I've always been genuinely positive about Toss's corporate culture and philosophy. While browsing Toss's YouTube channel after a while, I came across a documentary called "The Team." It temporarily quenched many of the frustrations I've been feeling at my current company, and I want to share the lessons I took from it.
Goal Alignment
Toss operates its teams through a method called "silos." Viewed from the perspective of functional organizations vs. purpose-driven organizations, this is a purpose-driven organizational structure.
So each silo can be seen as a small startup. Experts come together to form a team and grow rapidly in an agile manner. It feels like assembling Avengers to achieve a goal.
In the documentary, the team spends about 5 hours together in a "workshop," which was quite different from what I think of as a workshop. Many of us, myself included, might define a workshop as "going on a retreat for macro-level direction setting + bonding + team dinner." But Toss conducts it in the form closest to the dictionary definition: "a collaborative study where participants receive expert guidance to solve problems." Through this, I could also feel Toss's philosophy and approach of finding the precise meaning and taking directions that actually help.
Through this workshop, all team members review the year's OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and establish and align team goals. Since our company operates as a functional organization, achieving a single goal requires multiple functions to join forces, but situations frequently arise where it's difficult to unify on one goal, leading to high inefficiency. These comparisons helped me think about better directions.
Honest and Efficient Communication
Watching the team members' conversations in the documentary, they derive consensus through endless communication backed by data-driven analysis. Rather than "doubting" someone's evidence, injecting "new ideas" to shift my habitual thinking was also a great approach. The fact that they bring uncomfortable topics that everyone might want to avoid to the surface—prioritizing moving in a better direction together over worrying about what others think of them—was truly worthy of respect.
Stripping away unnecessary formalities and ceremonial language to focus on the essence, and constantly exploring—this was impressive. I could feel that these were people genuinely invested in their own growth and the company's growth. That said, it's not without consideration. The fact that results are clearly rewarded made everything feel exceptionally clean.
Multi-Level Retrospectives
After the five-hour team-wide workshop, a brief meeting among managers follows. Those who lead and make decisions organize the workshop content and design future directions. Then they share what each has prepared in a team-wide meeting, so all members are informed, and they take one more step toward the goal. For all team members to collaborate well, macro-level goals need to be aligned and simplified. To align macro goals, managers need to roll up their sleeves, work harder, and develop the micro-level details.
Detailed Job Title Descriptions
The documentary introduces four job roles.
"Product Owner"
A role that leads the team and product to achieve goals—like a small startup CEO.
"Technical Product Owner"
A role that drives design and execution to achieve product goals based on deep technical understanding.
"Business Development Manager"
A role that discovers business items related to Toss services and pioneers business areas through external institutions and partners.
"Technical Account Manager"
A role that advances tech and business while supporting customers so they don't face technical difficulties.
These four roles, when loosely defined in a typical functional organization, might be called "Team Leader," "Technical Team Leader," "Sales Manager," and "Customer Manager." But that's not precise. With the latter labels, the question of which tasks to assign to whom gets left to each company's judgment, inevitably causing role conflicts. By using the former, more specific titles, the responsibilities become clear and concrete, enabling deeper insight into each role.
Mindset and Culture
In the documentary, Toss's CEO "Seunggun" appears, labeled as Toss Team Leader. Being labeled as "Leader" rather than "Boss," and "Team" rather than "Company" or "Corporation," carries significant meaning.
Through an event called "Alignment Week," the entire Toss team gathers and each silo's leader shares what they've accomplished and their future plans—conducting company-wide goal alignment and communication sharing on a regular basis. This demonstrated genuine effort to care for team members and "work well."
Team members say "The best benefit is your colleagues" (최복동), wanting to be remembered as colleagues who work hard and do well, wanting to move forward together joyfully even through difficulties. I could feel they truly enjoy their work and strive to leave many marks on their lives. Even after dozens of failures, if they genuinely believe it can raise the company's value and is the right direction, they don't hesitate to invest and change course, ultimately achieving success—I could feel this was a company with a pioneering culture.
In the future, I too would like to join Toss and collaborate with great people.
