What it’s like to work at Snapchat
businessinsider.com
businessinsider.com
> While other Snap employees and executives sit next to each other in an open floor plan, Spiegel’s office towers over the building's old lobby at the top of a flight of stairs. The door to the office is locked and protected by a special keypad."
In every company I've been in that uses open offices, the executives get closed door offices.
> To the group’s surprise, the meeting was in the security room, where Snap's security guards are stationed, according to one person familiar with the matter.
Isn't this a matter of safety? I remember this historical story at one large company I worked at: after a layoff, the employee returned to his manager's office with a gun. Thankfully, the situation was defused.
> Beyond vague statements like “building the world’s best camera” and making “communication more real and authentic,” there’s little-to-no communication inside Snap about what’s in the pipeline.
Just about every company...
> “There were times when we would do PowerPoint presentations, and you literally would spend 50% of the time formatting it,” one of the former executives Business Insider spoke to recounted. “What shade of yellow, that sort of thing.”
Just like any big company!
I have nothing for or against Snapchat. It reads like a poorly crafted hit piece against the CEO.
But I agree with your assessment.
(Note this was before they sold the company; I'd imagine it's different now with a different executive team)
I think that there comes a size of company where that gets impractical, and Snap is probably at least that size. But it's by no means crazy for execs to work in the open floorplan.
Edit: LinkedIn is not too far off from what's mentioned in the article:
> The top-secret Snap Labs group overseeing the Spectacles is such a priority that the group earlier this year set a goal of hiring 200 people in just sixty days, according to the staffer who left. The hiring plan was especially aggressive for a company whose total headcount is just above 1,000 employees.
[1]: https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=3186630&trk=rr_conne...
Same here though it's interesting that it's in a separate space that is above the rest of the space at Snap. But they're probably just using whatever space was there.
> Just about every company...
Are you sure? Every company I've been apart of, even large companies, I usually know some of what's coming down the pipe. I usually know enough details about future developments to know that, when I make a decision development wise, I can be sure it'll continue to work when products X, Y and Z ship. Though to be fair after a certain size it's just not feasible to know of all upcoming products.
I'm curious if there are any statistics available regarding employees in tech companies and their knowledge of upcoming products.
That's a relic of the past! Silicon Valley has almost entirely embraced the HP culture where even the CEOs are in cubicles or open desks just like everyone else.
Though it is true that some conference rooms seem perpetually unbookable...
(This was true of Hewlett and Packard as well -- they had cubicles like everyone else, but they also had dedicated "meeting rooms" which are still preserved today, not the HP really survives...).
BTW I agree with your assessment: "reads like a poorly crafted hit piece against the CEO."
Seems like nobody connects the dots that developers need a distraction free place to work as well.
No. Mark Zuckerberg does not have a "office towers over the building's old lobby at the top of the flight of stairs". At least not in 2015.[1]
[1]: http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-virtual-tour-...
But on the other hand, I worked from FB's NYC office for two years, and Zuckerberg did not visit the office even one single time during that period. Or at least, if he did visit, it certainly wasn't publicized, nor was it something that employees could attend.
And that's despite the NYC office being the company's 3rd-largest (by headcount), and despite Zuck making a few publicized appearances at other third-party events in NYC. (Also his sister lives here, and his parents are just north of the city...)
Personally I found it demoralizing, but I know others who didn't really care.
If you walk through campus it's the room with the "don't take pictures of the animals" sign on it.
I'm not trying to defend Snap, but these are criticisms that are broadly applicable to many tech companies. The stupid open offices. Executives isolated from ordinary people and reality, on retreats that sound like a "Silicon Valley" punchline. Pretending your company is making the world a better place when you're mostly just building yet another lucrative advertising platform.
Sounds like a good strategy to not confirm leaks by a notorious content mill when you have an official announcement prepared by one of the most respected news organizations in the country.
The main takeaway I gleaned from this article is: if you ever find yourself homeless in the Venice Beach area, just fashion a fake Snap employee badge and dress to look the part. Why use a SNAP card when you can use a Snap badge!
