I would caution anyone being hired into design, research, or product management roles to ask a lot of questions. User-centered design and Agile are the new buzzwords in government contracting, and Ventera is one of many firms trying to use them to differentiate itself. But unlike competitors founded in recent years on modern ways of working, Ventera is relatively older and still trying to transform itself internally. The tools were lacking for a tech company: it was still an (Outlook) email culture; conference rooms weren’t equipped with video. And most importantly, it’s hard to claim any real expertise, help your government clients implement modern product development practices, and push back on unreasonable client demands / timelines when you’re still struggling against your internal team, who doesn’t understand design and is more comfortable operating as a feature factory without a roadmap.
These dynamics shouldn’t be underestimated. On my project at least, they resulted in a distrustful, adversarial, and eventually just plain toxic work environment. Systemic problems were consistently blamed on individual failings. Colleagues became physically sick from the mental and emotional stress. When concerns were raised to management and leadership, some people seemed to understand and empathize, others made outlandish promises, but none were ultimately able to make concrete changes. Be really careful if you're looking for more than government contracting as usual and if transparency, trust, and psychological safety in the workplace are important to you.
