Pros
Nest is the keystone of Alphabet's strategy of enabling a smart, connected and comfortable home. This has manifested in Nest going beyond its iconic thermostats, launching similarly iconic products in more categories, such as home security and safety, with many more on the way. The team is still relatively small for the scope. As a result, an individual can make a much higher impact compared to similarly sized peers with several challenging opportunities to work on . Yet, the work-life balance is great! The quality of engineers is great, on par with Google, evident in a constant bidirectional flow of people between Nest and Google. There are frequent team outings and fun events. There was a period of upper management turmoil in 2016. That is far in the rear view mirror now and the current leadership has streamlined the organization. Each team has a clear charter, most have experienced leaders, and work well together.
Cons
The original Nest software infrastructure platform was complicated and had a lot of technical debt. This is rapidly changing with the investing in a state of the art platform showing great results.
