Pluspunten
The product vision is incredible. One of the first AI hardware to come to market. I bought into the product idea when I saw the Ted Talk. The concept of changing mobile computing to remove screen time and be more present is so compelling and much needed in today's society. On top of being more present, the ability to access context-based AI based on your location, history, preferences, etc is a game changer when interacting with computing.
Minpunten
Where to start... There's so much to talk about the cons.
While the product concept is amazing, there were many moments where it seemed like we were throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks. Towards the end of 2024, it felt like we were throwing the entire pot working on so many product ideas we had spread the engineering organization so thin. the executive suite wanted more in less time with little to no guidance on the direction of the product or the company.
Large aspects of the failures in the initial ship of the product could have been avoided had the executive team listened to the engineering staff. They were told over and over again the different issues and why we were not ready to ship, much of that fell on deaf ears. When the reviews came out, it came as a shock to the executive team. Even after middle management and ICs were screaming bout such problems.
For a company that boasts its values based on the human experience, being more present, and its tagline "truth, trust, joy", there was a lack of being present and very little truth, trust, and joy as seen from the ICs perspective.