COMPANY PLAYBOOK
Niteo
Niteo turns the operating knowledge of a small open-source company into a living, contributable handbook on GitHub.
System principles
- Keep process in open documentation team members can change.
- Do not turn customer support into a specialist silo.
- Share company outcomes with the team.
Tensions and trade-offs
- Openness creates strong context in a small team while key-person risk and maintenance load remain.
- Everyone doing support creates customer knowledge but interrupts specialist work.
PRACTICES
How Niteo builds its operating system
01
Bonus
Transparent profit sharing
Profit sharing is a written people policy connecting company results with team contribution.
- How it works
- Program scope and distribution rules remain accessible in the handbook.
- Why it is used
- Connects shared company outcomes to the team’s economic outcome, not only shareholders.
- Trade-off
- Year-to-year profit variability reduces reward predictability.
- Best fit
- Small, outcome-oriented companies with measurable profitability.
02
Customer insight
Everyone participates in support
Customer support is not left as a closed knowledge area separated from product and operations.
- How it works
- Team members handle support requests directly through defined processes and guides.
- Why it is used
- Carries customer language and product problems to decision makers.
- Trade-off
- Context switching can fragment deep-work time.
- Best fit
- Small SaaS teams whose product decisions benefit quickly from customer contact.
03
Production flow
Visible workflow through Kanban
Work moves through a pull system with visible status and boundaries.
- How it works
- Projects and operational work are tracked through a shared Kanban process.
- Why it is used
- Makes work in progress and bottlenecks visible to a small team.
- Trade-off
- Flow metrics can become card-moving ceremony when detached from customer value.
- Best fit
- Small multi-role teams and continuous operational flows.
04
AI-assisted work
Tying AI tool use to career expectations
Niteo’s handbook Career section now includes “Use of AI Tools”: regardless of position or track, everyone is expected to be comfortable using LLMs and other AI tools — not to become an expert prompt engineer, but to stay curious about new tools, reduce repetitive work and keep improving their workflow. This sits inside the formal promotion/leveling-criteria document.
- How it works
- AI competence is written directly into the promotion/leveling-criteria document: exploring new tools, reducing repetitive work and continually improving one’s workflow are the expected behaviors.
- Why it is used
- AI competence is listed inside the same document that defines promotion criteria, alongside other expectations (client communication, technical depth, etc.) rather than as a separate policy document.
- Trade-off
- The bar is subjective (“being comfortable”), and exactly how it factors into a promotion decision is not specified.
- Best fit
- Small, fully remote teams that want to spread AI adoption as a career/culture norm rather than a mandate.
05
Goals
Quarterly review and planning
Each quarter reserves a shared cadence to review, reflect and plan the next quarter.
- How it works
- Each quarter reserves a shared cadence to review, reflect and plan the next quarter.
- Why it is used
- Makes the practice repeatable and visible.
- Trade-off
- It requires coordination and maintenance capacity.
- Best fit
- Teams with explicit responsibilities.
06
Improvement
Continuous small improvements over big cleanups
Debt in code, documentation and other areas is addressed through continuous small improvements rather than infrequent big cleanups.
- How it works
- Debt in code, documentation and other areas is addressed through continuous small improvements rather than infrequent big cleanups.
- Why it is used
- Makes the practice repeatable and visible.
- Trade-off
- It requires coordination and maintenance capacity.
- Best fit
- Teams with explicit responsibilities.
07
Management
Employee-led fortnightly catch-ups
Every person has a fortnightly conversation whose agenda they can lead to discuss progress, private feedback and working conditions.
- How it works
- Every person has a fortnightly conversation whose agenda they can lead to discuss progress, private feedback and working conditions.
- Why it is used
- Makes the practice repeatable and visible.
- Trade-off
- It requires coordination and maintenance capacity.
- Best fit
- Teams with explicit responsibilities.
08
Goals
Weekly Kanban and OKR check
Monday project meetings review the Kanban board and check in on OKRs.
- How it works
- Monday project meetings review the Kanban board and check in on OKRs.
- Why it is used
- Makes the practice repeatable and visible.
- Trade-off
- It requires coordination and maintenance capacity.
- Best fit
- Teams with explicit responsibilities.
09
Operations
Rotating weekend on-call
A person responsible for weekend incidents is assigned each Monday and recorded in the Monday Meeting issue.
- How it works
- A person responsible for weekend incidents is assigned each Monday and recorded in the Monday Meeting issue.
- Why it is used
- Makes the practice repeatable and visible.
- Trade-off
- It requires coordination and maintenance capacity.
- Best fit
- Teams with explicit responsibilities.
Primary sources
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-05Visible update: Not displayedLicence: Not stated by publisherArchive: Public URL; archive feasibility not separately assessed
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-05Visible update: Not displayedLicence: No licence stated in the reviewed source.Archive: Public GitHub page; commit permalinks, raw files, and repository archives are capturable (no snapshot is claimed).
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-05Visible update: Not displayedLicence: No licence stated in the reviewed source.Archive: Public GitHub page; commit permalinks, raw files, and repository archives are capturable (no snapshot is claimed).
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-05Visible update: Not displayedLicence: No licence stated in the reviewed source.Archive: Public GitHub page; commit permalinks, raw files, and repository archives are capturable (no snapshot is claimed).
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-05Visible update: Not displayedLicence: No licence stated in the reviewed source.Archive: Public GitHub page; commit permalinks, raw files, and repository archives are capturable (no snapshot is claimed).
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-05Visible update: Not displayedLicence: No licence stated in the reviewed source.Archive: Public GitHub page; commit permalinks, raw files, and repository archives are capturable (no snapshot is claimed).
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-05Visible update: Not displayedLicence: No licence stated in the reviewed source.Archive: Public GitHub page; commit permalinks, raw files, and repository archives are capturable (no snapshot is claimed).
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-28Visible update: 2025-09-26 (repository path commit; not page update)Licence: No licence stated in the reviewed source.Archive: Public GitHub page; commit permalinks, raw files, and repository archives are capturable (no snapshot is claimed).