Vantaggi
- The company is rooted in applying statistical reasoning to marketing problems. They take an approach of treating ideas as hypotheses, and proving results through experimentation. - Dynamic work environment that is both fun and interesting. - Excellent company values that benefit all stakeholders. - Well formed communication rhythms. - Great benefits with an experimental 4-day work week in progress this quarter (Q1 2022). - Beautiful office, fortune 500 clients, and a high-performance team. I've been at Widerfunnel for nearly 4 years, and come from a technology background with more than 17 years working in tech in Vancouver, with spending 7 years as a CTO founder at a startup that grew to 4.2 million in yearly gross revenue, and can say that growing and scaling a company is a huge challenge. Widerfunnel is exceptional in their communication. They have excellent patterns for having 1:1s, company-wide updates, and announcements. They take very seriously the concept of bringing ones full-self to the office (or zoom screen), while doing their best to promote fun, wow and service clients. The people at the top have a genuine interest in the company succeeding, and diligently work to pick up any slack left through team or contract changes. They never put pressure on their people to work outside of the scope of the planned workload, and shoulder a lot of the politics and uncertainty that comes with being part of a rapidly changing sub 50-person team whose business is booming throughout both a pandemic and recent acquisition. The nature of the work is genuinely interesting. You get to witness experimentation being practiced at fortune 500 companies, and to learn and understand a ton about diverse businesses, user demographics, and outcomes based on hypotheses. Their strategy team has keen leadership and talent, and keeps the company updated on their work through a monthly forum showcasing the most surprising and interesting test results. In general Widerfunnel is always looking to improve. Take for instance the 4-day work week. The market is certainly moving in that direction, yet for the organization to be able to shift itself to experiment with the concept in a 3-month trial, 2 months after being acquired, at the end (hopefully) of a 2-year pandemic, speaks to both the courage of the entire organization to try new things, yet also to the resilience of its well established business and communication cycles, the hard work that has went into automating and optimizing core business process, and the strength, professionalism, and trust within the team.
Svantaggi
- A small team with great talent leaves little movement for growth beyond the function you are hired for, unless you create new business or prove new work contributes to company success, which can feel nearly impossible to achieve given such a tight process in a highly competitive landscape. - The company can feel cliquey, and the management aloof, at times. - At the heart, Widerfunnel is a highly professional marketing agency, and obsesses over client touch points, communication channels, and process. While this helps to reduce friction, it thwarts employee buy-in and stymies what could become interesting new verticals, or strategic learning experiences. There is cost in exploring new ideas, yet reflecting upon the past, perhaps a greater focus could be in building team cohesion around science and community, rather than fun and games. Bah hum. - It is a complicated business built on high-touch relationships with massive brands, where a serious mistake could have a devastating consequence. - Working at Widerfunnel comes with a degree of self-management and autonomy over your time and decision making. You are expected to grow and handle a range of responsibilities independently, while management predominantly sets the vision and drives the company in all roles as needed. This can be both a con or a pro, given how you like to be managed. Widerfunnel is not a perfect company. In the beginning it is tremendously fun, and everyone has laughed a lot and experienced something unique while they spent a little of their life working here, yet it is work. Difficult, complicated, dynamic, and ever changing, work. Yet, fortunately, the work is filled with learning, the cause is good, the brands are great, the science is real, and the people are exceptional.