Pros
Niantic is a startup still. We are still hiring key positions and working out important “bugs” in the organization. The people we have hired specifically at the senior management level are all excellent with impressive experience. We recently hired a vp of hr and a vp of pr who are both excellent additions. Our pr has really improved and now our internal communications and transparency are much much better. We are also improving the story we tell about our own selves. We also are having more “grown up” internal systems in place. Still both of these vps are men. More on that later. Our product, design, and engineering teams are great. They have an impressively diverse team. I wish other nontechnical functions were as diverse as their teams are. More on that later. Our CEO is a total visionary. He has predicted the current state of the world and technology for many years and has helped to bring it about. He is also very dedicated to our mission. I wish his management style was different though. More on that later to.
Cons
I wish we had a more diverse team. Women and minorities are really sparsely represented specifically in the nontechnical functions like Marketing and Finance and on the leadership team. Its an area of disappointment. Our technical teams are to thin. We frequently miss deadlines because we dont have enough people. Please apply! We are thin in many functions but are getting more bloated in others. For example Marketing is now about 15% of the total company and yet I dont see its impact to that degree. Our CEO is a total visionary but he doesnt delegate correctly. He has an amazing team around him but micromanages decisions and is often a bottleneck. For example my manager doesnt get regular one on ones with the CEO and when he has those meetings scheduled they are often cancelled so important issues dont get addressed quickly. The CEO has weekly staff meetings with all his direct reports but they dont cover the most important topics. So things get backed up and we miss deadlines. Its unusual for the CEO to give positive feedback and he sometimes gives very negative feedback to staff in front of large groups which makes people afraid to be more transparent with him.
