Pluspunten
TL;DR 1. There are some heroes that work at Bankjoy—amazingly smart people that do the work of 5 people. 2. For product managers, there is a high level of autonomy, allowing one to create a direct impact. 3. They have product-market fit with financial stability. 4. They’re making progress on major challenges (e.g., release cycle and sales cycle). At Bankjoy, I had the pleasure of working with some incredibly sharp folks. While not pervasive across the whole company, certain teams have developed cultures that you would expect from top-tier talent. In fact, there are some exceptional individuals that regularly do the work of five employees. Challenges with process maturity, like our sales cycles and release cycles, have always been a pain point for Bankjoy. Over the last 2 months, it seems like leadership hired folks that know how to solve these challenges. I’ve seen some early signs of improvement, which is a huge win for everyone. Bankjoy has found product-market fit, which has led to high growth. As a product manager, it is extremely fun to ride the tailwinds of demand. The features you build have a huge impact on a growing set of users. In addition, based on the way this industry has established itself, Bankjoy doesn’t have to worry about churn like most SaaS companies. Financial stability in a startup is rare, especially in a potential market downturn, but Bankjoy is well positioned.
Minpunten
I’ve worked at other startups before, and I’ve included commentary in this review on the issues that, to me, seem to be Bankjoy-specific, and not issues with all startups and their culture as a whole. TL;DR 1. Inconsistent decision-making: (Promise-anything-to-close-a-deal mentality, reactive culture, some leaders pride themselves on subjective decision making, loudest customer gets priority). 2. Concerning financial industry best practices: In my opinion, certain incidents at Bankjoy would have likely gotten folks fired at my previous employer, which was a major financial institution. Processes are missing to prevent these situations. 3. Minimal ownership: Micromanaging, throwing work over the fence, aversion to logging into the product, scapegoating. 4. Missing leadership: Changes regularly, no cross-departmental collaboration, decisions are made in a vacuum, often ignoring the concerns of the folks it impacts (who often know more about the subject). 5. HR concerns: Departures happen overnight, high turnover, subpar health care, obscured transparency around equity, low-ball salaries (including optimism that a market downturn will reduce salaries). Decision-making: At the end of the day, Bankjoy’s decision-making process is simple: how do we increase our revenue? This drive for revenue leads to signing new clients despite concerns over timelines, technical feasibility, and strategic direction. Bankjoy frequently over promises and under delivers despite internal employees preemptively vocalizing that the deals that the sales team are closing have unrealistic expectations. For the last year, we have tried to correct this; however, when push comes to shove and a big prospect is considering purchasing Bankjoy’s products, Bankjoy leadership regresses and promise that we can build anything, despite knowing we can't. In turn, this causes Bankjoy’s roadmap to be solely driven by sales. As a product manager, I rarely had the opportunity to build features that were customer- or research-centric. Prioritization came from a potential sales deal or retroactively responding to clients that were upset because we couldn't properly deliver what was promised to them when they went live. Financial industry best practices: In my opinion, certain incidents at Bankjoy could have gotten folks fired at my previous employer, which was a major financial institution. These scenarios could have been easily avoided, or at least led to process changes after the fact. Bankjoy's lack of action (to my knowledge) makes me concerned that this negligence could be a pattern if not addressed. Ownership: There is a big culture of throwing issues over the fence to other teams. Unfortunately, this culture is self-perpetuating, and, if I’m being honest, I started doing it as well. No one at Bankjoy has the full picture, which leads to everyone guessing customer needs/promises. By the time information has passed its way through a game of telephone, it has completely lost its original intent and level of urgency. Half of this challenge comes from a lack of communication between departments, but the other half comes from a micromanaged culture. Often times you ask someone “the whys” behind a request, and they say “I don't know, my {boss} told me to do this.” The lack of foundational understanding of requests leads to spin, burnout, misled efforts that end in misguided features, and you eventually throwing the resulting problems back over the fence to another team. Another concerning trend at Bankjoy is that folks have an aversion to logging in to the product. When it comes to product knowledge, people seem afraid of seeking out answers themselves, which results in them leaning on a few colleagues that are willing to figure things out independently. This leads to bottlenecks and a massive amount of workload for the product and engineering team. This is exacerbated by leadership not expecting all departments to have a foundational knowledge of the product. Leadership: In the last year, a full C-Suite team was hired. While transitions are naturally challenging, there have been many unwelcome changes that could have been avoided if leadership asked the front-line team why something is operating the way it is. On the few occasions the leadership team asked for feedback, they almost always returned to their original preconceived opinion despite the insights from their employees. Overall, communication is sparse, decisions are made in a vacuum, and when you need cross-departmental decisions, the c-suite team often avoids being committal (e.g., leaving meetings half way through, lacking follow up, and concluding “this is tough”). HR concerns: Historically, Bankjoy hasn’t shared insights into the value of the equity they offer their employees. This is the equivalent of an employer not disclosing your salary to you. When I asked why they don’t share this information, they said that valuing equity is too complicated for employees to understand so they avoid sharing these details. With that said, recently they disclosed some numbers after receiving enough pressure from my colleagues. If you get an offer, make sure they tell you the information you need to value your equity; otherwise, assume it’s worth a minimal amount. In addition, make sure they send you an equity agreement because many employees have reported receiving that legal document up to 6 months late, and only because they prodded the HR team for it. On the healthcare front, it can be hard for startups to have the purchasing power for adequate coverage, but be warned that if your family depends on your healthcare, then please take a critical look at Bankjoy’s offering. When I tried to get a flu shot, the store said they were surprised that my healthcare didn’t cover the fee. Adding insult to injury, as I was leaving the store, an ad over the loudspeaker said “get your flu shot for free with just about any insurance provider.” Finally, there is an extremely high turnover rate at Bankjoy. If you’re considering joining the company, then you should message anyone who has left to learn about their story–there are plenty of us and we’re more than happy to chat.