How Did Twilio Employees Earn a Red Track Jacket?

Jeff Lawson says employees earned the red track jacket by writing an app on Twilio, demoing it in front of their peers, and only then receiving the jacket. The red track jacket was a symbol of what it meant to be a Twilioan. A new hire did not get the jacket on the first day of work. Nobody handed it over and said the jacket was issued, good job. The person had to earn it.

It did not matter if someone was a software developer, a product manager, an accountant, or a lawyer. Everybody was expected to write an app on Twilio. The company taught people how to code and showed them how to get started. To be part of the Twilio tribe, a person had to understand what the product did. Writing code got easier and easier as time went on. The aim was to prove that anybody can do it, and to hire people who were up to the challenge. One of the values was live the spirit of challenge.

The ritual was writing an app, demoing it in front of peers, and then earning the track jacket. In some ways, the ritual brought the symbols, rituals, and heroes together into one big thing.