Reflections from last couple of years at Outreach
Pros
My 3.5 rating is based on my overall experience over my tenure at Outreach. I've worked at Outreach for almost four years and seen my fair share of ups and downs. I am still here, and still believe in the team and the product. Here's what's keeping me here: - We have (mostly) smart, hardworking, and friendly folks in CX who want to et sh*t done with a roll up your sleeves attitude. This makes the culture of coming to work worth it, even when times are tough. - The core product is good, we were and still are a category leader, and there is potential to create an even better full platform once dust settles in Product, Design, Engineering reorganization - assuming they hire the right leaders and talent - Salary was competitive at the start, but promotions have been lacking (see below) - We have a relatively flexible and generous PTO policy, and managers are understanding of life circumstances. - Outreach has an impressive customer portfolio, we operate in an ever-changing and interesting domain which means the work itself is rewarding. I am challenged every day.
Cons
Outreach is not without its cons, and it can be tough to see a company that could improve in so many ways if Leadership were to address a few key issues: PRODUCT: - Outreach is a robust platform, but also extremely complex. It can be difficult to support without the proper customer resources, especially if customer is disengaged. We need a way to simplify our product for end users, while maintaining the robust functionality that differentiates us from the market. - With any product that is on the forefront of the B2B market, Outreach rides the ups and downs of economic activity at a higher amplitude than most other companies, which can explain the RIFs/layoffs in 2023. - Product knowledge in Sales is lacking with no aligned "product messaging" across GTM. Though this might change with new leadership hires in GTM, Marketing, and Product. CULTURE/SALES - Middle managers and leaders need training on how to elevate, coach, and reward their individual contributors and team. Outreach has a habit of hiring managers externally who have never done the IC function, making it hard for them to understand how to best manage and coach their team. I rarely get career coaching or feedback on how to uplevel my skills. - Transparency around pay increases, promotions, and career growth is non-existent. There are career ladders that were made, but they don't seem to be followed. People are in senior positions that don't exemplify senior qualities, and people are in non-senior positions who do much more. There are folks who get promoted every cycle and folks who didn't even know promotions were happening. When promotions do happen, the raises are small - 3-6%, if you are lucky. This does not outpace the salary growth in the market, nor does it help with inflation. - Bad at recognizing individuals who are not in sales or management roles. There's a lot of talent here and people with impactful, valuable ideas. Leadership needs to get better at listening to those ideas and also recognizing the individuals who created those ideas when they are put into practice. This will improve culture and retention rates.
