- At times, there can be too much collaboration and not enough ownership of product initiatives. It's hard to make decisions and move anything forward without consulting a million stakeholders.
- High pressure on publishing team to justify their decisions and every stakeholder has strong opinions, which can bog down progress in all the details.
- The number one problem is remuneration and promotions. Remuneration is disgustingly low compared to similar roles in the tech industry. It can take forever to get a payrise, and there is a limit on how much your salary can increase, so if you start off low, you're basically screwed. No transparency around how to achieve a promotion and not a lot of support to do so.
- Not enough resources - overall, there is low job retention due to the low salaries and people who quit are usually not replaced. If they are, it isn't for about 6 months (sometimes years!). Instead, work is simply shifted around the team, which makes everybody less efficient.
- Not enough investment into tech. Pearson want to be an educational technology company but haven't invested in an authoring tool that can actually do the things the market wants, or resources to develop high-quality videos. This means it is very difficult for the product team to create high-quality learning experiences that justify the significant costs associated with Pearson products.
