Forrester reviews

No light at the end of the tunnel. Bad new product roll out and forced migration from legacy has killed the brand reputation, and as importantly the bottom line. This led to two rounds of layoffs, most recent being yesterday. The blame seems to be on sales execution coupled with troubling economic times. One of those things is true. Sales had been challenged with selling a below market offering for an above market price, and the buyer community has made this clear. Rather than looking at who made these decisions and making changes at the top, Forrester has let several hundreds of employees go. Many of whom are strong performers and positive contributors to Forrester’s bottom line. Worst part was the lay-off process. No exit interview, even for extremely tenured employees, and no direct management interaction - even those who the affected had built close relationships with over several years. Instead we received the news from higher-ups on 20+ person calls that our “positions were being eliminated, and we were relieved of our duties effective immediately”. A 30 second canned statement from our “leaders” and then a pass off to HR to discuss severance. Quite a way for half a decade of service to be recognized.

The executive team flipped a switch, going against the empathetic image they spent years building up for the company. I guess it was fake at its core because the empathy is gone. Employees are now just inputs. Executives have closed their ears and eyes and no longer listen to employees. That's not going well because morale is bad (layoffs and then a fast, unexplained return to office hybrid mandate, plus financial targets being hard to hit). There's an obsession with "contract value" (CV) that doesn't make a lot of sense because CV is a financial metric that means nothing to customers or employees. I have lost faith in the vision, if there is one.