The biggest challenge was the lack of organizational direction. Design teams were largely left to operate without clear strategic guidance, which made it difficult to align work to meaningful outcomes. There were gatekeepers at key decision points that slowed progress without adding clarity.
On the product side, many product managers struggled to articulate the problems they were actually trying to solve. This created friction in the design process and made it hard to build experiences grounded in user needs. Without a shared problem definition, teams end up building in circles.
My team was laid off about a month ago, which I mention as context — not with bitterness. But it does reflect a broader pattern of reactive decision-making rather than proactive planning
