Plastic culture

It feels so nice to see how my work as a developer changed someone's life positively. For that I always wanted to work in a user centered company.

I struggle to understand a company focus and its culture during an interview. Are they really concerned about the user or they merely think that the user is "how" they will profit?

Talking to a friend (@phsilbr) a few weeks ago this subject came up and we ended up concluding that this is something tricky to identify during interviews. Probably the best way is to ask what kind of metrics they use for tasks prioritization and talk to some developer on Linkedin before the interview.

A few days ago @diegoeis started a Twitter thread related to this subject:

These days I read this sentence in a shirt: "My products, my rules".
It was a PM wearing this shirt.

I can't even count how many wrong things we can quote in this phrase, but what calls my attention is: it's not his product, it's from the user.

This message made me think about my will of working in this user centered culture. I started a new branch for this thread:

@diegoeis and how do you identify if a company is truly user centered during an interview?

@leandro_gs If they talk too much about business and not about the user's problems, this is a hint.
Obviously there are purely business problems. But generally they are all problems faced by the user.

@leandro_gs culture today is so plastic and artificial that is tough to understand.
But talking with ex-employees and watch families and friends using the product are a good start.

All of this will give you material to ask the right questions during an interview.

What do you think about this? Is your company user centered? What behaviors or decisions makes you see your company the way you see?

What kind of questions would you ask during an interview to help understand a company's culture and its focus?