Craft compounds at Sundial

To run a research library that people trust, you first have to agree on what "trustworthy" actually means. Plenty of things explain why a reference tool gets used every day, but one trait sits above the rest: a stubborn, repeated commitment to finish work properly.

At Sundial we have spent four years trying to take our own craft seriously. We know this is not something that arrives in a quarter, so we have been deliberate about building a culture that rewards patience and precision. Slowly that has let us sharpen what we mean by the word. Here is a look at what craft at Sundial actually involves:

1. Craft argues over the details.

When we meet a well-made product, it can be hard to say exactly what makes it feel so steady. Yet the moment we meet something careless, we can name every single thing that felt wrong within seconds.

That is because good design is mostly invisible. A well-made product is thousands of small decisions stacked into one calm experience. And when it behaves the way you expect, those details disappear into the background and let you stay on the task you came for. But when it misbehaves, the smallest missed detail turns into a glaring fault.

This is why we think the maker has to argue over details, and why that argument cannot stop at the parts people can see. The unseen parts carry just as much weight. Della Marchetti and Ivor Sandhu put it best in The Long Middle: