Pros
- High bar for talent. Only the best-of-the-best get in at contributor and line-level management roles
- HR and vision&values team tries hard to do fun things for employees
- 2x week catered lunch (usually with mountains of leftovers)
- Upbeat and culturally-relevant brand
- one great product (mamaRoo) and a few ok products (breeze, high chair, infant tub)
Cons
- Lack of direction in all disciplines. A team this talented shouldn't have trouble executing a vision and plan. The problem is, there was never a clear vision or plan. Somehow individual products were expected to cover over reckless spending.
- No plan means nothing was ever truly prioritized (or de-prioritized). Consequently every one thing was as important as the next and every one thing was as urgent as the next (i.e. not even "controlled" chaos)
- The voice of more experienced employees is continuously ignored
- The CEO and senior management often eschews discussions on process as "destroying the culture" and "stymieing creativity", when in fact it seems to have been used as a way to never be held accountable for making good decisions (financially, organizationally, etc...)
- Handwave-y surveys and town halls to get feedback from employees but the issues with the largest magnitude are never addressed (CEO micromanagement, no negotiation of product requirements on first launch, no clear product development process)
- The "Words We Live By" are great, but we gradually stopped holding each other accountable for actually living them.