Introduction

Hello, I am Osanai, the leader of the SRE Team in the Platform Group at KINTO Technologies (hereinafter, KTC). In this article, I will discuss how we developed the SRE Team’s mission and vision. If you’re only interested in the finalized mission, feel free to skip directly to here .

Why Did We Decide on a Mission and Vision?

Three key factors influenced our decision to establish a mission and vision this time.

1. A suggestion from a team member

The SRE Team was established in January 2021, but after various ups and downs, it became a one-person team by the end of March. In April, a new team member suggested creating a mission and vision for the team, which sparked the initiative. He mentioned that, in his previous job, the company’s mission and vision were well-integrated into daily operations and functioned effectively. However, at the time, I didn’t see an immediate need for it and largely dismissed the idea as something we could address later if time allowed. (Apologies!)

2. The need to present a team roadmap to senior leadership.

At the time, the SRE team consisted of just two members with limited resources, so we were actively working on initiatives to enhance recruitment efforts. As part of this effort, it became essential to clearly communicate to senior leadership what the SRE Team aims to accomplish, the challenges we anticipate, and the number and types of personnel required to address them effectively.
As part of this process, we decided to create a roadmap for the SRE Team. Additionally, we concluded that establishing a mission and vision would provide a higher-level framework to guide the team’s activities.

3. Diversification of the term “SRE”

Based on that, we started looking at the missions and visions of various companies’ SRE teams. Then, we came across a slide like this:

From “What Does SRE Aim to Do?”

Personally, this struck a chord with me the most. At KTC, there are several other cross-functional teams and groups in addition to the SRE Team, such as Platform Engineering, Cloud Infrastructure, DBRE, CCoE, and Security. The term "SRE" encompasses a broad range of responsibilities, so I felt it was important to define our specific role and focus within the context of the existing environment around us.

How Did We Decide?

So, in light of all the above, we decided to come up with a mission and vision. However, having no guidelines on how to go about it, we were fumbling in the dark to begin with. First, regarding the time commitment and timeline for the decision-making process, we decided to complete it within a relatively short period. This was partly because we anticipated that the process might drag on if we chose to make decisions incrementally during weekly meetings. We considered dedicating a full day to the process but realized that our ideas might be overly influenced by the conditions on that particular day. Ultimately, we decided to allocate one hour per day over five business days, with a weekend in between, to allow for a more balanced and thoughtful approach. After going through the process, my personal impression is that spreading it out over several days was a good decision. It gave me time to reflect, and I came up with ideas while taking a bath and just before falling asleep.

Next, in terms of how we decided, we opted to base our approach on Google re:Work. We proceeded by following “Set and communicate a team vision” in the “Managers” theme. This time, our goal was to formulate a mission and vision. To achieve this, we proceeded by defining the core values, purpose, and mission within the relevant sections. For the vision, we approached it from the perspective of imagining what we would want the SRE Team and the company as a whole to look like once the mission had been accomplished. Therefore, we chose to define the vision based on the mission we had established.

Day 1: Identifying What Values We Want to Cherish

On the first day, we decided to start by identifying the values that each team member personally wants to cherish. Using Miro as our collaboration tool, each of us wrote on sticky notes the things we want to cherish, encompassing both technical and non-technical aspects. Coming up with ideas about the things you want to cherish can be quite challenging, so I realized that an alternative approach could be to identify ideas by considering the outcomes you would most want to avoid. After this, we had an open discussion about the values embodied by people we admire.

Day 2: Doing a Deep Dive into the Core Values of the Team

On the second day, we each shared and discussed the values we had identified on the first day. Even when the details differed, we discovered that by gradually abstracting our thoughts through questions like “Why do you want to cherish that value?”—similar to a why-why analysis—we arrived at shared underlying values. Taking note of these insights as you go could be helpful when defining your own mission. Next, we discussed the values we resonated with and brainstormed concrete behaviors that reflect those values. Since we were doing it in a pair this time, we picked out some values that we could relate to from among each other’s, and did a deep dive into those. For example, one of the values was along the lines of “Produce better output through good collaboration,” but that sounded a little abstract. So, we reworded it more concretely by asking what “good collaboration” and “better output” actually meant, and as we did so, we got a much clearer image of what it was about.

Day 3: Exploring the Reason Why the Team Exists

On the third day, we thought about the purpose (the reason why the team exists). We collaboratively answered six questions under the theme“Why Does This Team Exist?” and discussed our ideas along the way. One thing I felt requires some caution is that these questions focus on the current status quo, so people's answers about the fundamental reason for the team's existence might be biased especially if they are motivated to bring about changes to the current organizational situation. By reflecting on what we had done so far, abstracting those actions, and revisiting the reasons behind them, we started to uncover a potential candidate for the team’s fundamental reason for existence.

Day 4: Deciding on a Mission

On the fourth day, we finally decided on our mission. First, we each wrote on sticky notes our own thoughts about three questions, as a form of self-reflection. Then, we decided on a mission in light of everything we had done since the first day. To be honest, there were moments when we relied on inspiration, but we reviewed all the activities and conversations we had engaged in up to that point. From those, we identified phrases that seemed to stand out as potential keywords and crafted a mission statement that encapsulated and satisfied them.
In making our decision, we also kept in mind whether our ideas aligned with the five key characteristics that a mission should have.

Day 5: Deciding on a Vision

On the fifth day, we decided on a vision by imagining what we wanted the SRE Team and the company as a whole to be like once we had achieved the mission.

The Miro board we actually created (just the atmosphere of it)

The Mission and Vision We Decided On

The mission and vision we actually decided on are as follows:

To explain the mission, first, I will look at the part about being able to provide products as fast as possible. KTC has a wide variety of products. We would like to enable them to provide their functions to users as quickly as possible, and create an environment where we can get feedback. However, just providing products quickly is not enough: we also need to deliver to users products that will be of value to them. In addition, no matter how quickly you can provide a valuable product, it will be meaningless if the users cannot use it to their satisfaction. So, we added the word “reliable.”

For our vision, we envisioned what KTC would look like once it achieves the ability to provide reliable, highly valuable products as quickly as possible. We concluded that to simultaneously fulfill the quality-focused aspect of "reliable, highly valuable products" and the speed emphasized in "provide [them] as fast as possible," it is essential to strike the right balance between development and operations, guided by service level requirements.

In Conclusion

We managed to formulate a mission and vision for our team without a hitch. Although it's still early days since we established it, conversations are already emerging around questions like, "Considering our mission, is this something we should really pursue?" and, "If we decide to do this, to what extent should we take it?" This gives me the sense that the mission is beginning to serve effectively as a guiding framework for our team. That said, simply formulating them now doesn’t mean this is the end of the journey. I would like us to develop a roadmap for achieving our mission and vision and work together toward them as a unified team.

Also, the SRE Team is looking for people to work with us. If this has sparked even a slight interest, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We look forward to hearing from you!

https://hrmos.co/pages/kinto-technologies/jobs/1811937538128224258