Telling Snap’s story to the people it wanted to hire

The challenge

Snap had grown to 3,200 people. The story had to show whether it still worked like a startup.

The reader was a candidate with other offers, often skeptical and often technical. Perks would not answer their question. The story had to be specific enough to be believed and plain enough for someone outside the company to follow.

The approach

Let three people from the New York office answer it in their own words.

I interviewed the US head of verticals, an advertiser-solutions manager and a creative specialist, opened each section on something about them as people, then let them describe the work. The piece is framed by the values Snap asks of its people — kind, smart and creative — so a reader could test the claim against what employees said.

What carries over

Snap was one of 500+ Brand Studio pieces, each built from a brief that named its target reader, held to a style guide I helped write on a committee, and published with metadata, alt text and a path to open roles. Those are the habits a careers site runs on. The story is still live: How Snap Maintained Its Startup Culture.