1. Leadership is the worst I've worked for. The CEO was clueless (seriously don't know how the board haven't voted him out), would micro-manage everything, and would regularly go behind the backs of his better management in order to make changes based on waffle from his best friends in Silicon Valley. In public he would lyrically talk about our mission and disrupting tech, but in reality he was only interested in selling poor quality products, with minimal shelf-life. When as expected sales were poor, he would find fault in everyone else, but himself.
Until he is removed Kano will not progress, although it's probably too late as the brand is now pretty toxic. A shame really as the mission was certainly achievable.
2. As creative as the team was, there was no-one with a pragmatic touch who could manage the expectations with regards to what was being produced. We would regularly user test with kids, but not once in my years there did we test with the people spending £100+ on the products. Regretfully a lot of what we made just wasn't going to succeed from day 1.
3. Much of the culture was toxic. The CEO would expect and praise staff who stayed late often working being into the ground. It was never really discouraged, and having worked for workplaces that encourage healthy working habits I can say with confidence Kano was shooting itself in the foot with its culture. Again, it just comes down to poor/amateurish leadership.
