UserTesting reviews

3.1

52% would recommend to a friend

(85 total reviews)
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Eric Johnson

57% approve of CEO

49% positive business outlook

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85 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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1.0
Feb 13, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A lot of us have become good friends, which is one of two reasons I haven't quit yet. In fact, it's one of the biggest reasons most of us are still here. Those who suffer together... The other reason I haven't quit yet is because there's some flexibility (depending on your direct manager) with working from home - which is always a savior on the sanity front. Dog friendly!

Cons

CSMs get judged on a LOT of metrics, and are constantly hounded when one of them drops. It's unreasonable to be expected to respond to e-mails within 2 hours AND reach out to all customers at least once every two week with proactive & strategic material AND take care of all project management AND attend all the internal meetings AND conduct quarterly business reviews with all your customers - who by the way, don't actually want to do because they're also busy - AND everything else. There's only so many things you can work on if you want to keep your sanity and not work 15-hour days. Too many internal meetings. Granted, not all of them are explicitly mandatory, but management notices when you don't attend and you get verbally berated anyway. CSMs are the *only* people in the company who get "rated" by at least 5 different other teams in the company, and by customers as well. It's a lot of pressure to keep all of those ratings up. Ever since they created the Customer Operations Manager role to manage the CSMs, there's been a *lot* of micromanaging. When things go wrong, upper management demands to know what *YOU* did wrong. Yes, sometimes, it's our fault. But sometimes, failure is inevitable and instead of being asked why we failed and how we should handle it in the future, it would be much better for morale to show empathy, put them in our shoes and see how difficult it is. Speaking of which, a lot of customers are *not* suitable for our platform and services, but they get sold - and often times oversold - anyway, and then CSMs have to deal with them for a whole year. You basically get set up for failure. When researchers mess up on a study (or multiple studies) it's also your responsibility, even though it's not your job to do research, because your supposed to know everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - about the customer, so nothing should have gone wrong. Internal tools are a pain to use and when we make product requests, it's hard to get them pushed through. Big changes happen often and without your input. They recently hired an exec who has caused a lot of friction/drama with people, turned the Customer Success team into sales - essentially, and just gives off a really inauthentic aura that makes most of us uncomfortable. He comes from a very corporate background, which stuck to him, and doesn't mesh with our company culture. And while he claims that he knows how miserable we are (which everyone seems to have noticed, and obviously not a good sign), nothing he's done so far as shown us that he actually cares. In fact, he doesn't take feedback well at all - after starting at UT, he created an account manager role called Customer Growth Executives, which the majority (if not all) of CSMs (and even CGEs) did not feel comfortable with, because it gave the impression that they were there to increase the dollar amount of contracts - which is true, but he meant for it mean that CGEs were there to support the customer and grow their business. After almost all the CSMs and CGEs said they felt like it meant increasing the dollar amount of the contract and were therefore using the title of "Account Manager' instead, he ignored us all and "decided" that it was going to be CGE. Pay is not up to par with the industry standard. When some of us raised this concern, upper management told us that when Client Success Coordinators became CSMs, it was due to an internal reorg and not an actual promotion - which is true, *however* that internal reorg also gave us at least twice the amount of work, so the slight increase in our salary was not justifiable and STILL below industry standard. These are just *some* of the things that are driving CSMs crazy - and away from the company itself.

2.0
Oct 7, 2015

Poor Management not Outweighed by Fantastic Coworkers

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- The company serves as a great introduction to UX, SaaS, and the tech industry in general. If you're looking to break into the industry but lack the experience, there tend to be a lot of opportunities at UserTesting (UT) to get your foot in the door. - With each passing month, the company is providing more and more fun perks to emulate the startup culture it uses as a crutch (salary 25% below industry average? here's a free 15 minute massage!) - Excellent cohesion within teams. My coworkers were by far the best part of this job and I'm still close friends with many of them.

Cons

I was initially sold on UT by the notion of "you do you," meaning it didn't matter what your style was so long as you did great work. About six months in, there was a dramatic shift away from this philosophy. It became clear that there was a certain way of doing things, and deviation from those ways wouldn't work out well for you. As a result, favoritism (and even nepotism in the case of one family) ran rampant. I don't say this out of jealousy-- hell I took advantage of the favoritism. As a man I only had to be a "bro" to succeed. It quickly became apparent that the quality of my work had no effect on how much I was valued. Another result in this shift was that criticism was no longer genuinely accepted. All companies have things that need to be improved, and UT is definitely no exception. When inefficiencies or product failings were pointed out, one would be ridiculed for negativity and urged to focus elsewhere-- even when multiple suggested solutions and corroborating data were provided. Then again, you don't accumulate the overhead costs for SaaS that UT has without ignoring good ideas. It wasn't watching bad ideas fester into huge money sinks that urged me to leave. Nor was it watching qualified and competent leaders be usurped by those who share last names with the decision maker. It wasn't even the pitiful coercion attempts made against dissenters. The straw that broke my back was being told directly by the COO that "we're all just in this to have our big payday [IPO/acquisition] and cash out." So instead of drinking more Kool-Aid and sacrificing my mental health for some board members' payout, I quit and immediately got a new job paying 50% more where I'm valued for what I actually contribute.

2.0
Feb 4, 2015

great potential, spoiled by subversive politics and top-down policies

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- My peers at UserTesting are some of the most intelligent and inspired people I've ever had the privilege of meeting. - The product and services that UserTesting offers are nothing short of inspired. - The founders are exceptionally kind and creative people.

Cons

Company politics are a factor in just about any workplace, but so few organizations are as strictly governed by them as UserTesting. While upper management is comprised of only a handful of individuals, they've established a precedent in which feedback is appreciated (but only the 'right' kind), advancement is possible (but only if you're a relative or a buddy of theirs), and employees can distinguish themselves (but only through unreasonably long hours). The c-suite's reluctance to promote from within the company remains prevalent throughout the workplace. In the few instances where opportunities do arise they are almost immediately gifted to the manager's favorite worker rather than the one who was most qualified. This issue would be less relevant if the compensation were adequate, if bonus work was rewarded, and if growth opportunities were present - however given that the average workweek ranges anywhere between 50-70 hours (6am calls and weekend hours included) and that the salary is barely livable, the whole politics-pill becomes a bit too hard to swallow. It also should be noted, to the merit of UserTesting, that hostility within the company is greatly discouraged. However if the issue pertains to a manager's misconduct or abuse of power, then HR is entirely unresponsive, if not occasionally duplicitous in their approach. This brings me to the issue of trust: at UserTesting, the rift between management and employees only grows as bottom-up feedback becomes irrelevant (ironic for a feedback driven business model). This results in very little communication between the various departments, (both to one another and internally) and sadly makes any change a slow and tedious process.

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UserTesting Response
10y
I'm the CEO of UserTesting and though I'd like to respond to the issue of management-employee communications by pointing out that: > We anonymously survey our employees every quarter and there is no responses that would correlate with this review. > I meet one-on-one with every employee on an on-going basis to find out how people are doing and what problems they're seeing.
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