We Are the Boomerang Team and This Is How We Work

Posted on by

Boomerang lets you schedule email. This important feature is at the core of Boomerang’s growing number of apps, add-ons, and features that are filling many of the gaps in popular email services such as Gmail. Four years ago, we interviewed one of the Boomerang founders about the creation of Boomerang . We’ve now spoken to all three co-founders about how they run the company, create their technology, and get their jobs done.

Location: Mountain View, California Current Place of Work: Alex Moore: CEO Hey Moa: Product Leader Mike Chin: CTO One word that best describes how you work: Alex: “Bursty” Yes: BinaryMike: Anything the opposite of procrastination. Current mobile device: Alex: iPhone 6Ge: iPhone 7 Mike: iPhone X Current computer: Alex: Surface Pro. I spend a lot of time these days looking over and editing things. When I can turn off my computer and turn it into a tablet with a pen and all my apps and data still there, it makes me so much more efficient. Yes: 13-inch MacBook AirMike: Sager NP8157 (Clevo P650HS-D)

First of all, tell us a little about your past and how you got where you are now.

Alex: I grew up in Alabama and studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. When I graduated, I had two jobs that I really enjoyed: working at Microsoft as a product manager in the Outlook group, or working at Analog Devices as a product engineer. I chose the analog circuit route. After several years of work, having personally spent a lot of time fighting email and collaboration, I realized I had to work on these issues. So we launched Boomerang, and seven years later we are still making awesome productivity apps, but now they’re making a profit!

My role has changed a lot as we have grown from the three of us, Ai Moa, Mike Chin and myself, to over 20, which helps keep me fresh. In the first year, I spent most of my time writing the code to create the main product. After we turned Boomerang into a paid service, I divided my time between marketing to new customers, supporting existing ones, and creating new features. Now I basically let my teammates do great work, interact with our big clients and partners, and recruit great team members. I still have to write a little code, usually working on internal functions or experimental projects.

Aye: I was born and raised in Yangon, Myanmar, until I moved to the United States to study computer science at MIT. I did technical consulting for a couple of years to find out which part of the software development process I enjoy. This prompted me to move into UX design and product management. I went from giant software companies to smaller and smaller companies until I co-founded Boomerang with Alex and Mike.

Mike: I grew up in Connecticut and attended Dartmouth College. I thought I would study the classics (I studied Latin and Ancient Greek in high school) and even studied cognitive science a little (studying both psychology and linguistics), but I ended up majoring in computer science, not math. After college, I joined Alex and Moa in Boston to co-found Boomerang. I’ve never worked anywhere other than my own startup! I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2011.

Tell us about a recent work day.

Alex: My favorite working days are Wednesday, because we set aside Wednesday afternoon as the “creative time” for the whole company. We do not hold meetings and disable chat / instant messaging, so we can work on projects that require constant attention. I often have to write code.

We start late, so last Wednesday I woke up with my son at about 8 am. The first hour I spent with him playing and reading books, dressing him and getting him ready for the new day, and preparing breakfast. After a quick shower, I went to work. After arriving at the office and doing our daily stand-up, I got two phone calls and then spent an hour e-mailing. After lunch, I spent most of the day prototyping a new machine learning model for Respondable (our tool that uses machine learning to help you write more effective emails). Then I contacted a couple of people on our team and finished the day with another batch of emails before heading home.

Yes: I try to devote half of my day to deep work when I develop a feature, plan a future project, or analyze some data, and spend the other half on reviewing the design, editing and approving various marketing materials, and signing the product. off for the development team. The nature of my role requires me to respond to requests from different teams at different levels of urgency, so every day is different for me. On top of that, I really hate rigid routines. My graph looks pretty random in most cases.

Today, after our daily stand-up, I immediately proceeded to coordinate the product with one of the development teams. After that, I sent an email and answered people’s questions on both products and non-product questions. I spent noon setting up the interview process for the new Senior Product Manager position we are hiring. (Then I worked on this interview.)

Mike: I have a pretty stable schedule! Every day I wake up a few minutes before 9:37 am, shower and go to work. I like walk; I let my mind wander. After a daily meeting at 10:30 am (where our 19-person team stands in a circle to share what we are working on and how much help we need), I go to email, check the code and help my colleagues with the projects they mentioned at the stand-up.

In the afternoons, I often meet with support teams, product teams, or engineers to figure out and prioritize what new features need to be built. Or, if no appointments are scheduled, I’ll be at the computer with the headphones plugged in and coding for these new features. On Fridays, I like to go to one-on-one meetings with colleagues to check them out.

What apps, gadgets or tools can’t you live without?

Alex: I used to live in Vim and it’s still my everyday application. I also rely heavily on Gmail (with Boomerang, of course!), Feedly , Wunderlist , Evernote , Excel, and the spinning loop of fullscreen writing apps.

Yes:

  • Gmail with boomerang
  • Alfred : I just got a new computer, but I didn’t install it because I couldn’t find the license key. Now I suffer every time I have to copy more than one thing.
  • Kindle: I read every night in my quest to read 50 books a year.
  • Goodreads

Mike:

How is your workplace arranged?

Alex: The centerpiece is a 34-inch curved monitor. This is one of the best investments I’ve made because I can functionally open 3-4 windows at the same time. This makes it easy for the investor to collect update data. or I can open the editor, API document and test browser at the same time.

Besides the monitor, I have a standing desk, a set of Bluetooth noise canceling headphones, a paper notebook, a set of colored pens, and a 20-minute hourglass.

Yes: I have a 30- inch monitor, keyboard split Freestyle2 Kinesis (this keyboard has saved me from Carpal Tunnel), simple footrest, prescribed by my physiotherapist (people with low problem), and a stand-up table convertible MultiTable with protivoustatochnym rug Topo, when I am standing.

