Why Does Every Company Pride Themselves on a Fast-Paced Environment?

I’ve been exploring new roles and as one does during a job hunt, reading a lot of job descriptions. Most of what I’m applying for is in the tech realm, because for better or worse that’s been my entire post-college full time work experience.

A question I can’t get out of my head: Why does it seem like every tech company prides themself on a fast-paced environment? Is fast always better?

Growing up, my dad taught me not to take shortcuts on my homework or home maintenance projects and to do it right the first time; rushing leads to mistakes and spending more time reworking things. As I’ve grown up and entered the corporate world, I’ve seen he’s right.

I totally get that when companies are in start-up mode that ‘done’ is better than ‘perfect’. You’re building the product and the company as you go. Speed is essential because you may only have a few months left of funding to stay afloat. That is well established, so people know what they are signing up for. Some absolutely thrive in that environment.

But why the need for speed at a company ten years old or older? Why at every company?

I know I don’t have the world’s widest range of professional experience, but I continue to see a pattern: higher level executives are hungry for more growth, ARR, and the potential to go public. The thirst for growth is never quenched. That boils down to a lot of different implications:

·         Development teams are pushed to do more and more to expand the product, and often maintenance is forgotten or products are rolled out before they are ready

·         Sales teams are pushed to sell more and more, but they face increased saturation

·         Marketing teams are pushed to generate more leads and more brand awareness on shorter timelines, meaning that good opportunities to fully build out a campaign get overlooked

·         Customer service or customer success teams have calls back-to-back and barely tread water with answering questions or providing meaningful support

What does this lead to? I’ve seen dissatisfaction and burnout for employees and bad experiences for clients. I don’t see a lot of people who are actually excited or energized about the fast pace of work.

At the private school where I interned the summer after graduating college, the pace was reasonable. The calendar was predictable. The school had been around for decades and they had the benefit of knowing what worked, what didn’t, and repeat customers in the form of families who would send their children to school there for up to nine years. There was a meaningful mission, and they weren’t always hustling for the next biggest thing. The people who worked there were the happiest of all the places I’ve worked.

I don’t think the solution for every person who likes to work at a steady pace is to go take a job in education or government or something where growth doesn’t matter. What I really think is that the tech world needs to embrace slowing down and planning so they can scale with intention. 

In a fireside chat with the founder and former president of Kajabi, the former president Jonathan Cronstedt encouraged the marketing team to take risks. He said at year 12 of the company, it’s time to go beyond the safe bets that they made in Kajabi’s early days as a lifestyle business, and pushed the team to be ambitious and grow and pick up the pace.

Well, it’s easy to tell people to take risks when you don’t have to live with that work environment. And, safe bets kept Kajabi profitable from day one. I think that should be a testament to more safe bets, not fewer! And for me, a steadier pace is a safer bet.

I get not wanting to operate so slowly that companies never push out updates for customers or lose out to the competition. No company operates in a vacuum and innovation is important to staying afloat in the competitive landscape – especially in tech.

But, I’d rather set a realistic deadline and hit it or be ahead of schedule. I’d rather do three stellar campaigns in a year with high quality assets across every channel (and completed on time) than six that are probably delayed, disjointed, and leaving opportunities on the table because there wasn’t enough time to pull them off.

Why is this philosophy so rare at tech companies? I won’t lie – for a while, I found myself wondering if I’m not a good fit or not cut out for tech because I have a steadier pace philosophy. But, I’ve come to realize the absence of this ideology means companies need someone like me to take the time to be strategic and remind others what is downright unrealistic in the proposed time frame.

So for all my steady pacers out there trying to make it work in the corporate world or tech, you’re not alone. Maybe we just need to find each other.