We created this in mid 2021 when we were a Series A/B company and growing the team. The initial version was created by our People leader and CEO. 

This is an example of one that I created for a new hire on my team. The Statement of Partnership is something we give to a new hire about a week before their first day and then we review it about a week after they start. 

It’s important in onboarding that a new hire gets to know their manager and vice versa. We use this doc to drive that and help smooth the transition into Mindbloom around a couple of unique cultural elements we have that I talk about below

As you can start to notice here, we have a culture about being very direct in our communication and feedback. For example, every two weeks we have a ritual where we give feedback to people we’ve worked with. This can be new, and frankly a little jarring for most people when they first join. 

A big part of the Statement of Partnership is to outline how we’re going to work, setting the person up for success, and make sure we are really aligned on the impact they are expected to drive and how they will know if they are successful.”

We build these scorecards when opening a role at Mindbloom. It’s a requirement if you want to hire someone. The hiring manager lays out why we need this person and they impact they are going to have on the business. Then what competencies we are looking for so they can drive that impact.

1. They drive the hiring plan and what we are interviewing for. If I’m looking for someone driving conversion improvement, they need to show evidence of that. 

2. The outcomes help us assess early on if someone is ramping successfully into the role. 

The business does change, so these could change with it, but hopefully the big outcomes are there. 

5 outcomes is on the high end for a role. You don’t want too many of them otherwise you are probably asking a person too much and you want a simple list of things to understand if they are thriving in the company. 

The way I come up with these is generate a larger list, often looking at JD’s of other companies, and then I narrow it down to what is most important for us.

Competencies are how we work. They are closely tied with our values but some times contain things that are specific to the role. In this case, “Builder” was specific to this role as we wanted to make it clear that the person in this role would need to roll up their sleeves vs just build a team.

People usually write these with out seeking input initially. If someone is stuck I’d encourage them to think about the questions:

- What would make the role really exciting for them? 

- What would make our partnership really beneficial? 

- How do you see this role fitting into your career goals?

This can be the hardest value for people to adjust to. Our culture is designed to give specific and direct feedback often. 

We operate the company on two week cycle. There is A week and a B week. 

In the A week we generate a doc with what we call our “Flawless Commitments” for the next two weeks. They are very focused things that an individual is going to sprint towards over the next two weeks. 

In the B week, we have a feedback focused doc and meeting. It’s expected that feedback should flow every two weeks between managers and direct reports as well as anyone you are working closely with. 

Both receiving and giving feedback that often can be a big adjustment for people. Most are use to receiving feedback wrapped in a warm blanket. 

The behavior we want people to model is to be specific and direct with both positive and constructive feedback. When receiving feedback you need to acknowledge it with an agree, disagree, or ask for clarification. Healthy back and forth often reveals more of a miscommunication.

Out of all the sections, this one is probably lowest yield. It tends to overlap a lot with the other sections and as a result doesn’t elicit unique things all the time.

It’s easier for someone to think about specifics vs come up with generalities. To extract likes and dislikes, thinking about a specific previous manager and what they liked and disliked working with them can extract a lot of helpful thoughts.

In this I’m looking for things that might be a disconnect with how they like to work and how we work as an organization and course correct quickly. 

For example, if they love spending time in live sessions working with people, then we need to address that early. That is not how Mindbloom operates as we are a writing focused culture with lots of deep work time. It’s important that everyone works in a similar way for the system to work.

It’s important for the new hire to understand how I work and how that might be different from their prior experiences. One thing I always tell new hires is that I do not expect them to respond to my messages right away. I actually prefer they don’t so that they can protect their deep work time.

Adam von Reyn

I used this Statement of Partnership when onboarding a new Growth Product Lead onto my team at Mindbloom, in order to facilitate open discussion about expectations and ways of working together.

I view our relationship as a mutual partnership that needs to help both of us.

This statement of partnership lets us lay out both our expectations so that we can invest in the relationship and each other with confidence.

In return, I and Mindbloom need to help you grow personally (hopefully) and professionally (preferably within this organization).

While I am not making a commitment to offer lifetime employment

, and you are not making a commitment to stay for your entire career, we will act to maintain a long-term alliance, even if the employment relationship ends.

Mindbloom’s mission is to transform lives to transform the world. Our strategy is to make at-home psychedelic therapy with ketamine mainstream, radically increase access to treatment, and create superior clinical outcomes and transformational client experiences.

The Growth Product Lead will lead Mindbloom’s first growth squad to rapidly improve conversion in Mindbloom’s acquisition funnel, helping us radically increase access to treatment.

Establish the processes and systems to run high velocity, data-driven growth experiments within 3 months that the Head of Growth scores an A.

Increase our lead to client conversion rate 50% within 6 months, by running ICE-scored experiments within the acquisition funnel.

Lead a high impact squad of engineers and creatives to rapidly deploy growth experiments.

 WIthin three months, establish Mindbloom’s growth system and infrastructure (e.g. experiment docs, testing tools, reporting) that Head of Growth scores an A.

 Leverage the Reforge method to prioritize and execute growth experiments across the customer journey, improving Mindbloom’s start survey to purchase rate by 50% within 6 months and 100% within 12 months.

 Prioritize and run experiments to drive increased upsells and repurchases, increasing LTV by 50% within 18 months.

 Within 3 months, establish the tools and reporting for a multi-touch attribution system that meets the key business requirements of the Growth team, and channel owners.

 Work with channel owners (e.g. Performance, SEO, Influencers) to improve their Growth processes, implement channel attribution and identify optimization opportunities.

 You roll up your sleeves, collaborate with others and get scrappy to quickly build MVP growth experiments

 You have a deep personal connection to altered states of consciousness

 You excel in a remote-first, writing-based culture of freedom and responsibility

 You seek and speak the truth directly and possess high courage and low ego

 You use rigor, data, the right tools, and speed to make intentional decisions and measure the results

 You bring your authentic self to work and promote the wellbeing of team and peers

[New Bloomineers write what they want out of working at Mindbloom]

Speak with candor and positive intent. Listen without ego. 

Operate transparently. Give direct feedback.

Default to clear, concise writing. Use the case-appropriate level of rigor, data, and speed. Champion the client.

Bring your authentic self, Invest in individual and team wellbeing. Play!

Do less, better. Practice deep work. Say no often.

[New Bloomineers write what they liked and disliked about working with previous managers]

Statement of partnership at Mindbloom

Statement Of Partnership - Growth Product Lead

What success looks like for Mindbloom

Scorecard

Mission

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