive
I feel safe admitting I don’t know everything and asking
questions without being seen as incompetent
I feel safe to share my personality, skills, and ways of
thinking without feeling like an outsider
Inclusion Safety
Learner Safety
Contributor Safety
Challenger Safety
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

19. Psychological Safety
I feel safe and even expected to challenge the status quo
without people thinking I’m negative or an upstart
I feel safe to use learnings and make suggestions about
improving things without feeling intrusive
I feel safe admitting I don’t know everything and asking
questions without being seen as incompetent
I feel safe to share my personality, skills, and ways of
thinking without feeling like an outsider
Inclusion Safety
Learner Safety
Contributor Safety
Challenger Safety
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

20. “[Psychologically safe culture is]…a climate in which raising a dissenting
view is expected and welcomed. A tolerance of dissent allows productive
discussions and early detection of problems.”
-Amy Edmonson, Harvard University, 1991
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

21. Is your culture psychologically safe?

22. “People stop taking values seriously when the public rewards (and consequences) don’t
match up. We can say that our culture requires treating each other with respect, but all
too often, the openly rude high performer is privately disciplined, but keeps getting
more and better projects.”
-Jocelyn Goldfein, Culture is the behaviours you reward and punish
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

23. 46%
of men in one survey of almost 1500 men would try
to directly interrupt a sexist event in their workplace.
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

24. Interrupting Sexism?
Climate of Silence
A culture in which employees
feel restrained from speaking
about organisational or work-
related problems, concerns, or
challenges.
Combative Culture
A hyper-competitive workplace
culture where value is attributed
to a quest to dominate others
and compete over power,
authority, and status.
Climate of Futility
An environment that creates the
sense that efforts to make change
will not matter or have desired
impact.
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

25. Have you ever seen or heard something sexist
at work?

26. What did you do about it?

27. Values based decision making
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

28. Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack
blossomat.work
@Intentionaut
hello.saielle@icloud.com

29. Use decision making principles to help others
align with the future you want to build
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

30. Culture
Add
Culture
Fit
>
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

31. Culture
Add
Culture
Fit
>
https://bit.ly/culture-add
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

32. Learners
Perfectly
qualified
>
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

33. Product & Design
Scrap everything you think you know.
Listen to the user. Test. Discard. Test
again.
Listen. Ask more questions. Fine tune.
Refine. Clarify at every step.
Question each and every assumption.
Culture & People
It’ll sort itself. I’m too busy for that.
Scale first, questions later
Keep calm, carry on
Please keep your hands, feet, and
questions inside the dominant paradigm
at all times.
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

34. The Hiring Playbook
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

36. Hiring Principles
• De
fi
ne skills based on the most relevant behaviours you need
• Look for skill parallels not just the textbook skill
• Define your skills VERY clearly with your team
• People skills should be based on desired outcomes not
personality
• Technical skills should be clearly defined and negotiable
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

37. The Scorecard
• Speci
fi
c skills based and behavioural
• A mix of technical skills and people skills
• Articulated and understood by the whole team
• Shared understanding of what the scores look like
• Skill weights are established for the role and shared with the panel i.e.
• at least a 3/5 on stakeholder management
• At least a 2/5 on user research
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

38. The Scorecard Template
Skill Description Score
Research
Presentation and communication shows this person makes research informed design decisions. Their
prior work relies on a variety of techniques like interviews, diary studies, jobs to be done, journey maps,
and quantitative data with confidence.
X/5
Information Architecture
Considers content needs in work before interactions. Can break down work into content, objects, and
events as needed. Organises interactions around mental models and content needs.
X/5
Interaction Design
Defines and articulates a problem and aligns with others on it before exploring solutions. Comfortable
and confident in challenging decisions and asking questions. Work demonstrates an understanding of
how to balance user needs and business needs.
X/5
Collaboration
Demonstrates examples of involving team in decision making and collaboration throughout product
lifecycle. Can illustrate examples of when input from others meant a change of direction. Works to keep
pace with the needs of others in the business.
X/5
Communication
Attentive, empathetic. Focuses on gathering contributions from others. Organizes information to align
teams and stakeholders. Has a well developed toolkit of techniques to align diverging opinions.
X/5
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

39. The Process
1st – Screening for culture & values
2nd – Technical Interview
• Never a take home; no homework
• Focused on prior work (exceptions for entry level)
• Scripts are focused on prior behaviours over hypotheticals
3rd – Balanced Team Interview
• Ways of Working with other roles
• Technical skills should be clearly defined and negotiable
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

40. The Advocate Role
• Rotating role
• Sole job is to push in favour of the candidate
• Advocate for balance in discussions
• Help the team balance perspectives
• Ensure everyone speaks
• Judges feedback against written scorecard
requirements to check for bias
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

41. The Panel Debrief
• A panel of 6
• Quick thumbs up/down at the same time
• Everyone has to own their opinion, share
feedback and cite specific examples
• Minority opinion goes first to avoid groupthink
• Feedback is collected for candidates and given to
them regardless of offer
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

42. Candidate Debrief
• Feedback is collected for candidates and given to
them regardless of offer
• We ask for feedback from the candidate about
the process
• How was the process?
• Anything we could have done better?
• Anything that felt needlessly difficult? Why?
• Candidate feedback is distributed to the hiring
panel
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

43. Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack
blossomat.work
@Intentionaut
hello.saielle@icloud.com

44. More details & resources for this talk & other work:
www.blossomat.work
Thank You
blossomat.work
@Intentionaut
hello.saielle@icloud.com
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack

45. Thank You
Gender Stuff Fundraiser
blossomat.work
@Intentionaut
hello.saielle@icloud.com
Saielle DaSilva
Director of User Experience Design @ Cazoo
#CultureStack