Pros
- High level of ownership: the eng team runs pretty lean considering the size and scale of the company, which means that there is never a lack of scope for you to own. I don't think my teams have ever worked on something that wasn't impactful and meaningful for the company.
- Strong teammates: a side effect of high ownership is the hiring of strong individuals who feel a strong sense of pride in their craft and what they work on. What you get is a group of driven and sharp engineers
- Leadership visibility = more opportunities for growth: the company places a strong focus on rewarding high performers with more opportunities for growth. Regular internal talent reviews mean that we're always asking how we can put strong engineers in positions to continue growing and building their skills to succeed in their role
- AI enablement: Abnormal is investing heavily in its employees and how we can use AI more. It's not just a "use more AI mandate", but rather intentional ways to enable the team and deliver tangible impact through AI usage.
Cons
- Running lean can be a double-edged sword: sometimes that can mean more work that needs to be done than the bandwidth available to do it. Creates difficult prioritization exercises and careful tradeoff considerations
- Slow payment of tech debt: one of the side effects of moving quickly (especially in the earlier years of the company) is the accumulation of tech debt. I think teams are given a good amount of leeway to help pay this down, but sometimes falls in the priority ladder when we need to build something new to match a competitor
