I joined hudl about 4 months ago, the biggest pro so far has been the talent. Everyone is good, yet humble and easy to work with. Founders are actively involved in company, they do good job of communicating mission/values and company direction to the team. Benefits and compensation is top notch. Culture is actually exactly like they advertise it to be, it's not just a slogan. Daily ping pong helps too. I previously worked at a large corporation full of politics and bureaucracy, switching to Hudl has been like a breath of fresh air. The focus at Hudl is delivering value, and that's accomplished by giving talented folks the autonomy and freedom to do what makes sense.
Cons
Can be difficult to balance work load, that's likely more my problem vs a culture problem. The autonomy, while refreshing, can seem chaotic at time.
Hudl Response
11y
We're glad you've enjoyed your time so far! That crazy fast growth is definitely at the top of everyone's minds, but we hope that by continuing to hire the right people, culture will survive. Thanks for being a part of it.
-Positive Business Outlook: Users love Hudl and it's a very forward-thinking product that has a great place in the future
-Values-led culture/norms: People are at the heart of how we operate
-Very talented overall workforce: Our bar on hiring is super high and performance management process works if there are clear underperformers.
-People genuinely get along with each other for the moist part - far better than most organizations with huge silo walls.
Cons
-Decision-making bottleneck at exec-team level with some pretty hands on leaders in the weeds on too much.
-Some teams are quite top-heavy, a poor micro-culture on the team, and have less accountability than they should (Finance/Accounting specifically)
-We can settle on talent in key roles that is in a key hub where we have an office since less remote hiring is approved.
The engineering culture lately has been very speed focused. We seem to prioritize velocity over thoughtful implementation and quality. Team dynamics can vary significantly depending on the squad you’re on, and in some cases the environment can feel highly competitive rather than collaborative. Overtime is becoming more common and it's unspoken. There can also be pressure to move quickly and keep up with fast timelines, which may not suit people who prefer a more structured and balanced engineering environment. The company removed timeout days so now we're constantly in meetings or getting pinged 24/7 in Slack. My days have less focus time and the constant Slack huddles and messages are becoming more disruptive overtime, but it's because there's so much pressure to move fast. Sprints are starting to feel like hackathons, rather than balanced.