Being a brand ambassador

Everyone at PostHog is a brand ambassador.

Every person who ever writes anything, ships anything, or talks to anyone is doing brand work. Here's how different roles can be deliberate about it.

For engineers

You might write more words than the marketing team does. PRs, commit messages, GitHub issues, Slack threads, changelogs, error messages, tooltips, empty states, documentation.

All of it is brand.

Quick guidelines:

• Write clear commit messages. Other developers read them. How you describe a change reflects on you and on PostHog. Be transparent when co-authoring with AI tools.
• Reply to GitHub issues like a human. If someone filed a bug, they're frustrated. Use empathy and be liberal with giving away merch.
• Changelog entries are marketing. When you ship something, write a one-liner that would make a developer excited, not confused.
• Don't use robotic error messages. If you're writing an error message, explain what went wrong and what to do. "An unexpected error occurred" is a cop-out.
• Every UI string matters. Before shipping a feature, read every label, placeholder, tooltip, and error message out loud. If it sounds robotic, fix it. If this isn't your strong suit, ask for a second opinion – otherwise #group-marketing-and-content are happy to help!

For support & customer success

Someone who's frustrated or confused forms an opinion about PostHog based entirely on how you respond. We talk about this more in our support playbook.

For sales

Sales conversations are brand experiences. How you show up on a call, what you emphasize, how you describe competitors – all of it reflects on PostHog. We talk about this more in our sales playbook.

For everyone on social media

When you're talking about PostHog on your personal accounts, you're not officially representing PostHog, but you're still associated with it.

Feel free to:

• Share your genuine opinions about PostHog and the industry
• Engage authentically in conversations where PostHog is mentioned
• Share things you've built or learned at PostHog
• Be proud of working here without sounding like a corporate shill

Avoid:

• Sharing confidential information (upcoming features not announced, customer details, financial information)
• Starting Twitter wars with competitors, even if you're provoked

It's okay to be helpful or respond to posts from frustrated users, but be mindful of your tone and determine if your personal channel is the best response or if a situation should be escalated.

The simplest test: would you be comfortable with a screenshot of that tweet being shared in the #general Slack channel? If yes, go for it!

Our users are brand ambassadors too

Our brand is ultimately owned by the people who use us, talk about us, and advocate for us. We can shape it, but never fully control it.

By building a transparent, weird, and irreverent brand, we've won over a legion of hedgehog fans, some of whom pay us. They're fans, not customers – and they shape our brand as much as we do.

• The better informed a user – the better user they'll be. That's why we share mistakes and lessons freely through content.
• Use brand to shorten the distance. Big companies feel far away. As we grow, everything we post and every room we show up in is a chance to stay close to who we're building for.
• A two-way dialog means listening, not always agreeing. We give our users a voice, and we respect what that voice says. Sometimes they'll tell us they don't agree with our choices.
• Brand attracts talent. People with cool ideas want to work at companies where they see cool ideas actually come to life.

Giving someone the brand ambassador experience

The best way to create brand ambassadors isn't to ask people to be them, it's to give them an experience so good they can't help but talk about it.

Things that create brand ambassadors:

• Surprising someone with merch when they post something nice or submit a helpful, detailed bug report
• Responding to a GitHub issue in 10 minutes with a real answer
• Shipping a feature someone asked for and tagging them in the PR
• Writing documentation so good it gets shared on its own merits
• Making someone laugh with a genuinely clever turn of phrase