Company, leadership and working env appraisal - Senior Product Manager Wejo Employee Review

- Poor congruence at a leadership level, multiple distinct strategies pull the company apart rather than drive it towards a company goal. A c suite meeting was once described the CEO breaking a pool cue in half, throwing it in the middle and say fight. Similarly, purposely skewed rationale for poor performance, directing blame at another department (without prior knowledge given to the targeted department) was presented at similar meetings. This is probably what leads to the in-congruence, there is a need to know all the detail, all the problems so the senior management don't get caught out when its time to show their reports. - Wejo describes themselves as a start up but has a corporate mentality, leadership team are within the first 15 employees at the company and "they know best". Despite hiring some of of the most talented senior and middle management I've worked with they don't let go of the detail, smothering the chance for ideas, thoughts etc to come from the ground up. This leads to projects and work that sits outside of agreed strategy as JFDI etc. Typically done with impunity as they are the seniors. - Lack of execution is a core theme, the balance between planning and discussing the next steps just isn't there. expect death by power-point and irrefutable truths presented as deep insights - Poor growth strategy and financial management lead to a large redundancy scheme. Rationale for putting staff on furlough and ultimately making the majority redundant just didn't hold water - its the companies prerogative ultimately but made for a poor environment to work in. In the same vein of thought wejo expanded to almost 200 staff without the demand, this lead to well paid staff with literally nothing to do, conscientious as they are they look for jobs, when you get almost 40% of your workforce doing this then the lines of responsibility blur to incomprehension. Typical example is that there was a scrum master, delivery manager, development manager, BA, PO (and product management) and architect (remember this is a start up) all looking to lead the team in the right direction, with no-one mandated to actually make the final decision. You can imagine how messed up that got. - Although COVID was a tough time for everyone, there are ways to treat staff and convey bad news about their employment. There was no show of solidarity, leadership were absent with comms and support, leaving it as a purely HR exercise. Feedback I got from colleagues showed me how poorly wejo staff where treated during this period - i'm not suggesting the outcome should be different, but the manner in which wejo treated their staff was poor, and the ultimate reason i decided my time was done at wejo