Wrong Executive Team - Anonymous employee Prodigy Education Employee Review

1.0
12 Oct 2021
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Prodigy is a great place to be if you are a junior looking to take on the world. Lots of really positive learning experiences and an opportunity to do something that matters.

Cons

Please don't let the following cons scare you away. These are real issues but they are issues that can and will be fixed. This is meant as a rip the bandaid off, not a trash the company on the way out the door kind of commentary. Over the years, there has been a shift away from doing what we are good at and much more of a focus around being micro managed by an executive team that inspires nobody and drives a culture of getting through your performance review. Nobody takes any risks, it's not worth it to your performance review. Nobody talks back to their executive rep, it's not worth it to your performance review. Nobody risks anything to make the company actually better. We used to have a no-politicking policy, but we've just rebranded it to strategizing, and it's everywhere. No team can risk taking on any longer running initiative, as everything shifts every few weeks, and now all that high impact work is trashed and you wasted time. In order to keep up with shifting priorities from on high, it is normal to see team members pushing 60-80 hours a week just to "meet expectations". If you took a survey, I would guarantee that most people are having to put in at least 60 hours, and that number increases with seniority. Executives are too busy trying to look good rather than actually produce anything of value. Concentrating so much on one distilled metric rather than trying to make any significant moves to reach our goals. It's safer to make a 3-5% improvement on x than spend 6-12 months transforming ourselves into something better. Get rid of the project management by committee time wasters (*cough* IMF *cough*) and get back to getting real stuff done. Let teams do what they do, and own their own paths. Please start looking at the actual value to our mission, rather than trying to convince yourself that a small increase to open rates or some other mundane metric is worth 3 months... Star players are dropping like crazy because it's not worth it to be exploited by your passion to help kids learn. There are countless numbers of inspiring and awesome rock stars that have just said no thanks, and they politely leave. Please take a closer look at why these people are leaving, and read between the lines... The buck has to stop with senior leadership. These issues have been going on for far too long and the culture you are creating is toxic. It's time for some accountability. Note to any executive reading this: If this information or opinion seems new to you, or you think this is a one off, then you aren't listening. Note to HR who will respond to this with the regular copy and paste "Thank you for your concerns and please talk to us, we want to work with you to understand...", please don't. I know you will anyways because it's just how you respond to critical feedback, but just to let others know, that response means nothing and goes nowhere. These are not new issues and we consistently fail to make any meaningful progress to address these or take any of this seriously. These types of things are brought up in almost every single anonymous question all-hands and nothing is ever done to make any progress. This is information that is meant to let potential new team members know what it's like, since it seems like none of this is going to get fixed any time soon.

Explore other reviews about Prodigy Education

5.0
5 Sept 2023
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CEO approval
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Pros

good company culture work environment pay work

Cons

time space money sitting travel more conference Work culture

1
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Prodigy Education Response
2y
Hi - thanks for your five-star review! We’re so glad to learn that you’re enjoying your Prodigy experience! In terms of ways we could improve, we’d welcome the opportunity to learn more specifics. Radical Candor is one of Prodigy’s core cultural values, and we encourage team members to speak up if they see ways we can do even better as an organization. If comfortable, please reach out to me via sarah-jayne.lehtinen@prodigygame.com. I’d love to chat!
3.0
20 Jan 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great people to work with. Very important product. Work from home allowance and gym/learning reimbursements.

Cons

Afraid to make crucial updates to legacy code, making development extremely difficult.

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Prodigy Education Response
5mo
Thanks for taking the time to leave this review, and also for your constructive feedback. We hear you on updates to legacy code, and tackling this challenge is a priority in 2026 alongside several other exciting projects which we believe will materially improve our offering for teachers and students.
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