Forrester Reviews

Pros

Forrester has been a fantastic place to learn, explore different parts of the selling motion, and grow my career. Year over year I’ve seen Forrester change when we needed, hold firm when it was the right course, and pivot to meet our customers in the moment. Overall, I have been with Forrester for over a decade because I’m surround by people leaders who help me grow, by business leaders who up my game, and by thought leaders who push me further than I could get on my own. Looking forward to an awesome 2023!

Cons

Forrester has a complex offering and sales ramp time is still too long and too focused on what we sell versus how to sell.

Pros

- supportive and flexible - some very smart hard working people - values personal progression and growth - some very nice offices - good benefits and good salaries - encouraging of collaboration and building good company culture

Cons

- too much focus on topics that are unrelated to a working environment - at times too much focus on reaching an ideal rather than building on the reality of the company

Pros

-As many of shared, there are some really great professionals here. Collaboration is always productive and In my time here, I've always felt like I can learn from others, and teach. -The work we do is unique - sure there are other research and other consulting firms, but our ability to help some of the world's largest companies is pretty neat. -Benefits are strong - are there stronger, sure, but they are definitely competitive. -Hybrid - while it's not anywhere work, , I very much enjoy the balance of both working from home 3 days and in the office for 2 -The new D&I leader is has made great impact in such a short time time - excited about the additional focus and work she'll generate to truly embed D&I into all of the work we do.

Cons

-It does seem we can lose focus and/or have a new shiny object for a strategy every year or two. -We can move slowly on decision making at times. -Communication from the top down has been a pro in my experience here, but I understand how some recent comms over the past year have not landed as well given the delivery. I like to think senior leadership has those learnings.

Pros

The people and what used to be the brand recognition and trust. When it comes to my role - I truly loved my job. I loved the work I did, the people I worked with and helped, and have the data to back up my success. I’m proud of what I accomplished and thankfully have great relationships with my former colleagues.

Cons

I would have celebrated 6 years at Forrester this year, but I was part of the January layoff. I was part of the SiriusDecisions acquisition and it was handled terribly. Instead of a thoughtful integration, the two companies clashed - in philosophy, operations, and culture. We were treated like second-class citizens and lost foundational product and client knowledge when sales and research employees walked. Flash forward a year and I was on the first D&I council, thinking things were finally turning around. Wrong - the company was exploiting the free labor of their employees to get D&I off the ground. We received barely any funding or support from the CEO, but they reaped all the benefits of being able to showcase our efforts. Microaggressions from the CEO persisted despite our best efforts, and the majority of us got burned out and left the committee. Take one look at the executive team. White, straight, cis, privileged. Being laid off felt like a betrayal at the time - I had built so many programs and successful campaigns just to be cut the second the economy shifted. But now it looks like I was given a lifeboat from a sinking ship.

Pros

There are a lot of smart people that collaborate well. People genuinely like each other. The research industry is a great place for people that are looking to define the future for their customers.

Cons

Just because someone has worked at Forrester for a long time does not mean they know how to run and grow a business. The company lacks quality leadership across the board. Everything -- pricing, packaging, innovation, change management, etc -- about the new product has been insufficient. Morale is flagging. Every negative change falls on the staff rather than the executives that should be held responsible for the results and decisions.

Pros

Once a great brand, not as powerful as Gartner, but once had a voice with the marketplace

Cons

Shallow research, inability to connect with real customer issues and treatment of employees

Pros

I love my team and my manager. I really didn't like the job I had previously, and this was my saving grace at the time. I love my manager-I can tell she really cares about me and is always looking for ways to improve my experience at the company. Even in an entry role, I have gotten to write a blog post and a report for my analyst, which has been really meaningful! I also got involved with planning for International Women's Day and hosting that event made me feel very connected to the company and good about the work I was doing. I also am lucky in that since I work at the headquarters, I work with lots of people my age that have the same job title and have made some great friends.

Cons

The largest cons for me have been supporting a difficult analyst, the layoffs creating instability, and below average pay. Of course, being in a supportive role you probably aren't going to have 3 easy going people to work with but it created a lot of frustration for me and I felt like I wasn't getting to progress in that research area. The layoffs are making me worried about job stability and Boston is an expensive city to live in!

Pros

-The people are the best reason to work there. If you work there you'll have some amazing colleagues. -Benefits are OK (not amazing but could be worse)

Cons

-They love to talk about how some of the executives started in entry level positions and worked their way up, but they've cut off those career paths for current employees. If you work there, plan on having to work elsewhere in a few years if you want to be able to move up (especially if you're a recent grad). -They talk about how there's a culture of "openness" and "transparency" but that's just a way to avoid having an avenue for anonymous questions. The truth is that they don't like the hard questions so they've done this to cut down on how many difficult things they get asked.

Pros

The people at Forrester are great. They are smart, invite collaborative thinking, and you feel your direct report cares about your development within the organization.

Cons

I was really excited about joining Forrester, but over the past year or so, senior leaders have become so focused on there new “Forrester Decisions”’Product, that it felt like other groups had to either adapt to incorporate FD or get left behind. Furthermore, the rollout of the new product has been confusing throughout the entire organization. It feels like Senior Management knows a “secret that FD is the key” and the rest of the org is just hoping they are right. So far, they have bet wrong, as the performance of company has been declining, which has resulted in layoffs.

Pros

Great, smart, driven coworkers. The overall work environment is healthy, with most day to day experiences pleasant and a strong work/life balance.

Cons

Over 7 years at the company it became apparent to me that the executive team, and CEO in particular, are lost. Ever year there's another massive, exhausting initiative that is going to "revolutionize the company". I find I spend as much time managing rushed, poorly understood change as I do with my core role. The CEO seems to rule by fiat. Turnover in the c-suite has been very high, and many of the new executives do not seem to share Forrester's core values. The dishonesty of the most recent head of HR was particularly egregious.