It's disheartening to see our design & research team being reduced to serving as glorified pixel-pushers. Until a couple years ago it used to be growing, in quality.
At the same time, it's concerning to see several members of the team migrating to the Product organization for what seems to be more of a social rather than solid professional reason. The Austrian exclusive circle.
We have an ok design director, who has however been isolated. We previously had another good one, who started to build a promising multidisciplinary function: he was most likely made run away from DT due to mismanagement and political maneuvering (favoring those who best accommodated and flattered our management team, for their own personal career benefit).
As a ux and product designer I don't feel well represented or properly valued here. I don't see positive movement under our current leadership, and don't feel safe sharing my perspective through our internal channels.