Every week, I watch another consultancy rebrand around AI. New logos. New taglines. New mission statements that read like they were generated by the very technology they're selling.
"Empowering enterprises to unlock exponential value through agentic AI transformation, human-machine synergy, and intelligent automation at scale."
Fantastic. A lot of words that somehow say nothing at all.
Don't get me wrong—you'd have to be naive not to adapt to what's happening in our industry. AI is transforming how software gets built. But at Test Double, we're not going to completely change who we are to chase a dollar.
We want clients and prospects to know they can entrust us to solve problems with AI while remaining true to who we are, how we work, and the value we actually provide.
That's why this year, for the first time in several years, our team made meaningful refinements to our mission, vision, and values. Not to jump on a bandwagon, but to sharpen our focus on what's always mattered to us—and what matters even more now.
Mission: The one word that bothered me for years
Done well, missions signal clearly why we exist— to all of us, to our clients, and to the industry at large. They serve as our compass.
Our original mission was:
Improving the way the world builds software
It served us well for almost a decade. It signaled that we genuinely care about doing things the right way when it comes to building software systems.
But one word always nagged at me: builds.
Here's a slightly contrarian viewpoint I've held for a while: every line of code written that doesn't further the goals of an organization is complete and utter waste. It's a liability. Software engineers—myself included—love building things. We love creating. But we sometimes fail to ask whether anyone actually wants or needs what we've built.
When we acquired Pathfinder Product consulting a couple of years ago, I found a lot of similarly minded people. Since then, I've had this uneasy feeling that our mission didn't fully capture everything we believe as an organization.
Our team delivered something better.
Our new mission:
Improve the impact of software on the world—one org at a time
It's a sharper focus. We care about the impact of software, not just its existence. We recognize this is an asymptotic goal—we'll never be done. But we believe that one organization at a time, we can leave others better than we found them.
Vision: From ambiguity to accountability
Missions and visions often get confused. The way I think about it: our mission is our compass, while our vision is the destination we're targeting five, seven, maybe ten years down the line.
For too long, our vision was too ambiguous to measure.
- We knew we wanted broader impact through working with more clients.
- We wanted to solve harder problems—not just shipping features, but modernizing systems, helping companies adopt transformative approaches to AI.
- We wanted to be a good example for others, which is part of why we became an ESOP.
But we couldn't really tell if we were achieving these things or making real progress.
Our new vision:
By 2030, achieve 1,000 client outcomes by solving real problems through people, process, and technology consulting.
This specificity has already changed how we operate. We can't just respond to a client's request for an embedded software consultant, product consultant, or team without understanding better:
- What challenges are you facing?
- What specific problems are you trying to solve?
- What is the solution you're looking for?
- How will that solution change your business when delivered?
These are questions we probably should have been asking all along. Now our vision forces us to ask them—and to track how well we deliver against those outcomes.
Values & paradigms: “People like us do things like this.”
You likely work at a company that has identified values. But have you ever identified cultural paradigms?
Seth Godin nailed culture:
"People like us do things like this."
That simple statement guides how we think about our values and paradigms.
Our values define who "people like us" are.
Our paradigms explain how "people like us do things like this."
Both matter.
Here's what we landed on for Test Double’s updated values and paradigms:
Driven → We proactively solve the most important problems.
We used to say "we are owners," which had a nice double meaning about ownership mindset and our ESOP. But the real characteristic we're highlighting is being self-starters, or intrinsic motivation. On the latter, I recommend the book Drive. It led to searching for something different in our professional lives, and eventually our starting Test Double.
Our client engagements are wildly different from each other. To be effective across that variety, we have to be driven to attack the most challenging problems we face.
Pragmatic → We adjust our approach to the unique needs of others.
We previously said "principled," trying to emphasize quality. But what actually resonates with clients is that we adapt to their unique needs. We don't bring prescriptive approaches or one-size-fits-all solutions. While there are many good practices in our industry, rarely is there a single best practice.
We’ve also found that working towards driving business outcomes almost always means a balance between practical efficiency and quality. This is also why when we talk about AI, we say we’re a pragmatic AI consultancy.
Inclusive → We seek first to understand, then to be understood.
This remains core to who we are, no updates needed.
Identifying and solving client problems requires close collaboration among diverse viewpoints and backgrounds.
Everyone here needs to feel valued and respected—it leads to greater fulfillment for our employees and better outcomes for our clients. This has never been more important than it is right now.
Improving → We improve by learning from others and experimenting.
Our industry is evolving faster than ever. If we're going to provide value, we need to constantly learn and grow as individuals, teams, and an organization.
We're not always going to get it right. When we miss the mark, we capture those learnings and never stop experimenting. We are living this every day at Test Double alongside the evolution of AI—constantly trying new approaches, often failing, and sharing those learnings with our clients.
Courageous → We show kindness and empathy, even if it means having harder conversations.
This is new. We previously had "serving others," but that felt implied for a services business. As we reflected on how we work with clients and how we want to behave going forward, courageous stood out.
Some of us recently read The Courage to Be Disliked. We're not trying to be disliked at every engagement. But we may be too nice at times, and at the same time not kind enough. Courage means speaking up when something is amiss, even if the audience doesn't want to hear it, even if it generates a little conflict.
That's our commitment to each other and to our clients.
What this means for you and your business
If you're a prospective client, here's what you can expect from us:
We won't pretend to be something we're not. We won't oversell AI or anything else. We'll ask hard questions about what you're actually trying to achieve. We'll adapt to your unique situation. And we'll have the courage to tell you things you might not want to hear—because that's what it takes to truly improve outcomes.
If you're a consultant who resonates with these values:
We're always looking for people like us. People who are driven, pragmatic, inclusive, always improving, and courageous enough to do the right thing even when it's uncomfortable.
If you’re a business leader who cares about outcomes and culture:
Revisit your mission, vision, and values regularly with your leadership team. If you don’t have a set of identified cultural paradigms, consider naming them. They’re the behaviors that bring your values to life, and help define “people like us do things like this” for your organization.
And if you're just curious about how a software consultancy can stay true to its principles while the industry transforms around it—well, stick around. We're figuring it out one organization at a time.
Todd Kaufman is the CEO of Test Double, a 100% employee-owned software consulting company that has been remote since 2011. Test Double helps organizations solve complex technical challenges through people, process, and technology consulting.
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