Pros
I don't ever comment on these types of things, but I felt the need to do so given a couple posts don't reflect the reality of designing at Affirm. I've had a great experience at this company over the years and wanted to provide a more detailed perspective for others:
• Very customer-centric for all end users (consumers, merchants, agents, etc.). Designers and researchers are embedded in product development teams, so they are very close to the problems they are solving and very collaborative with other functions. In fact, just this past week the designers and researchers who create tools for our agents flew out to our call centers to shadow them and test new features.
• Weekly design syncs are driven by the researchers and designers who are working on the product. Management attends to give perspective on what they've seen or heard from other parts of the organization to ensure we are all moving in the same direction, but the final call on path forward is the team working on the problem since they are the closest.
• There is a lot of opportunity for ownership and growth on the team. This one is two sided since design is currently a little understaffed and that can have the occasional effect on work life balance (just being honest), but the balance has generally been good. Everyone seems to have been given opportunity to work on high-profile, high-impact initiatives. The company is also very focused on training for growth beyond just your function's skillset.
• The company is very mission driven. Everyone takes the principle of not profiting off of someone's mistakes or misfortune very seriously and looks for creative ways to make the economics work in favor of doing the right thing.
• The culture is extremely inclusive and so is decision making. It's great that the teams values having buy-in, or at the very least understanding of why, before we proceed, but it also sometimes slows us down (again being honest here). This is typically something we've been okay with to ensure we're being thorough in our reasoning and transparent with everyone. I've definitely seen improvement in balancing it with speed.
• Everyone I work with on design is very talented and I've loved partnering with them. It's a great group of people to learn from given their different backgrounds and the perspectives they bring.
• The company values entrepreneurship and supports people in their decisions. Only a few people have left the ux design team over the several years I've been here and two went to start their own companies. Everyone was extremely supportive of this and have been willing to help in any way they can (including the CEO, Max). We all still keep in contact and are rooting for them.
Finally I want to say that people here really do listen to co-workers and rely on their expertise unlike the other review suggests. It's a very humble and respectful culture throughout. I hope this helps others if they are considering the design team or company in general.
Cons
• The team is a little understaffed right now, so there are moments when you don't get to spend as much time on something as you would like. This has been getting better with every hire though.
• Could work on balancing inclusiveness in decision making with speed to development/launch (more emphasis on speed).
