Pros
If you are interested in design advocacy, this is the place for you. If you are interested in learning how to have hard conversations with business partners, this is the place for you. If you are interested in establishing process and framework, this is the place for you. If you are familiar with enterprise struggles and have interest in navigating them, this is the place for you. If you have no interest designing at scale and coordinating that type of effort, go work somewhere else. There are a lot of problems to solve here. Whether it’s product-related, studio culture-related, process-related. If you have the drive, you can influence these things. It just takes more effort to do here than somewhere else. At times, it can feel thankless because of the effort it takes. The Austin studio is stacked with respected talent. Being able to work and learn from each other on the daily is amazing. The space itself is really nice and the benefits we get are solid.
Cons
The company has too many verticals that make it difficult to design end-to-end experiences. This results in a lot of ownership issues even within our design org. Also areas of the business (amongst others) aren’t qualified for their positions. They don’t have product experience because they have moved their way up in the company starting at a completely unrelated, different role. USAA's currency is relationship building and they want to take care of their people. This unfortunately results in a lot of bloat. Three roles will satisfy just one at another enterprise-scale company. While there are a lot of talented people in the Austin studio, there is a lot of laziness and lack of ambition. You don’t have product work to do? Poor you. Some of us are actually really busy. Do something that helps foster studio culture if you're bored. A lot of employees here feel like they were mislead about how far behind the company was in regards to adopting HCD and having a product strategy. This frustration is valid and real. It feels like we are running uphill and being continuously pushed down. The pay isn’t as competitive in comparison to other employers in Austin. We apparently get paid the same as designers in San Antonio but the cost of living is higher here.