Creating Good Vibes at Work: Platform

IKIWIFI (icky-wiffee): I Know It When I Feel It. 

The best work vibes emerge when 3 things are true:

• Individuals align with the purpose of the company — it feels personal.
• Their role is a genuine platform for growth.
• The people are awesome to work with.

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In Part 1, I explored purpose. 

In this post, I’ll unpack platform. 

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A job becomes energizing when it’s not just a set of responsibilities – it’s a platform.

It stretches your capabilities, sharpens your strengths, and expands what you believe you are capable of contributing.

I felt that at Viant, one of the OG “Internet Management Consulting Firms.” I joined as Director of Strategy, reporting to the Chief Strategy Officer. Stating the obvious, strategy is inherently dynamic, requiring constant learning and problem-solving. And consultants, regardless of discipline, are paid to investigate, learn and create with their clients.  

But Viant didn’t just leave that to chance. They led the way in intentionally designing and investing in the workplace as a learning academy – where every role was truly a platform for growth, empowerment, and impact.  A few things stood out:

This first was a rigorous 3-week onboarding process for all employees at all levels. At the time, I remember feeling impatient to get started on “real work.” They wouldn’t have it. The onboarding clarified the expectations through experience.  As an example, we were all required to teach a short class on something. I can’t remember what I taught, but I’ll never forget learning to clean an assault rifle from someone who had accidentally joined the Israeli army after high school.  The message was clear: Everyone teaches. Everyone learns.

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The next was claiming capabilities.  For every capability, we had to be clear about our level of expertise: Learn, Do, or Lead. Learn meant you weren’t quite competent yet, but you could be placed on a project to learn. Do meant that you could perform competently, but not yet teach this skill to others. Lead meant that you could coach others to perform that skill on client projects.  Based on these capabilities you were likely to be staffed on projects, so people really didn’t exaggerate, lest they be exposed.  And the most beautiful part was that anyone could learn any capability, for example, if you were an engineer and wanted to learn design, you could be staffed as a designer in a “learn” position. 

We really didn’t have managers. We had Advocates and Advocados.  Although technically I reported to the Chief Strategy Officer, and he was (and still is) an amazing mentor, he was not the one responsible for collecting feedback or performance reviews.  At Viant, every employee had an Advocate and everyone was an Advocado. Your Advocate was your coach — someone to challenge you, reflect with you, and fight for your growth. Here’s how it worked: when you joined you would submit your top choices for who you’d like to be your Advocate.  The organization provided a list of some folks to consider and based on your preferences you matched with someone.  Even junior people, 2-3 years into their careers were Advocates for people 0-1 year into their career.  We were by design learning the art and science of caring for others’ growth and success.  

One day my Advocate delivered some unexpected news. “You might be in the wrong role.” Based on my latest personality assessment, my creativity score was off the charts (literally outside of the limits of the infographic). That was cause for concern. He shared his belief that although I had been super successful in GTM strategy and operations, I was likely flexing. I probably learned to be good at those things because I like the job, I had to be good at it, but what would happen if I put all that energy into my natural strengths?  

To my surprise, my Advocate already spoke with the leaders in the company about this revelation. He asked if I would lead our Innovation Center– a team of amazing innovators, doing the most cutting-edge work in the company with our CTO, and working with our advisory board of geniuses. Hell, yes! Bring it!

A true platform role has three things to achieve flow:

• Learning everyday – the freedom to grow beyond expectations of the role 
• Clear capability progression in the role
• Advocates who optimize for your strengths in the organization - evolving your role

My job was a platform for doing visionary work, and it changed my life.

Purpose gives you meaning. Platform gives you momentum. 

When both are present, you feel it. IKIWIFI.

But purpose and platform together are not sufficient. The final ingredient — the one that can amplify or quietly erode everything — is people.

I’ll explore that in Part 3.

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