If circumstance has it you're chit-chatting with real employees in line at a restaurant, just tell them the reason they've never seen you at any of the offices is that you're working on a super secret project at an undisclosed neighborhood location.
Maybe it's how I dress, look, or the conversation we're having, but several times I've been on Abbot Kinney and the barista (or whatever) working the register has asked "Oh, just put this on the Snapchat account?"
(I've never said "yes." Maybe if I did they would then proceed to ask for an ID, but I doubt it.)
Snapchat, Theranos, etc.
I understand that Steve Jobs was very successful and changed the world and all that, but his biography also implied he was a pretty big asshole and very arrogant.
To me, this didn't seem like a hit piece -- one person's hit is another's hype, and I think Snap understands the power of hype (-> excitement).
For a while now, their Android product has been atrocious, while iOS is thriving. For a platform that famously shunned Windows Mobile as uncool, is this intentional, or just a byproduct of their haphazard management and either lack of skill or dreadful luck?
I feel Facebook's relentless copying of Snapchat will cause them to pivot more and more into being a media-like company. In this article today, I learned they were already staffed in a way to enable such a transition.
However, this article is absent about how this company culture affects morale of the staff, and we are left to speculate.
All that said, Android (even today) has that uncool vibe to it (generally it's considered a cheaper alternative to a better platform -iOS) and that has not helped either.
FYI all the above are NOT my personal opinions but generalizations based on what I've heard talking to people that are not into tech. (I use a 6P as my daily phone)
> Compared to the "dogfooding" tradition in many tech companies, where employees try out their products before releasing them to the public, most Snap employees don’t know when a new product is coming — regardless if it would affect their team’s long-term metrics or goals. When the company launched Lenses, its famous filters that morph people’s faces, most employees learned about it for the first time on the company blog post announcing it to the world.
> This strategy has been somewhat effective at quelling leaks, but has also alienated people from knowing the direction the company is going in.
I still think they're one slip up away from disappearing, but I've got to give them credit for building the way they did.
I've heard that argued too. I wonder if that's true or if it was an accidental, but apparently fortuitous, side effect of having a confusing UI.
But apparently part of the issue with the Android app is excessive lag, which can't be explained away as a UI decision.
Instagram's efforts seem to accommodate (and be championed by) so-called "influencers," people who make funny videos or pose half naked to attract large numbers of followers, and then cash in by promoting herbal teas, waist trainers, clothing brands, apps, etc.
That's the community Instagram is cultivating, and since there are large audiences following this stuff, apparently it's a good business strategy. Still, Snapchat is targeting a different audience by not courting influencers. We may end up with two platforms with similar features but with different demographics.
but it's really no secret that spiegel is arrogant and it shows. He pressured his rich parents to buy him nice cars in high school to fit in better, his leaked college emails, kicked out the founder who came up with the snapchat idea, etc.
I went to a hackathon in college when he was like 22 or 23, showed up wearing a suit and gave a speech with JFK quotes like some 20 year F500 executive would. comes off as a tryhard but his strategies are obviously working really well so who cares. keep at it, love the product.
Security detail? Why would he need or want this?
This piece is pretty horrifying. Is it possible that this is just a hatchet job designed to hurt Snapchats image as an employer?
Given his worth it's not hard to justify. The world has plenty of criminals and mentally unstable people.
Interestingly, the satellite office model that the article decries strikes me as a huge boon in physical security for both him and his employees.
That said, if I were a Snap employee I'd probably have a field day with the jokes anyways.
"The Emperor's coming here? We shall double our efforts!"
His net worth exists only on paper until theres a liquidity event.
I've spent time in both Unicorns and hedge funds and none of the founders have had body guards, at least not at the office.
Point is he's high profile and has a lot to lose.
If I were on track for being a billionaire many times over, I'd probably be a little paranoid too.
Besides, for all we know he could have received specific threats and his security arrangement is completely justified. Granted, secrecy and paranoia often do go hand-in-hand.