Mike:

What’s your best time-saving shortcut or life hack?

Alex: Limiting work breaks.

I use the pause feature in Boomerang’s inbox (sorry for the self-promotion) so that email only arrives in my inbox 4 times a day – never in the first place in the morning.

We also have a company policy that Slack is set to Do Not Disturb by default during business hours. When we made this change, Slack posts across the company dropped 35% and code writing increased 35% across all of our engineering teams. Our brains are really not designed to be constantly distracted. So the difference is huge.

Mike: I think in terms of energy, not time. So my life hack is getting enough sleep. My day becomes more productive and enjoyable when I am well rested or able to take a nap. I would happily trade time for less mental energy.

Who are the people who help you achieve results, and how do you rely on them?

Alex: I was lucky to find co-founders who complemented each other very well. At first, when we were all mainly focused on creating a product, we specialized in different areas. I start well and end up like that. Moa was good at taking the grain of something and turning it into something real. And Mike was great at taking this something and getting it ready for production. Usually, if I am stuck or there is something that I have not made much progress on, one of them can take the baton, get things off the ground and then pass it on to me.

Yes: My co-founder Alex and my colleague Mai-chi. They help me get things done by being a sound board when I get stuck. I rely on Alex to help me prioritize while spinning.

How do you keep track of what you need to do?

Yes: I divided them into three piles. The first pile is for time-sensitive tasks, not meetings. For them, I use Boomerang to remind myself of everything I need to do at the right time.

The second pile is for things that do not depend on time. It is a continuous list of things that must happen at some point. I used to put everything on Wunderlist, but now that it’s gone I am switching to Google Keep. I also have a Bullet Journal for meeting notes and more subtle projects of current affairs and ideas for the future.

The third pile is meetings and appointments. Once an appointment, call, or appointment is confirmed (which usually happens via email), I immediately add this to my calendar using the Boomerang Calendar extension. I only use one calendar for both personal and work meetings, because I like to see in one place what goes on during the day.

Mike: I use Boomerang, Google Keep and Google Calendar to tell myself what to do in the future. The fewer things I need to keep in mind, the better.

What do you enjoy doing the most and how do you deal with it?

Alex: I hate any manual, repetitive work at the computer. I literally had a headache. If I have more than 15-20 minutes to do this, I often end up putting together a script (check out Project Sikuli , which lets you write simple scripts that use computer vision to click things for you) to at least do some of the this for me. When there is no point in automating this, I try to work in blocks of 20 minutes with a break in between. Each work session I turn on the music, grab a fresh gum, move from sitting to standing or vice versa, and flip the hourglass.

Aye: My least favorite thing to do is keeping track of the conversations that happen in Slack while I’m not at my desk. I haven’t found a way to deal with this yet. I’m looking for a way to get an artificial intelligence tool to summarize conversations and alert me to things I need to get back to.

Mike: The thought of being late or having to meet a deadline scares me, so I will do my best to complete the hard or mind-exhausting tasks in the beginning. That way I can relax at the end.

How do you replenish? What do you do when you want to forget about work?

Alex: Right now, I’m mostly charging myself up with cooking. It’s a creative approach, but it’s a practical, kind of meditative approach, and in the end, you can feed your family something great.

Aye: During the week, I read something funny that I don’t have to think too much to take my mind off my work, like Six of Crows . On weekends, my family and I go hiking.

Mike: I like video games. If the work seems chaotic, I will choose a game with a slower pace, for example Stardew Valley, where decisions are rewarded predictable and linear. If it’s quiet at work, I’ll play an action game like Splatoon .

What’s your favorite side project?

Alex: In the last 20 months, the only side project I had time for was to play with my son 🙂 Before that I worked on Taxbreakdown.org [currently not working – Ed.] Which gave a personal touch from how the federal government spends the taxes you pay. I still hope someone will crack this nut – the average American thinks that 31% of the federal budget is spent on foreign aid, but that is actually less than 1%!

Aye: I volunteer with an organization called Build a School in Burma as a member of the advisory board. We are building schools in underprivileged communities in Burma and have built 30 schools to date.

Mike: I’m not working on anything right now, but in the past I was in National Writing Month (my Time Travel 101 is in the Kindle Store!) And learned to play guitar through Rocksmith .

What are you reading now or what do you recommend?

Aye: I just finished 80,000 hours . It is the basis for helping you choose a career with high social impact. I’m reading this like a book, but all of the material on their site is free . I think this is a great way to think about what you are doing in the context of the impact you can have by continuing to do what you love. I highly recommend it to anyone who cares about how they spend their time, mainly if you are reading Lifehacker you probably already think so about your career. I believe one of the best life hacks is choosing the right job that makes you feel satisfied every day.

Mike: I’m rereading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. This is the longest series I’ve ever read (14 books) and is by far my absolute favorite.

Fill in the blank: I would like _________ to answer these same questions.

Alex: Ezra Klein and Brandon Sanderson .

Yes: J.K. Rowling.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Alex: At least spend as much time playing on your strengths as working on your weaknesses.

Yes: “Focus on the process, not the results.” When you focus on what you are in control and do your best every day, results will come. This is especially true for startup founders because you want the discipline to keep working hard on what you control with your own team. This will save you from wasting time on competitors or other factors beyond your control.

Mike: I have no idea where it came from, but the phrase “don’t eat the second donut” is a phrase that I keep coming back to. Either this is an insightful statement about willpower and self-control, or this is what my mom once told me when my brain was developing memory function, I suppose.

What else would you like to add that might be of interest to readers and fans?

Mike: Send us feedback; we read and respond to every email.

More…

0
Interviews

Leave a Reply