Dear founder,
When I was running FeedbackPanda between 2017 and 2019, I developed what I can only describe as a Pavlovian anxiety reflex to error notifications. Every ping could mean disaster.
As the only technical person in the business, I was responsible for maintaining our integration with a third-party platform.
🎧 Listen to this on my podcast.
We had no formal agreement with them, so they wouldn’t warn us about changes to their system. It was a constant cat-and-mouse game of fixing our integration whenever they pushed updates.
I had Sentry tracking both frontend and backend errors, and I’d get notified for every single one. Each notification was potentially catastrophic – it could signal a change that would make it impossible for our customers to use the product. I had to react quickly, so notifications stayed on. But over time, this vigilance took its toll.
Even years after selling FeedbackPanda, that anxiety lingered. The distinctive sound of an Intercom chat widget opening would send a jolt through my system. Starting Podscan.fm and integrating a new customer chat service didn’t exactly help matters. While the anxiety isn’t as intense as it once was, I still feel that urgent pull to respond immediately to notifications.
As Podscan has grown and more customers reach out through various channels, I’ve had to make a conscious effort not to let notifications overwhelm me. The reality is that notification management is attention management. Every notification interrupts my focus and pulls me from what I know I should be working on into what someone else wants me to work on. When a customer email or chat message comes in, their problem takes priority – even if what I’m building might have a much higher impact on the business.
The conventional wisdom is to outsource customer service or implement AI systems. But in my case, the volume of inquiries is too low to justify that. Most questions come from users with specific technical needs – API integrations or advanced features. These conversations are valuable; they help me build deeper relationships with customers and improve the product. It’s a cyclical dialogue between me, the owner, and the users shaping the product.
Still, every notification is an interruption. Over the past few weeks, I’ve developed a new approach: whenever I handle a notification, I examine the underlying rule and medium. If immediate action is required – server down, domain unresponsive, database failing – then yes, notify me instantly. But if no immediate action is needed, I log it and set regular times to review those logs.
This could mean messages that go into Slack without notifications or emails that don’t trigger phone alerts. The key is protecting focused time and only allowing truly urgent matters to pierce that veil. Critical customer issues, system failures, or bugs that break core functionality – these warrant immediate attention. But a slightly slow database or a customer responding to a week-old email? Those can wait.
I’ve applied this thinking to Podscan’s various integrations. Take Koala, our tool for tracking high-intent prospects. While valuable, none of its insights require immediate attention. They can wait for my designated review time, where I can properly process them into actionable tasks.
The challenge isn’t in muting notifications – that’s the easy part. The real test is consistently reviewing the non-urgent logs and messages without letting them pile up. I’m easily drawn into the exciting work of product development, and maintaining discipline with email management is an ongoing struggle. I haven’t yet found the perfect accountability system to keep me on track.
Some founders excel at establishing these routines, while others (like me) need more structure. For those who might forget to check, staggered notifications or daily summaries – similar to Apple’s notification digests – can provide a helpful middle ground.
I’ve also learned to be strategic with monitoring thresholds. Instead of getting alerted for every minor fluctuation, I set up observers that notify me when critical metrics cross important boundaries. On AWS, I use budget alerts that trigger at 80-90% of monthly limits. For application monitoring, I track average values and 90th percentile metrics for things like latency, ensuring I’m informed before small issues become major problems.
Recently, I made a significant change: turning off new user signup notifications for Podscan. While it’s exciting to see new users join – we’re now over 4,500 strong – getting pulled out of focus every hour wasn’t serving the business. Instead, I’ve split my notification streams in Slack. General events like signups, alert creation/deletion, and team changes go into a log I review periodically. But customer actions that might need immediate attention – cancellations, subscription changes, trial extensions – still trigger notifications so I can engage at critical moments.
This balance of staying informed without being interrupted has been crucial for maintaining both productivity and peace of mind. It’s about being intentional with our attention and recognizing that not every ping deserves an immediate response.
If you want to track brand mentions, search millions of transcripts, and keep an eye on chart placements for podcasts, please check out podscan.fm — and tell your friends!
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