Tone & Writing

The fine line

These pairs define the edges of our brand.

• Warm, not cute. Kindness without infantilizing.
• Funny, not jokey. Humor that comes from recognition, not setup-punchline.
• Human, not cartoonish. Real emotion, not exaggerated performance.
• Clever, not gimmicky. Sharp thinking, not tricks.
• Memorable, not viral-chasing. Worth remembering, not engineered to be shared.
• Sophisticated, not pretentious. High taste without condescension.
• Confident, not loud. We know what we know. We don't need to shout about it.
• Honest, not self-deprecating. Candor without undermining ourselves.

Tone spectrum

Same voice, different registers. The voice doesn't change; the temperature does.

Marketing Warmer. More narrative. Allowed to be evocative. This is where the voice gets room to breathe: to tell a story, paint a picture, build an argument over several paragraphs. Still grounded in specifics.

• Example: "Most goal-setting software assumes the hard part is setting the goal. It isn't. The hard part is next Thursday, when the goal is buried under everything else."

Support Patient. Specific. No jargon. The person reading this is often frustrated. We don't add friction with cleverness. We don't hedge. We tell them exactly what to do, and we tell them we're here if it doesn't work.

• Example: "Go to Settings > Team > Permissions. Select the member and change their role. If that doesn't fix it, let us know; we'll sort it out."

Social Observational. Dry. Never trying too hard. We notice things other brands don't notice. We treat our own product and industry with the same documentary seriousness we'd apply to anything else.

• Example: "The average company has 4.7 goal-setting frameworks and zero goals anyone can find. We counted."

Writing guidelines

Sentence structure. Short sentences. Varied cadence. A paragraph can be one sentence if that sentence does the work. We don't pad.

Capitalization. Sentence case everywhere: headings, buttons, nav items, feature names. Title Case Feels Like a Press Release. The only exception: proper nouns and the word "Convictional."

Punctuation. We use the Oxford comma. We end sentences with periods, even in UI microcopy. Exclamation points are almost always wrong. If the content is exciting, the reader will feel it without typographic instruction.

Numbers. Spell out one through nine. Use numerals for 10 and above. Always use numerals when precision matters ("3 goals" not "three goals" in UI).

Formatting. Bold for emphasis, sparingly. Italics for titles and the occasional tonal shift. Avoid underlining unless it's a link. Bullet points over long paragraphs when the content is a list of items.

Contractions. Yes. We use them. "We're" not "we are." "Don't" not "do not." Contractions make writing sound like speech, which is the goal.

Reading level. Aim for a 6th to 8th grade reading level. Not because the audience isn't smart, but because they are. Smart people don't want to decode your prose; they want to think about your ideas. Short words, short sentences, direct structure. If a sentence needs a second read, rewrite it.

Word list

Note: The right column isn't banned. Some contexts require specific terms (you might need "KPI" in a finance integration). The principle is: use the simpler word unless the specific term adds real meaning.

Language and spelling

We write in American English. When in doubt, default to the American spelling.

• judgment not judgement
• color not colour
• organize not organise
• center not centre

Avoid AI-isms

Our writing should sound like a person wrote it. AI-generated copy has recognizable tics that erode trust the moment a reader spots them. Strip these out.

• No em dashes. Use commas, periods, or parentheses instead. The em dash has become the hallmark of AI slop.
• No "It's not X, it's Y" constructions. This reframing pattern is overused by language models. Just say what the thing is.
• No "landscape" or "navigate." Unless you're talking about actual terrain.
• No "delve," "realm," "tapestry," or "foster." These words now signal machine-generated text.
• No stacking of three adjectives or examples. AI loves triads. If you catch yourself writing "fast, flexible, and reliable," cut it to two or rewrite entirely.

When in doubt, read it out loud. If it sounds like a chatbot wrote it, rewrite it.

On how we make things

Our stance on how we create. We use every tool available, including the ones that are reshaping our industry. But every piece of communication that carries our name is shaped by human judgment and reflects human intention. We don't perform hand-wringing about our tools. We also don't obscure our process.

The standard: a person with judgment and accountability stands behind every word we publish. That's the line. It's simple and it's permanent.