Pros
As a senior product designer at the time, these were instrumental in making me become a confident product design lead today.
- Large breadth of work. Whether it be the consumer side, designing for investors or for B2B customers, the design challenges are wide, varied and you will never be bored week to week. Your portfolio and body of work (not to mention your experience) will be amazing after your time at Plenti.
- Access to the founders. Being able to grab feedback on features in real time and learning insights about customers just made designing the entire product a great experience. The founders are passionate about advocating for customers needs so they always made the time to give feedback on features we were building.
- Easy going culture. Everyone was really nice, especially cross functionally. Really suits someone who enjoys a collaborative environment and bantering with peers.
- Instant feedback on how your designs perform. Plenti is largely a data-driven culture so not only will you get feedback on the features you design from a conversion perspective but the customers and investors are passionate and are always happy to give feedback if it means improving the platform.
- You will be an important cog in the product development pipeline. As the connection between product and engineering and as a voice for the customer, everyone will rely on you to provide leadership in design and UX. As a result, you will make a huge difference at Plenti,
- Non traditional fintech company. I think fintech can sometimes get a bad rap for being "all about the numbers" but I genuinely do think that the founders know the reason why they got to where they are today is by being a strong advocate for the customer/investor. Every decision is driven to benefit the customer, the money is a byproduct of that.
Cons
As the only advocate for design at Plenti, a lot of the responsibility does fall on you to manage and lead the design function which could be a lonely experience for some. To be successful you really do need to get out of your comfort zone and find support and meaning with other functions of the business. That way, this con ends up being a rewarding experience.