Unfortunately, there is a pervasive cultural divide between senior management and the employees. I believe the senior management was responding to pressure from the board, but the outcome was that there was constant discussion about "sustainability", which is an unnecessary euphemism for "profit". The executive management believed that the employees wouldn't tolerate working on things that would make edX make money. I don't know if that was true about anyone (it wasn't true about me), but the real problem is how they dealt with it: they *lied*.
edX's mission is to "increase access to high-quality education for everyone, everywhere", but employees at edX aren't allowed to work on projects that would increase access for people that have slow or unreliable internet connections. We were constantly pushed to work on projects at the behest of large corporate or government donors.
At the same time, the employees aren't valued and the organization is inefficient and misdirected. When employees reported dissatisfaction with their jobs in a review last year, the management responded in an unbelievably corporate way: they created a committee.
The committee reported its findings to Wendy Cebula (the COO and President). When she was told that employees felt that employee retention was not a priority to executive management she said, "they're right. When someone leaves edX, I see it as an opportunity to get an A-player in here."
The tragedy is that many of edX's employees are talented people who really do care about the stated mission and have made personal sacrifices to be there. My sincerest wish is that the organization is put under more sincere management and edX can have the impact that we hope for.
If you (as edX's president) feel that you have to hit some deadline for a donor, how about just saying that instead of couching it in a fantasy about helping the world by starting with the people that (frankly) don't really need the help?
