Vantaggi
- Some amazing talent, truly a pleasure to work with these folks on an intellectual and personal level (although I think many are now demotivated / looking to leave, see below) - Really complex and interesting problems to solve -- from a technology perspective (NLP, network theory) or use cases (how to automate research that is conducted pretty manually)
Svantaggi
Quid has never had the guts to crisply articulate the problems that it was trying to solve for users, which has resulted in technology that 9 times out of 10 is met with the response "Cool...but what do I do with it?" We've fooled ourselves into thinking that being able to get an audience with senior leaders or an initial contract with impressive F1000 companies is a sign that we're successful. When those users very quickly churn or can only be saved with a herculean effort from our client team (aka free consulting research) that's not success -- that's surviving. You'd think that our renewal rates would be irrefutable proof that the product needs to be completely reimagined, but alas, I don't think the management team has the chutzpah to take a risk and actually define what this product would look like to be a valuable tool for users. Or just own up to the fact that this is a consulting company with some cool visuals and be done with it. I was hopeful that the new CEO (who was the original CEO and has now been reinstated) would infuse some new energy into our strategy. He stated in a company all hands that his biggest mistake in his first tenure was trying to do too much himself, and not bringing in other leaders to support him. Sadly, it looks like history is on a path to repeat itself...in his first couple of months, the head of product was fired, the head of sales/service left and he has seen no value in trying to replace those positions. He's said he will take on the role of head of product/design, "rainmaker" (senior sales / AE), AND be an effective CEO? C'mon...it's as if he thinks that his value as a leader is measured purely on the basis of what he as an individual is able to achieve, and not the sum of what the organization is able to achieve. I'm very concerned that the current leadership team is more obsessed with maintaining power / not failing, and not with the health, happiness, and success of Quid.