The biggest challenge was the team I was assigned to. While other departments seemed well-organized and collaborative, my experience within the product team was very different. There was often a lack of clarity around priorities, ownership, and project direction, which made it difficult to do my job effectively.
The onboarding process for my department was also weak. While I received company-wide onboarding, I was given very little guidance on how my specific team operated, who owned what, or how projects moved through the organization. Much of this had to be figured out independently.
As a UX designer, I frequently found myself creating structure where there wasn’t any. There were times when project priorities, ownership, and status were unclear, resulting in me taking on responsibilities outside my role simply to keep projects moving forward. I often found myself documenting information, organizing work, and creating alignment that should have already existed within the team.
What was most frustrating was that many of these issues did not seem unknown to leadership. In my experience, concerns around team performance, communication, and accountability were recognized by multiple people, including management, yet little action was taken to address them. Instead, employees were often expected to work around the problems rather than resolve them. Over time, this created unnecessary frustration and placed additional burdens on individual contributors.