Best professional experience of my life
Pros
Awesome people. Everyone at the company is a rock star at what they do. What's more, they are incredible and kind. During the company-wide meetings, I could honestly go around the room and say that I liked everyone. For a company of over 50 people, that is next to impossible. Great and always improving product. The output of the Engineering team is unbelievable. They crank out amazing features every day and crush bugs immediately. The Product team is focused on specific goals and metrics, and they are committed to listening to customers and coworkers. Having the Customer Success team of former PM's only bolsters the credibility of the company. The entire company lives by The Responsive Method, which advocates being interrupt-driven and jumping in to help at a moment's notice. Whenever I needed anything, I knew I could rely on everyone with almost no delay. Constant learning. Every time there is new information, it is shared with everyone. If we fall short, we learn and grow. That is the culture of the people, the process, and the product. You will work hard and grow. Aha! teaches and coaches hard. While positives are always acknowledged, the opportunities to improve are the focus. They hire great people and coach them to be incredible assets for the customers. Transparency. It is completely unheard of to share full financial information and status with everyone in a company. Almost everything is available to staff, and if it isn't available, you are welcome to ask. What you read is what you get. Before joining, I questioned whether the Aha! blog and website were the real deal. It all seemed too good to be true. I can say that they practice what they preach and what they write about. It felt like home. Even though we were in different states and countries, the use of chat and video conversation did a great job of feeling like we were in the same room. It made the company-wide meetings even more special.
Cons
These were not cons for me personally. Before joining, you should know the following: They move fast. This is a dynamic organization that is built to deliver high quality code, content, and service to its customers. You need to be able to keep up. Expectations are very high. You are working with the best of the best, and they expect you to deliver and learn and grow quickly. They are always there to coach and help, but you have to put in the work and learn every day. This is not a pure product management role. The Customer Success team applies the empathy, active listening, and consultative approach of product management towards the end users. These users are other product managers. They have an excellent process to build your skills. It is a different job. You will work hard. I don't think I've ever worked so hard. But, I've never been so happy to do so.