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‘By default’, the Dovetail company handbook

20 July 2026 · 2 min read

We wrote down what makes the Dovetail culture special. It’s called By default, and it’s our company handbook—a practical guide to how we work and win together.

Every company has a culture whether they design one or not. Ours wasn’t invented in a workshop; it’s been shaped and fine-tuned over nine years of building, making mistakes, and paying attention to what actually makes Dovetail feel like Dovetail.

In the handbook we cover our company mission and cultural values with practical examples, along with how we work including communication and collaboration norms, meeting types, how to delegate, give feedback, make decisions, and more.

Download the handbook

Here’s the whole thing in digital form. It’s a 76 page PDF. Click on any page preview below to open the full handbook in a new tab, or download a copy to read later.

Handbook cover: By default Handbook table of contents A letter from Benjamin Mission and vision: Dovetail exists to improve the quality of every thing What we value Value 1 of 5: Put the customer first A team member on what our values mean in practice A team member on what our values mean in practice The captains model: how we think about delegation Meeting types and norms On our writing and reading culture First, assume good intent
Open handbook Download PDF PDF · 76 pages · 2.1 MB

If you’re thinking about your own culture, take whatever’s useful and leave the rest. And if reading it makes you want to work somewhere that takes this seriously, we’re hiring.

This blog was written by me, a human, not AI.