Projects · Mini Hostpapa
Core Values & Human Engine
HostKid core values, the internal LMS, skill levels, fair evaluation via ERPNext HRMS, and scenario training so nobody is wronged by unclear metrics.
Core Values & Human Engine
You can have perfect CloudStack and still lose if your people system is broken.
This doc is the human engine of HostKid: what we stand for inside the team and toward clients, how knowledge and skills are documented, how growth maps to compensation, and how everyone trains for bad days before bad days arrive.
Who owns what lives in Organization & departments. This doc is how people grow, prove value, and act under pressure inside that structure.
Core values: internal and external
Values are not wall posters. They are decision filters when someone is tired, a customer is angry, and the runbook is thin.
Toward each other (internal)
| Value | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Respect | Disagree on architecture without disrespecting the human. No blame theater. |
| Transparency | Decisions and tradeoffs written down. Same handbook for everyone. |
| Ownership | Clear accountability per department. Fix problems, don't hide them. |
| Learning in public | Docs improve when someone finds a gap. That includes LMS content. |
| Sustainable pace | Uptime matters. So do humans. Crunch is a bug, not a personality trait. |
Expanded culture intent: Executive Overview.
Toward clients (external)
Customers do not care about our org chart. They care what happens when they trust us.
| Pillar | Client-facing promise | How we prove it |
|---|---|---|
| Security | We protect what you hand us: data, access, identity boundaries | Documented trust model, least privilege, incident discipline (Security posture) |
| Reliability | Services stay up; when they don't, we communicate honestly | SLOs, capacity discipline, runbooks (Executive metrics) |
| Rapidity of response | Problems get acknowledged fast; resolution path is clear | Support SLAs, status comms, trained on-call, decision maps (below) |
Internal respect and external reliability are the same muscle. A team that hides mistakes internally will hide them from customers too.
The problem this doc solves
I've seen this pattern too many times:
- A person levels up in real skill: better automation, cleaner incidents, stronger designs.
- Annual evaluation arrives.
- HR and the department lead do not speak the same language about what "growth" means.
- Compensation does not move. The person feels wronged: punished for ambiguity, not performance.
That is not a personality conflict. It is a systems failure.
HostKid fixes it with:
- A deliberate internal LMS (documentation + courses)
- Published skill levels per department and role
- ERPNext HRMS tying presence, KPIs, and review data to the same definitions everyone can read before the meeting
No surprise criteria. No "you should have known."
Internal LMS: company brain + skill elevator
The LMS is not a random Moodle install collecting dust. It is the single place where:
- Internal company documentation lives per department (how we work, handoffs, tools, standards)
- Courses and learning paths live so people can elevate skills with intent
Both sides are deliberate, versioned, and editable by the whole company (with review), like the handbook itself.
| LMS layer | Contents | Who maintains |
|---|---|---|
| Department docs | Charters, runbooks, onboarding checklists, tool guides | Department leads + contributors; merge via handbook process |
| Skill paths | Courses, labs, reading lists tied to level definitions | Department leads + senior ICs; People Ops coordinates structure |
| Scenario library | Disaster drills, decision maps, troubleshooting trees | Infra IT, Product Eng, Security/GRC, Support (joint) |
| Evaluation rubrics | What Level 2 vs Level 3 means for each role, linked to KPIs | Department lead + People Ops; stored before review season |
A newcomer on day one should find everything in one place: what the department owns, what to learn next, what "good" looks like at the next level, and what to do when prod catches fire. Current teammates should not hunt five tools to answer the same questions.
Implementation detail lands in later volumes (portal, automation, corporate stack). Here we set executive intent: the LMS is as important as the provisioning engine for long-term company health.
Goals, levels, and compensation alignment
Each department defines:
- Goals aligned with company demand (capacity, product quality, support load, revenue hygiene)
- Levels (e.g. L1 → L4 or equivalent) with published criteria
- Learning paths that map to those levels
| Element | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Department goals | Connect team output to hosting business outcomes (not vanity OKRs) |
| Role occupations | Infra engineer, portal developer, support specialist: each has its own rubric |
| Expertise levels | Observable behaviors + deliverables, not vibes |
| Compensation bands | Ranges tied to levels; adjustments follow documented promotion, not hallway deals |
Rule: if you cannot point to the LMS page that defines the next level, the annual review is not ready.
A team member should see a clear future: what to learn, what to demonstrate, what value add unlocks the next band. Company demand shifts (new product, ISO scope, multi-region): levels and goals update in writing, not in whisper networks.
