Toxic work culture due to poor Product Leadership
Pros
Strong engineering team Good exposure to real product challenges Opportunity to learn under pressure
Cons
*Lack of technical expertise in product leadership:* The Product Lead lacks the technical understanding needed for realistic planning, leading to constant misalignment and unnecessary pressure on the development team. *Unaccountable leadership behavior:* There have been repeated instances where the team was fully engaged in delivery while the Product Lead remained unavailable, and later blamed the team in stakeholder discussions-showing a pattern of avoiding responsibility. *Toxic work expectations:* Weekend work, night calls and constant pressure have become normal due to unavailability/no_understanding of Product Lead in working hours. *Misaligned commitments:* Features and timelines are committed to stakeholders without consulting engineering, resulting in unrealistic expectations and rework. *Fear-driven work culture:* Delivery is often pushed using job security concerns, including threats of termination, while the same urgency is not reflected from leadership-delayed responses to stakeholders (sometimes days !!!) and then the Product Lead blames it to the team. *Lack of involvement from Product Head:* There is little to no active participation in validating plans or correcting misalignment. The initial decision of creating someone Product Lead without proper evaluation has led to ongoing execution gaps and sustained pressure on the team.
