Pros
Fantastic campus and perks. Once you step on the Riot HQ property, everything is free including gourmet meals, well stocked kitchens and a full service coffee shop and smoothie bar. It's like an island of Silicon Valley in the L.A. wasteland. While the perks are nice, it's our cultural aspirations and my awesome co-workers that keep me here. In a landscape littered with profit-maximizing soulless bureaucratic corporations, it's nice to see Marc and Brandon stand up for what they believe is right: to be the most player-focused game company in the world and to respect the folks delivering on that dream. There's a real, deep seated belief that if we keep customers and employees happy that prosperity will follow. We don't always nail it, but when we don't get it right it's usually because of growing pains and a failure in coordination or execution, it's never because of cynical exploitation.
Kontras
Being more inclusive of different work styles could save us a lot of headache in our execution woes. Riot culture is EXTREMELY biased towards extroverts, often to our detriment when we rally behind big personalities over thoughtful quiet types. Senior leadership prefers a "hands off" approach that emphasizes individual and team autonomy but hasn't provided enough guidance on what good looks like, so showmanship is sometimes mistaken for merit. The typical HiPPO (highest paid person's opinion wins) problem is not prevalent which is great, but it's essentially been replaced by a "loudest voice in the room wins" problem. Decision-making, due to the void of central control, is chaotic, messy and slow. This has led to a lack of focus in our efforts and is probably also where our "loudest voice" problem comes from. People are latching onto these alpha males (and let's be honest, they are overwhelmingly male) because they offer a sense of certainty in an environment rife with ambiguity and competing priorities.