Ryan Gilbert
Community Support Manager at Product Hunt
Welcome to the fifth edition of Async Chats! This letter is all about candid conversations with people like yourself. If you’d like some more context see this letter. Otherwise, let’s get into this.
Ryan is a Community Support Manager at Product Hunt. He lives in Milwaukee, WI and is a remote worker.
What is your profession?
I’m currently a Community Support Manager at Product Hunt. Prior to this role, I actually spent the past ~7 years working in supply chain roles for 10,000+ person companies. After growing increasingly dissatisfied, I began to work on my transition into tech!
Why remote work?
It sort of happened by accident. In my previous supply chain roles I was working out of an office. The pandemic forced us into a remote environment which I ended up enjoying quite a bit. While in this state of limbo I actually moved out of the city (why stay in a city when everything is closed?). When my company announced a return to office plan my commute was now 1+ hour each way which I knew wasn’t sustainable. This was part of my internal motivation to leave the supply chain world and move into tech for a remote-first company.
What are your interests outside of work?
I love to spend time outside, specifically golfing and hiking. Being from Wisconsin I have found it very important to spend as much time outdoors during the summer months. I hate the cold.
What are some of your favorite digital or physical tools?
Digital: Substack. I am completely abusing their free offering right now as I grow my weekly newsletter, Workspaces. Substack made it possible for me to go from side project idea to MVP in 5 minutes.
Physical: M1 Mac Mini (I like having a set workspace for deep work), Analog by Ugmonk (for daily organization), Baronfig Confidant Notebook (for notes and sketches).
Do you prefer to work/ communicate asynchronously or synchronously? Why?
I am able to communicate both synchronously and asynchronously but I think if I had to choose I’d say I prefer asynch. I think this is due to the general nature of remote work where you aren’t used to someone looking over your shoulder all day. It allows you to work at a pace that is comfortable to you while working on specific tasks during times that make sense with your schedule.
It also gives you time to reflect and craft a more appropriate and descriptive response.
Questions of the week
Based on this edition of The Gray Area.
When do you make for yourself?
I started Workspaces out of my own interest of seeing people share their workspaces on Twitter. Because of that, in a weird way I think that every time I craft and send a new edition of the newsletter I am making for myself. It’s my own little curated directory of amazing workspaces and the tools that make them unique.
It just so happens that ~5,000 other subscribers happen to follow along with me. 😅
As a person that works for Product Hunt, runs Workspaces.xyz, and contracts for heyday.xyz, when do you find time for yourself?
Spending time with your circle:
I mentioned above that I enjoyed spending time outside doing things like golfing and hiking. In the summer months my friends and I find time to golf every week (usually more than once).
My fiancee and I also find time to hike every week. We’re getting a puppy soon so I expect this to happen even more frequently as well!
Working on other projects:
This has been tougher. When I started Workspaces it was the only true creative outlet I had outside of my supply chain job. My work with this led to contracting for Heyday on nights and weekends and also led to my new full-time role at Product Hunt. I now feel pretty fulfilled, both in terms of creative outlet as well as time so I haven’t really worked on any other side projects despite having numerous ideas.
As I get more comfortable in my new role I hope to tap back into that in order to launch another side project of some sort in 2022.
Having fun:
I’m always having fun! Whether it’s with friends or work. If I don’t enjoy what I’m doing I find a way to change it ASAP (ex: leaving supply chain and transitioning into a role at Product Hunt)!
This ties into all 3 points above - Ultimately, I think time management is crucial. I enjoy working on Workspaces, Heyday, and Product Hunt and have carved out specific time blocks for each of them to ensure that I am not letting any of the work suffer. If I ever feel that I am stretching myself too thin or letting someone down, I will look to make a change or lighten my workload.
I currently focus on Product Hunt during the day and Workspaces/Heyday on nights and weekends with a heavier load on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
What is something few people know about you?
I actually joined Product Hunt back on day 1 in 2013 as user #127. Crazy to look back 9 years and work at the place I have spent countless hours on as a user and fan.
Anything new or important you’d like to mention to the readers?
I mentioned it a few times above but my entire transition into tech and the entire reason for this interview is my weekly newsletter called Workspaces. Workspaces gives you a behind-the-scenes virtual tour of the WFH setups of designers, founders, artists, etc.
What started as a side project during the pandemic as more and more people shared their setup pictures on Twitter has now turned into 125+ workspace features (and counting), ~5,000 subscribers, and countless opportunities and connections that I wouldn’t otherwise have.
Do you have a workspace you’d like to share with the community? Let me know @rjgilbert on Twitter!
Links
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