This guide might be helpful in working with me.
Areas of responsibility
As a manager (60%), I am the exec responsible for ops, finance, people, marketing, and customer success at PostHog
This is where I'm spending my time in 2024. This is my latest order of priority, though I change this up every ~3 months:
- CS - 50%
- Quarterly goal setting (with Simon)
- Figure out our strategy to scale to $50m ARR
- Input on CS systems, inc. how we do support
- Do more IC work, e.g. doing more analysis, getting or doing calls
- Set revenue targets for the model and check how we're tracking
- Ops & people - 30%
- Quarterly goal setting (with Fraser)
- Monthly 1-1s with all managers; run monthly management chats
- Run pay review process (James and Tim make the decisions)
- Run grievance/complaints process when needed
- Run any fundraising processes when needed
- Marketing - 20%
- Quarterly goal setting (with Andy)
- Oversee the budget
- Do billboards (for the first time - hand it over if it works)
- Generate weird ideas, 90% of which don't land
- Write some content, for fun
- Spend lots of time connecting the dots between the above 3 areas
- I am the manager for Simon, Andy, Fraser, Lottie, and Joe
Quirks
- I make a lot of jokes at my own expense. I encourage you to as well.
- You don't have to 'earn' my trust - I like to assume high trust with people I work with from the start and go from there.
- I definitely err on the side of speed at the expense of polish. This means I sometimes don't work as collaboratively as I should, as I'd rather do the thing first and get people's feedback.
- I'm hyper responsive across any channel (email/Slack/text) during working hours - don't worry about interrupting me if you have a question! Always happy to take a quick call too if you prefer.
- My calendar is always 100% up to date with my availability. Right now my work day is a bit broken up as I have 2 very young kids, so don't necessarily work in one big block. I am fully offline from 7pm UK time. I try not to respond to work emails or Slack at evenings or weekends. If something really urgent comes up during the week or at the weekend, you'll need to text or Signal me (no WhatsApp).
- I'm constantly paranoid that we're going to run out of money, especially when things are going well.
What I value
- Bucketloads of optimism. Optimistic =/= unrealistic.
- I think being really, really kind is hugely undervalued. Direct feedback is part of this.
- Not taking yourself too seriously and keeping a sense of perspective.
- Speed - I can get frustrated if people don't move as quickly as I like to.
- People who understand privilege and how it affects power dynamics.
- Taking on something that is outside your comfort zone if no one else is available.
How I can help you
- I can point you in the right direction of pretty much anything non-product if you're lost.
- I can share more context on what our commercial strategy is.
- I can be a listening ear any time you need, for work or non-work stuff. I am extremely patient and non-judgemental.
- I can provide you with general career advice, especially if you are a generalist and feel like you should be a specialist.
- I can help you with general life admin advice (especially in the UK).
How you can help me
- If you need me to do an actual task for you (rather than just answer a question) and it doesn't belong in GitHub, please shoot me an email instead of Slack, as it's easier for me to track.
- Tell me what we could be doing better from a company-building perspective. Or stuff we should avoid!
- Give feedback on our marketing content - especially if you are a product engineer!
- Let me know when I need to slow down and do something to a higher standard.