Always Make the Compass Spin
This was the intro to Camp ReadMe, our first offsite after COVID. It’s only slightly longer than a minute, but it took days to make. Rigging the custom-made book to open, building and painting the sign, dragging it all over California for a drone shot, the laser FX animations, mapping the projection perfectly for the final reveal…
Offsites don’t tend to have intro videos, so nobody would have noticed if we didn’t go through all that trouble. But we did.
Many years ago, I stumbled upon a Tumblr blog called Little Big Details. It showcased small, often unnoticed, yet highly creative details people incorporated into their websites. They honored the small touches that might not be immediately noticeable, but significantly enhanced the user experience.
At any startup, there’s dozens of needs competing for attention, with never enough time to get to it all. With an infinite number of things to make happen, it’s hard to prioritize those small details that nobody is expecting.
But those little bits make all the difference. If you focus on only what people expect, the most you’ll end up with is exactly that.
Every product you love has these details. It’s hard to justify each of these features by themselves, since most users will gloss over them. But in aggregate, they blend together to create a delightful experience. It’s about going that extra mile, even when nobody expects you to and there’s no obvious reason to do so.
We put care into every detail of our interview process, because it’s the first thing many candidates see of us. Every API error message we send has a poem, each bit of artwork at our office is custom, and every recruiting email we send is fully written by a human. My favorite, Owlbert covering his eyes as you type in the password, even went on to be the most upvoted Little Big Detail ever.
These details act as subconscious speed bumps, causing users to slow down and notice the care that went into crafting the product they’re using. It’s a little signpost that there was intention behind each decision; an artifact of the effort that went into getting it right. It’s an indication that they’re experiencing something different.
A few years ago, I came across a video by Tom Scott about a title sequence he had seen when he was young.
I’ve embedded the video starting at the relevant timestamp, however if you have time the whole video is worth watching.
It’s an old 90s intro for a TV special, Alright on the Night. Despite only airing once, the intro was full of little details nobody could possibly notice with a just a single watch.
See the compass up at the top? It swings wildly when the laser hits it; it looks like it’s affected by it. Completely unnecessary. Nobody would have noticed if that compass stayed still. It’s not like the audience would have gone ‘oh, well, that’s wrong, I thought compasses reacted to nearby magical laser beams.’ But still, they bothered to make that happen.
Why bother? Who goes through all that trouble? We want everyone at ReadMe to, so Always Make the Compass Spin became one of our six values.
To us, Always Make the Compass Spin means bothering to put the extra effort in when nobody is expecting it. Not because anyone would think less of you if you didn’t, but because you can.
It’s not about literally making anything you can find spin across the screen – without intention, these details become a distraction. But when done right, it’s a signal to the world of the love and care that went into what you built. It’s an indication that they should care, too, because the person who made it did. They may never see the extra hours you put in or notice each individual part — but they will feel and appreciate it.
I gave everyone at ReadMe a compass as permission to prioritize these little interactions. They don’t happen by accident; they require someone who cares to actively decide to put in the time.
“I learned that sometimes it’s worth doing things for your craft, just because you can. Sometimes it’s worth going above and beyond and sweating the small stuff, because someone will notice what you’ve done. That title sequence is the sort of thing that inspired me. It taught me while you don’t have to strive for absolute perfection, sometimes it’s worth just a little bit of time and effort to make something you’re really proud of. I didn’t need to do all the little things that went into making this video... but I did. And it’s partly because I want to pay tribute to the folks before me, partly because I want to show off while I can, and partly because, nearly 25 years ago, somebody bothered to make a compass needle spin.”