Believing, as we do, in transparency, openness and full disclosure, it’s perhaps not surprising that we’re asked frequently whether or not we can keep secrets. Or maybe it’s just that a lot of our customers compete with each other. Either way, I have been asked precisely that question at least half a dozen times in the last week or two (there’s a lot going on, and no I can’t tell you about it).
I’ve answered this question periodically before, but just as a reminder, let me state clearly and for the record: if I can’t keep secrets, I can’t do my job. It really is that simple.
It doesn’t matter if I’m sitting on top secret product announcements or just where you’re interviewing, as long as you’ve made it clear to me what is and what is not secret I’ll respect that. If there’s even a question as to whether something is secret or not, I default to “is secret.” So if you’re trying to get us to break NDAs, I’d just say don’t bother – it’s not happening.
We’re not in the business of breaking news here at RedMonk; big portions of what we do, in fact, will likely never be known – hidden, as they are, behind the shrouds of corporate secrecy and non-disclosures. That’s an acceptable trade off, as far as I’m concerned, for the trust our customers and contacts and so on have in our ability to keep secrets.
So feel free to keep telling us “you’re not going to blog this, right?” because being explicit is never a bad thing, but know that if we already know the subject is secret it was never an issue in the first place.
