10 Reviews
It’s tough to name many positives once the honeymoon phase has ran its course. I’ll do my best to summarize for you. If you are just starting out and need expand on your skill set; this is a good battleground to do so. If you are a mid level and are in need of learning the ropes on politics and bureaucracy; this is a good place to do so. However if you are a polished senior designer, BottleRocket will fall so short you’ll be wondering wtf am I doing here. Their foundational beliefs on paper are there, yet there is a serious lack of follow through from management.
BottleRocket has a reputation that speaks for itself. The grass is always green but only around the ivory tower of the Product and Biz Strat. I would give credit to say about 2 years ago BR still had “The Right Stuff” that set them apart from the rest of the playing field. However once Calvin (CEO) accepted the Ogivly acquisition everything romantic about BR left the building…. BottleRocket is now a place that solely focuses on making a buck and could care less on how products affect the user. There is zero allowance for user research or testing. Only the opinions of management. BottleRocket preaches the pillars of usability, yet never allow their designers and developers to utilize the full practice. Everything is a fire drill because product and project think design/development is as easy as pushing a button. All deadlines are immovable resulting in 80 hours weeks. If a designer pushes back on pdm and pm then you get reported or even fired without the opportunity to defend yourself. Work is either 0 mph or 200 mph under fire drill circumstances. As a result of this behavior BottleRocket is building a huge design bench. Meaning once they burn you out they swap in a fresh body. While on the bench there is zero recourse for improvements or staying fresh.
Time really does fly sometimes. It seems like only yesterday when Colorado Springs’ new bar/venue Vultures opened. But in fact it was a year ago! This weekend, Vultures will celebrate
Essential.