Staff poorly led by poor MD and struggling to produce anything of quality - Anonymous employee Kuato Employee Review
2.0
16 Feb 2016
Anonymous employee
Former employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook
Pros
Started with a great opportunity and enormous potential to create truly inspiring learning products. There are some very talented staff that are good to work with.
Cons
Have never achieved product / market fit and continued to churn out over-marketed, subpar products. The MD is single biggest problem with the company - "games industry experience" translates to aggressive management that stifles creativity.
Kuato Response
7y
Thank you for taking the time to write a review, we appreciate all the feedback we receive. While we are pleased that you have found the team to be talented, I am disappointed that I could not provide an environment in which you could flourish. I strive to build a creative team environment to which I encourage everyone in the studio to contribute and I’m sorry that that did not live up to your expectations. I am extremely passionate about my studio and the industry and I am pleased to say that a couple of years on from your review, we are working on some amazing learning games with a happy and fulfilled team.
- above average compensation, well funded company
- teams made up of lovely people who are a joy to be around & very good at what they do
- challenging work that lets you push your limits
- very diverse with lots of cultures & outlooks represented
- you get to shape kids' learning capabilities
Cons
- employees getting yelled at and physically intimidated by senior management is a daily occurrence
- inexperienced senior management, first time CEO with almost no experienced advisors
- company is strictly hierarchical, but with a byzantine chain of command which is strictly enforced but also bypassed at a a whim when convenient
- an impossible amount of micromanagement and complete lack of trust in employees' expertise
- political maneuvering & image crafting for investors
- despite multiple products out & years of development, none of them generate significant revenue
- outdated marketing practices (bombastic launches, celebrity endorsements) & willing ignorance & lack of expertise in performance marketing vital to succeeding in current market
- management is blatantly dishonest when convenient, systematically making promises that they know won't be kept