Remitly

Most people are intelligent, passionate, and collaborative. It can be very enjoyable to partner on exciting projects. There is free lunch every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The company offers good benefits. There is a decent work-life balance.

An obsession with operating lean. Every area of the business that I interacted with was understaffed. People had ambitious goals and the skills to accomplish them but initiatives were not properly funded. This led to burnout and unnecessary stress. Significant under investment in the data space. No company-wide data leadership and over dependency on leaders who had been with the company since the startup phase and were not seasoned enough to provide adequate thought leadership. Very poor planning and prioritization practices leading to way too much pressure on first line managers. Way too much focus on RTO and refusal to provide data driven support for why working in the office was important especially for engineers.

Invest in high-quality data leadership.

Stop expecting engineers to make up for gaps in program and product management.