Pros
- I am proud to be a part of the culture at Asana that is intentionally mindful. When you join the org you realise big questions in the 21st century workplace have been and are bring discussed openly and are actively being worked towards. Areas like D&I and mental health aren't just a box checking exercise like I've experiences at other SAAS orgs, in Asana's case this comes way before the bottom line and its inspiring to be in an environment like this - The calibre of some of the leadership team at Asana is like nothing I have experienced previously. The leadership team will listen to questions and do openly voice opinion at events like AMA's (ask me anything) etc. And in times of need as a sales person they are open to joining deals to add more clout - this visibility and openness is impressive when the company is 2000+ people. - Enablement via tech. The quality and number of tools asana opens up to sales people is amazing. The team invest in products that will support your day to day (however, for some, the number of tools for some can feel overwhelming and you do have to use trial and error as enablement for all tools isn't perfect yet) - Competitive salary and OTE. Asana don't pay the big bucks like some SAAS companies, but they do remain competitive in the tech landscape. The net result of this is that while some heads do turn internally, if you hit OTE, then you are left satisfied as other benefits here are great - Customers love the Asana product. In a world where so many SAAS products are bought, but not used, the Asana product has incredible utilisation from customers and in the time I have been with the company, the energy you get from customers who already use the product is brilliant at reminding you what a great platform asana is to sell! - Working flexibly. The sales leadership team are brilliant at allowing flexibility. People work the hours they deem necessary and this trust is appreciated consistently by front line sales reps.
Kontras
- In the time I've been with Asana, some incredibly talented people have come and gone, this is natural in all orgs, but I deem some of this attrition as avoidable and a result of mis-management and a lack of talent identification sooner. When you hire GTM talent, don't forget what made them shine in the interview process, and in past roles, trust talent, provide the platform and time to add to what we have - In the EMEA org headcount has grown exponentially. However there are few headline cases showing bets taken on internal hires vs external candidates. As a team this has made some second guess there long-term opportunities at Asana as talent is the preference more often than not - While the businesses ARR has grown like mad, its clear the business is at an inflexion point with fewer sales people hitting number now than in previous quarters. Growth matters, but striking the balance between macro growth and individuals feeling like they are winning individually also matters - For some sales people, the bottoms up nature of asana's business (i.e small groups of people trialling and account growing from the ground up) isn't how many people have worked before. Often customers know the product even better than you do as a new sales person and so controlling big deals is a challenge (but this is also a blessing for some too) - this can lead to multiple small transactions on accounts and more of a account management style sales role vs a one deal and done style role. - Internal systems can be frustratingly slow for sales people. When you win a new customer, it takes so much work to actually see this and this drains the energy out of every single sales rep. We are assured this will change, but it is crazy that it is still a problem.
