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"Great people; Great Culture; Some interesting projects" (in 15 reviews)
"Very smart people there and very willing to help you improve your work and skill" (in 15 reviews)
"Blurs the line between work/life balance" (in 7 reviews)
"Since most of projects are in partnership with Aricent, parent company, they tend to bend towards enterprise with few rare exceptions" (in 6 reviews)
Helpful (3)
I have been working at frog design full-time
Pros
While the work is what you would expect, it's the people that make this job worth it. There is never a day that you're not inspired or pushed to be better in your role. It's a community of highly intelligent, determined, and compassionate individuals.
Cons
Due to the size of the company, limited growth opportunities can sometimes be an issue.
I have been working at frog design full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
Unparalleled portfolio and opportunities to be stretched and learn, surrounded by a supportive group of people. Everyone is committed to building a great studio. There are ups and downs but few firms continue to win and deliver the kind of work frog has for so long.
Cons
Working out of SF means clients around the world: plenty of opportunity to travel, but sometimes home life suffers. Limited opportunity to specialize in one industry, although leadership tries where possible to support this.
Advice to Management
Keep on investing in studio events and look to bring in some new blood. frog Alum are everywhere and doing amazing things, consider how to stay connected with them.
Helpful (2)
I worked at frog design full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
Everyone seems to be mission driven, and some of the tenured clan are amazing to partner with. The work frog gets to do is challenging and world-class.
Cons
The leadership at the top of the SF studio is much more discouraging than encouraging. You're either in or out, and that's based more on personal biases than quality of work. There's an elitist mentality that can be toxic in the SF studio and I've personally experienced leadership talking very negatively about other employees in unwarranted situations. The morale of the studio is going down significantly along with its population and client billings.
Also, not many advancement opportunities. They come few and far between.
Advice to Management
Don't wait until someone resigns to make them feel valued and like they would be missed. Invest time into making your employees feel valued regularly.
I have been working at frog design full-time (More than a year)
Pros
- Employees are passionate and truly care about the work and each other.
- The GM is approachable, available and does whatever he can to keep people motivated and engaged.
- There are numerous initiatives and committees to get involved in. It seems like there is always something going on!
Cons
- None that I can think of. I have been with the frog NY studio for over a year and love it!
I have been working at frog design full-time (More than a year)
Pros
Great studio environment. GM really cares about his people and the work we do.
Cons
Local creative leadership lacks to demonstrate a positive vision and it creates confidence in our studio to find talent.
Helpful (3)
I worked at frog design full-time
Pros
- bright colleagues
- your experience is only going to be as good as the project you're on
Cons
- very political
- lack of mentorship or decent management skills
I worked at frog design (Less than a year)
Pros
Tremendously positive work environment, non-competitive, everyone is eager to learn from one another.
Cons
It's hard to refine your craft and get better at your specific skillset, due to the incredible variability of each project.
Helpful (20)
I worked at frog design full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
+ Outside of leadership, frog hires great, generous minds, people who have at least one interest outside of work that they have figured out how to share with others and are willing. That generosity and exchange of ideas is foundational to most studios' cultures. Colleagues, in the weeds with you, become like family.
+ There are usually opportunities to take ownership over internal projects and initiatives. For example, if you see a tool, process, or event you want to do or make better, you are encouraged to go for it, just don't expect a budget or the time or support to iterate beyond v1
Cons
– Poor leadership, in particular, C-level and VPs are spineless, not transparent, and incompetent and continue to promote and reward similar people. I believe poor leadership is they key reason so many talented frogs have left and why so many talented frogs want to leave.
– Speaking from direct experience, Marketing leadership is sorely incompetent, with no understanding of the design industry or frog's culture. They choose to elevate and keep close key members who are similarly incompetent, mean-spirited, and will do "dirty work" and "say yes" with no questions or regard to integrity, quality, or consistency with frog's values (I could write a whole separate review about this; there's so much to say about the toxicity here)
– Internal communications and HR leadership is laughable, very little transparency or thought put into delivering or carrying out sensitive or important company-wide news or strategies including recent layoffs. It seriously makes me wonder how people who are supposedly trained in internal communications still have their jobs after so many misses. As a result, they've engendered deep distrust between frogs and leadership.
– The handling of layoffs in the past few years has been abysmal and a reflection of the character and integrity of the leadership team
– No investment in tools and resources for day-to-day, learning and development including on-boarding
– Basically NO global strategy around diversity and inclusion, putting most of the burden on individuals and then taking credit for their ideas later. It's too little, too late. I truly believe that how you've handled and executed frogs' concerns around diversity and inclusion will eventually reflect on your character. In my mind, you are on the wrong side of history.
– Upward mobility for global support teams in particular Marketing is a joke
– So much focus on $$$ at the expense of the wellbeing of employees. It IS possible to do both.
Advice to Management
You've had too many opportunities to prove that you care about the culture and well-being of your employees, and you've wasted them with messages of what you must read as motivation, but are interpreted by many as lack of direction, lack of heart, lack of real vision. At this point, it feels like, unless there are major leadership changes, frog is a sinking ship.
Helpful (4)
I have been working at frog design full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
The low and mid-level people are some of the best and brightest I've worked with
Work load is manageable
Some projects are interesting
Cons
CEO and other execs have no strategic vision and the company is struggling financially
Company claims to have principles, but in reality is willing to compromise on any of them if it means a little more revenue
Cost cutting measures are continuously eroding the working environment and leading the best people to leave
Advice to Management
Take credit for your actions, act like leaders, and communicate your plan
Helpful (9)
I worked at frog design full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Still a handful of talented people
Cons
The company has been on a death spiral since 2013. Layoffs happen on an annual basis. They laid off another 20-30 folks last week. In recent years, the company has shut down offices in Seattle, Amsterdam, Sydney and downsized other locations i.e. San Francisco. If you're a brilliant and aspiring designer, you're probably better off going to the client side or one of the larger design consultancies, i.e. Fjord. Or better yet, join that hot start-up and avoid the soul sucking politics of frog.
Advice to Management
Change the name of the company already. It hurts to watch the slow death of frog.
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