Burnout is your team's worst enemy.
Great products are built by teams. In my experience, the best early stage employees will feel the pressure of building fast, focused products all on their own... often at the expense of their mental health. For this reason, I've always been a big proponent of founders being the first to advocate for the mental health of their team.
It's not just the right thing to do, it's also the smart thing to do.
Flex your product muscle
Product for Engineers is a newsletter on building great products, the best practices of top startups, and lessons learned by PostHog.
Managing mental health will be different for every founder and every team, and it's up to you to figure out what works best for your unique situation.
I have found these strategies to be effective:
Be the teammate you want to have
The golden rule goes a long way. Remember that you're working with real, complex people who have real, complex lives. Their joy, anxiety, and stress come from more than just work, and it can be easy to forget that.
Look after your teammates. Check in on them, ask them how they're doing, and encourage them to take time off when they need it.
tl;dr: Ask your teammates how they're doing, not just what they're doing.
Use routines as an anchor for stability
I've written about my morning routine before, and how it has been critical for me in managing stress, staying organized, and generally just feeling like I'm in control of my life.
I highly recommend starting with just 5 minutes of journaling and 5 minutes of meditation. It will sound too simple, but it's amazing how quickly you start to feel like you have a handle on your day.
If you're reading this and rolling your eyes, prove me wrong: try it for a month and tell me how it goes. My inbox is always open: hello@mikebifulco.com.
tl;dr: Pairing 5 minutes of journaling and 5 minutes of meditation together make an incredible tool for managing stress.
Go outside more
The day-to-day of building a startup can be so consuming that it's easy to forget to take care of yourself. Moving your body is one of the most important things you can do.
When I managed a remote team at Google, I would regularly schedule walk-and-talk calls with people on my team. These conversations often felt different -- there's something that makes it more natural to open up when you're not sitting in a conference room or at your desk.
The great news is that this works in person, too. Take your next 1:1 meeting outside -- even in hot or cold weather. You can do it!
Outside of work, find ways to spend time outside each day. The more the merrier, really, but I've found that just 10-15 minutes can make a big difference.
tl;dr: Touch grass. That's the tip.
My work this week
I messed up my A/B test
The latest in my ongoing video series on Product Analytics for developers is out. This time, I'm talking about how how I detected and fixed a problem with an A/B test I was running.
State of the APIs Survey 2024
Check out the most recent APIs You Won't Hate newsletter for a primer on the State of the APIs Survey 2024, and to learn a bit about my cofounder Phil's reforestation and climate protection charity.
