What It Means to Be a Pivot: Part 1

The Pivotal Mindset

Do the Right Thing. Do What Works. Be Kind. These weren’t just words on the wall at Pivotal Labs. They were our operating system.

Rob Mee walked into our brand-new Dallas office in cowboy boots.

Not a gag. Not a branding stunt. Just Rob — quiet, present, unassuming.

He didn’t ask for a tour or pose for a ribbon-cutting photo. He walked the floor, looked people in the eye, and asked real questions:

“How’s pairing going with the new client?” “What’s surprising about the culture here?” “What would you change if you could?”

As Labs Director, I had watched enough exec visits to know this was different. Rob wasn’t looking to be the center of attention. He was here to see if our values were alive in the work.

That moment said everything about what it meant to be a Pivot.

The Three Values That Shaped Everything

At Pivotal Labs, we weren’t guided by rules. We were grounded by values:

🟢 Do the Right Thing

Put the user first. Put the truth first. Own the outcome — even if it costs you.

🔵 Do What Works

Favor outcomes over orthodoxy. Follow signals, not ceremonies.

🟡 Be Kind

Kindness isn’t softness. It’s how you build trust, surface conflict, and lead change.

These weren’t slogans. They were how we decided what to build, how we hired, how we ran meetings, and how we called each other in.

You Don’t Just Pair on Code. You Pair on Culture.

In those early Dallas days, I paired with Scott — a strong engineer and an even stronger judge of team dynamics. He was helping open the Dallas office after seeing how Pivotal did things in his hometown of Toronto. His engineering prowess was keen, but his insights on fit were cleaner.

“You can teach tech,” he said, “but you can’t teach culture from scratch.”

At Pivotal, we paired on everything. It wasn’t about speed. It was about safety, alignment, and shared ownership. You knew within an hour if someone understood the values — or if they were just looking to “go fast and break things.”

And when someone struggled, we didn’t shame them. We paired with them. That’s what being kind looked like.

Doing the Right Thing Means Telling the Truth — Even When It Costs You

A client once wanted to launch a complex app that paired post-secondary students with education loan providers to fund their education. “We’ve got to show potential students all of their options and when the next school program will have an opening,” they said. “It can’t be successful if we don’t do that.”

We pushed for focus. “How about we just build a site that focuses on programs in the local DFW area and show it to students?” Fast-forward two weeks: users didn’t want completeness. They wanted clarity.

We showed the results. Their CEO paused and said, “We were about to build a Ferrari for someone who needs a bicycle.”

That moment — tense, humbling, necessary — wasn’t the result of genius. It was the result of values. We did the right thing. Not the easy thing.

What Works > What’s Familiar

“Do What Works” wasn’t a license to wing it. It was a commitment to reality over ritual.

One retro comes to mind. The team was fried. The usual format wasn’t clicking. So we tossed the cards and asked a simple question:

“What are you proud of, and what’s weighing on you?”

That cracked it open. Real talk. No masks. It wasn’t in the handbook — but it worked. And that was the point.

We didn’t follow process for its own sake. We followed learning.

Being a Pivot Is a Posture, Not a Job Title

By the time Rob left that day, he’d talked with almost every person in the building. Not to tell us what to do — but to remind us who we are.

To be a Pivot means:

• Doing the right thing, even when it’s uncomfortable.
• Doing what works, even if it breaks the mold.
• Being kind, especially when stakes are high.

It’s not a job title. It’s a way of showing up.

So… why not start right now?

Pull someone into a pairing session. Ask a kinder question in your next retro. Ship something small and show it to a real user before it’s “ready.”

You don’t need to be at Pivotal to be a Pivot. You just need to decide:

What’s the smallest, kindest, smartest thing I can do today to make the team better?

Next up in the series: Part 2 — Build Less, Test More Why “just enough” was our mantra, and how real feedback beat perfect plans every time.