Snap
Years: 2022 - 2023
Title: Staff Product Designer
Project: ARES & Mirror
The Seasons team was acquihired by Snap to help lead strategy, product, and design for Snap's new enterprise-AR suite. As part of this, I helped onboard new hires, assisted in outlining our go-to-market strategy, and co-lead product design for the suite, including AR Mirrors.. As part of this, I helped onboard new hires, assisted in outlining our go-to-market strategy, and co-lead product design for the suite, including AR Mirrors.
I joined the team in April 2022, was quickly onboarded, setup as many 1-on-1’s as I could, and got to work conceptualizing how Snap’s technology could be leveraged to provide new enterprise-grade AR experiences for online merchants. Shortly after, I realized that this was actually a massive effort of consolidating 3 previous acquisitions under a single new organization. Evan hired a senior VP from SAP to lead the effort. I helped onboard others where I could and we began to layout the product offering and got-to-market timeline.
While we continued to make progress over the Summer, the company was in a very different place. There was pressure for change and things hit the fan at the end of August. Overnight, they cut 20% of the company and both of my direct managers and closest friends left the company. When everything settled, I was on a new design team, our organization ballooned to 150+ people, and they officially formed AR enterprise services (ARES). A few weeks following the re-org, our VP of product left and for 6 months, we were operating in silos. Communication from leadership rarely came once a month via a zoom all hands with 150+ people. We missed deadlines, stumbled through customer implementations, and lacked a clear vision. On October 1st, 2023, they shutdown the entire organization.
In hindsight, I genuinely think the idea could have worked if our team had been significantly more lean, product oriented, and had a proper process in place to integrate acquisitions. All this said, I’m incredibly thankful to have had the chance to work at Snap. Regardless of my unique experience, I still believe it’s one of the most founder friendly places you could work. I’m also grateful for the opportunity to work with some truly talented people. I’ve made some life long friends and got to see first-hand, how difficult it is for larger companies to execute on new ideas. It’s reignited my passion for startups and given me an opportunity to pursue new things. 💛
I joined the team in April 2022, was quickly onboarded, setup as many 1-on-1’s as I could, and got to work conceptualizing how Snap’s technology could be leveraged to provide new enterprise-grade AR experiences for online merchants. Shortly after, I realized that this was actually a massive effort of consolidating 3 previous acquisitions under a single new organization. Evan hired a senior VP from SAP to lead the effort. I helped onboard others where I could and we began to layout the product offering and got-to-market timeline.
While we continued to make progress over the Summer, the company was in a very different place. There was pressure for change and things hit the fan at the end of August. Overnight, they cut 20% of the company and both of my direct managers and closest friends left the company. When everything settled, I was on a new design team, our organization ballooned to 150+ people, and they officially formed AR enterprise services (ARES). A few weeks following the re-org, our VP of product left and for 6 months, we were operating in silos. Communication from leadership rarely came once a month via a zoom all hands with 150+ people. We missed deadlines, stumbled through customer implementations, and lacked a clear vision. On October 1st, 2023, they shutdown the entire organization.
In hindsight, I genuinely think the idea could have worked if our team had been significantly more lean, product oriented, and had a proper process in place to integrate acquisitions. All this said, I’m incredibly thankful to have had the chance to work at Snap. Regardless of my unique experience, I still believe it’s one of the most founder friendly places you could work. I’m also grateful for the opportunity to work with some truly talented people. I’ve made some life long friends and got to see first-hand, how difficult it is for larger companies to execute on new ideas. It’s reignited my passion for startups and given me an opportunity to pursue new things. 💛
