Defining What Matters: How We Evolved Our Company Values

When I started interviewing at Dashlane a couple years ago, the question I always asked the interviewers to gauge the company's culture was “What do you like most about Dashlane?” Consistently, the answer was always the same: The people.

It was a generic answer, even a bit cliché, but I understood it once I joined the team in April 2023 as a Lifecycle Marketing Manager. The people are truly one of the main reasons I enjoy working at Dashlane. There’s camaraderie, support, openness, mutual respect, and truly no such thing as a stupid question.

The other reason I love working at Dashlane is how dynamic the company is. We’re constantly changing to respond to the market, seize opportunities, and be more efficient. We seek excellence as we work to deliver intelligent credential security for businesses and individuals.

But with change comes a lot of unknowns, and we’re all afraid of the unknown. While we had a solid understanding of what we wanted to achieve at Dashlane, we sometimes differed on how to navigate the unknown to get there. Thinking back now, I understand why: We were prioritizing different company values.

Dashlane turned 15 in July 2024, and I realized that, in some ways, we were going through our own version of adolescence. We were full of energy and ambition, but also navigating growing pains and an evolving identity. We were shifting from a startup mindset to a more mature, grounded one. And to do that, we had to define what truly matters to us: Our core values.

However, when I was selected to be part of the cross-functional team that would review our company values, I wasn't very excited at first. As an INTJ, I’m an introvert (who speaks her mind) and am quite straightforward and pragmatic with decisions.

Don't get me wrong, I knew talking about values was necessary, but I didn't want to spend hours chatting about them because, ironically, I felt I had other priorities to focus on. If it were up to me, I would just organize a simple election in which we could vote on new values.

Still, I was curious to see how it would go. How seriously would our values be considered, and would this work have any impact?

The cross-functional team was composed of individuals from all departments (Marketing, Product & Design, Engineering & Data, IT, Finance, People, Support, Sales), from all regions (France, U.S., Portugal), from all levels (individual contributors, managers, vice presidents), and from all genders. It was a big group, and everyone had the opportunity to actively participate.

As with everything at Dashlane, the values project was very dynamic:

After much discussion and collaboration, three values came out on top:

Once our values were defined and shared with leadership, we were ready to go to phase two, which is what I would call distribution. Yes, I am an INTJ marketer through and through, and I know how crucial distribution is (i.e., how to distribute a message to your audience in a way the audience will see, digest, and remember).

As with most work in marketing, this is not a one-off thing—it's a matter of repetition through different channels.

Here’s how it’s going:

I can't speak for all departments, but Marketing had a two-hour workshop where we discussed the new values, how to demonstrate them, which ones we were already living and breathing, which ones were still aspirational for us, and how to get there.

At the start, we polled everyone to identify which values were most and least often demonstrated in Marketing. It was so interesting to see the results, then talk about them together, and individually reflect on how to change. I see this not only as an exercise for the company but also for the individual because periodic self-reflection feels good.

I wouldn't say the values project is finished. It'll never be 100% done because we need to constantly demonstrate and evolve our values—but we'll rise to that challenge together.