Pros
This is a dream job for a particular type of designer. This office should appeal to individuals who are interested in building culture and being a design advocate. When I was there I loved that the organization was flat and that the VP ran brainstorms that went directly into product and strategy planning that were open to everyone and anyone. He listened carefully, remembered what individuals said, and good ideas had immediate impact into the plan or strategy. If you were interested you could be involved. I loved that no one had an office, everyone sat in cubicles. Everyone, everyone was ultimately accessible, and most everyone left their titles off their email. This was a great position for me and I love working with my team. I left because I was contract-to-hire with no guarantees and no benefits. Then, out-of-the-blue I was offered an opportunity at a company that rhymes with Bugle ;) so I left Asurion, knowing that I may never find such a great group as my product team. - Management is committed to UX design - Designers have a lot of ownership and influence over the UX design of their product - Great opportunity to create design culture from scratch - Designers are embedded directly into the engineering and product team, advocating for design directly with the team and product management - Most everyone is collaborative - Your design will definitely make it into the product and into the market
Cons
The same things that make this a great opportunity also make it a bit of a challenge. Design culture here is in formative stages in the San Mateo office, although the spirit and commitment is real. This office is primarily Product Management and Engineering, and their workflows, team organization, and approach reflect this. This is also a positive as well as a con. Designers are embedded into product teams so each designers experience and products they work on could be dramatically different. They can be isolated unless they make a concerted effort to collaborate with other designers. If you don't have a strong voice, you could have a hard time. I give this office a 4/5 for designers because there are challenges and hurdles that a designer will face helping to change outlook and approach towards user centered design from defining what a designer needs to defining what a designer does to defining design best practices and processes.