Evaluation roadmap: same language on review day
Annual evaluation is not a surprise oral exam.
| Before review | During review | After review |
|---|---|---|
| Employee and lead share the same rubric from LMS | Discussion references KPIs and level criteria from ERPNext HRMS | Goals and development plan recorded in HRMS + LMS path updated |
| Self-assessment against published levels | No new criteria invented in the room | Compensation decision tied to documented level change or market band |
| Mid-year check-in optional but encouraged | People Ops facilitates process, department lead owns judgment | Disputes follow handbook escalation, not resentment |
HR, People Ops, and the department lead must use the same dictionary. Skill evolution in daily work must match the words on the evaluation form.
People Ops philosophy (respectful to HR readers): People Ops, not traditional HR.
ERPNext HRMS: KPIs, presence, fair records
HostKid runs people operations on ERPNext with the HRMS module as system of record:
| HRMS area | What it tracks | Why it matters for fairness |
|---|---|---|
| Employee master | Role, department, level, manager | Review context is never "who are you again?" |
| Attendance & presence | Leave, absences, on-call credits where applicable | No debate about days present without a record |
| Performance KPIs | Department-aligned metrics (tickets, incidents, delivery, quality signals) | Numbers match definitions in LMS rubrics |
| Appraisal cycles | Goals, ratings, feedback linked to cycle | Annual meeting reads from the same system, not memory |
| Training records | Completed LMS paths, scenario drills | Promotion arguments cite completed learning, not claims |
Frappe Insights surfaces people and ops metrics for leaders: retention, time-to-hire, level distribution, training completion. Not surveillance. Visibility so nobody is wronged because metrics were invisible until review day.
Full ERPNext and HRMS setup: Volume 11, Corporate.
If a KPI affects compensation or promotion, it must be published before the period starts. Surprising someone in December with a metric they never heard of in January is failure of leadership, not failure of the employee. Nobody should be unfairly judged on criteria that were never shared.
Scenario training and disaster decision maps
Hosting is incident-shaped. Values mean nothing if people freeze when DNS, billing, and CloudStack fail at once.
Every major scenario gets:
- Documented play in the LMS scenario library
- Decision map (fast troubleshooting tree: symptom → check → owner → escalate?)
- Drill cadence so all teams and all members have acted it once in a controlled way
| Scenario type | Example | Decision map answers |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | CloudStack zone degraded | Who leads? When do we stop sales? What do customers see? |
| Product | Paid, not provisioned | Product Eng vs Corporate vs Infra: who checks what first? |
| Security | Abuse, breach suspicion | Contain, notify, preserve evidence: order matters |
| Customer | Major migration gone wrong | Solutions, Support, Infra loop with status comms |
| People | On-call burnout spike | Capacity vs hiring vs process fix: not "try harder" |
Decision maps are short. Link to deep runbooks in Volumes 23 and 27. The map gets you moving in minutes; the runbook gets you to root cause.
Train before the disaster. Reading a map during a SEV-1 without ever having walked it is how companies lose customers and burn out staff in the same afternoon.
Department snapshot: LMS ownership
Each department maintains LMS content for its scope (see Organization):
| Department | Docs + courses focus | Level examples |
|---|---|---|
| Infra IT | CloudStack, DC ops, capacity, backup/DR | Operator → Senior platform → Lead |
| Product Engineering | Portal, API, provisioning, integrations | Developer → Senior → Staff/architect track |
| Support | Tickets, comms, KB, escalation | Agent → Senior → Team lead |
| Corporate / People Ops | ERPNext, HRMS, billing hygiene, people process | Analyst → Manager → Director |
| Security / GRC | Policy, risk, access standards, audit prep | Analyst → Engineer → Lead |
| Sales / Solutions | Discovery, migration design, scope control | Rep → Senior → Principal solutions |
Product (business) contributes SKU and roadmap docs; learning paths for PM-style roles live alongside, not inside engineering silos.
Executive rules (human engine)
- Values are enforced, not advertised. See behavior under stress, not slide decks.
- LMS and handbook are one culture: shared edit, async-friendly, searchable.
- Levels and KPIs are public to the employee before the measurement period.
- ERPNext HRMS is the review source of truth, not a manager's private notebook.
- Scenarios get drilled; decision maps stay short and current.
- Compensation follows documented level change, aligned with company demand and bands.
What this doc does not cover
- ERPNext HRMS configuration → Volume 11, Corporate
- Support ticket flow → Volume 23
- Production incident process → Volume 27
- Customer journey touchpoints → Customer lifecycle & journey
Next: Customer lifecycle & journey. What customers experience while the human engine runs behind the scenes.