A shift to a shared services model under the Weld North Education organization has caused disruption, but also brings the potential for additional resources and is starting to bring a fresh focus on workflow and methodologies.
Imagine Learning as a solo company had a fun, family-like atmosphere which may get lost as the organization blends and merges with sister companies. Biannual all-company conferences have been a highlight for community building and knowledge sharing. The next conference will be virtual due to COVID-19 however this may also mark the end of in-person company-wide conferences given the growing size of the organization and the less defined boundaries between who is an Imagine Learning employee vs Weld North Education employee. With more people likely working remote going forward and from different regions, it will be harder to maintain that same feeling of community.
Communication challenges abound and seem to be culturally ingrained, though there are renewed attempts to improve processes and some effective changes have been implemented. Communication issues are not due to a shortage of meetings! Time for focused-work is hard to come by and usually is best found unfortunately on the fringes of actual business hours.
Product development moves slowly due to limited engineering and UX resources impeding the ability to catch-up and be more forward-thinking.
