What I do in the first few hours after being laid off, fired, or let go

I work with very early-stage ventures as a 0-2 principal product manager. I’ve been doing this 2 decades & have a couple of successful exits but I have also been fired, laid off, let go and ghosted in all kinds of acquisitions, company crises, & hostile takeovers. Here is my day zero routine for when work ends. Becuase when you work at a startup, most come to an end.

Step 1: Feel the feels. I go outside, mist my ferns and let my feels run wild. I let all of the sadness of things undone pass through me like bad gas from a spicy burrito. Tomorrow is a new day but today my feelings need space. What they do not need is a telephone. I turn off my phone for the rest of the day.

Step 2: I make a short-term (now to end of month), medium term (1-3 months) and longer term plan (3+ months). My plan is based on my current financial runway, self-esteem needs, & professional goals. My current plan has 8 SMART goals, scoped to reality (i.e, what's realistically feasible). I include new things I want to learn. Last time I was laid off I took the opportunity to go deep in to a very demanding VR/AR class from MIT. This time I am thinking Product Management for ML/AI. Other skills I should consider?

Step 3: Apply for unemployment. Let go of all non-essential subscriptions. Bye Netflix. End all subsciptions except for Strava and the NYT as slow running/cycling+fact-based journalism = mental health.

Step 4: Reflect. it's probably not me; it's most likely them, but just in case… 99% of new ventures fail due to leadership, financial management, poor market validation, & bad business model design. Almost none fail becuase of the employees but still…what could I have done differently in my own role as a principal PM? Today I realized I was not paying nearly enough attention to that small voice inside which kind of told me this day was coming a while back. Oof.

Step 5: Set up job hunt database (Notion). After each layoff I go look at the previous job hunt database (i have about 8 by now). Today I noted that about 50% of the companies I applied to previously no longer exist. Hm. Would I still be right where I am today looking for a new gig? For some reason this makes me feel less bad.

Step 6: Figure out my free hours for founders. I don’t network; I get to work. I volunteer my time to female founders whenever I have the time and bandwidth. I have helped more than 25 startups iterate or pivot to PMF in the last decade; 90% of that as a volunteer Product Manager for self-funded founders. Volunteerring aiwht people who are using their own money has ultimately given me a level of expertise not possible as a FTE or contractor & it’s much more engaging than casual networking. I don’t do free work when for potential employers but for my community? Every chance I get.

In any case, this how I cope with all the feels, fears, uncertainties, and the million other questions in the hours after i am let go.

What's your routine or actions you take day zero-the day before the new job hunt starts?

Iynna·Sep 18

thank you so much for sharing this, Risa! Really love seeing how you process each step.

risagoodman·Sep 19

Hey thanks for dropping such a supportive comment here.

AndreaYMacek·Sep 18

These are key steps, you hit the nail on the head! Processing the loss and countless other emotions from a layoff is critical to future success. Unprocessed emotions often show up in the job search later -in the form of lost confidence is what I see most often. For women in more traditional companies, I would add that you verify your severance agreement, payout for any unpaid time off, and also confirm any non competes that may be in place. From what you shared here, I have no doubt you're going to land somewhere amazing!

risagoodman·Sep 19

You know what? I actually missed that step in the rush of all the feels and I just sent a note asking about severance. THANK YOU for bringing that up.

MichelleFuentes·Sep 19

Love this thought process you shared - it's helpful to see how others think through things and feel their emotions. It's validating in a way...💛

risagoodman·Sep 19

Honestly, if you read the comment from @AndreaYMacek you will see that I forgot something key: severance and discussing any non-competes. Every time i go through this I get better at it with the help of others.

Laura198·Sep 23

I got laid off for the first time just recently. I have been thinking of volunteering to build skills and explore other areas. What are ways to find such opportunities? Do you set goals with the founders/some kind of commitment?

risagoodman·Sep 26

Hi Laura, I love this question; Below are the main ways I was able to get some volunteer gigs. I wish founders/employers wanted to know more about this. It's a thrill to get any chance to talk about it. Thanks for asking. How I managed to create a robust volunteer life between full-time gigs: 1. Pre-covid I went to Meetups; just offered help literally anyone doing any kind of project that could benefit from a Product Management lens. Rewarding beyond belief. I am still in touch with some of the people I have met during that time, followed their careers, and gone back to them for informational interviews when I need to upskill. 2. I joined Double Union, which was life-changing for a number of reasons; the main one: more like-minded folks who had similar experiences as a female-identified person in a very, very male discipline. More convos and offers to help. Joined other "spaces" both physical and virtual.3. Posted to my LinkedIn that I had pro bono hours available. It was not long after I did this that someone cold emailed me and asked me if I was able to help them with Facebook ads. At the time I was a growth Product Manager which leaned heavily on understanding the marketing stack and i was able to say "Yes, absolutely" and help them in under 3 hours that one time. I4. When I attend webinars or conference and I share available hours with others, I tell them if i have hours and the kinds of situations I have been able to help folks out with for their project or startup. I find attending conferences virtually more effective for scaling this kind of outreach. I'd never be able to talk to 200 people at a F2F conference! But I can in chat. 5. I make sure that the community I want to serve knows, even if i am not a member of that community. My pro bono hours are available only for marginalized founders who are woman-identified and/or LGBTQIA+ and/or people of color and/or founders over 45 and/or projects or ventures that focused on social good. I focus on these efforts because they get less than 1% of all funding. 6. I joined professionally adjacent communities on Slack, LinkedIn, Facebook While I am not a user experience designer or engineering, I do belong to a few communities that are professionally adjacent when allowed. The net result has been after one layoff per year (#startuplife) the last five years, I've gotten pretty good at creating an ongoing practice around it and if anything I might be more known among my community for my pro bono work than I am for my paid work! Right now I am working with 2 founders: one over 45, and one mom; both are self-funding. Around 4 hours per week. I wish this were my job: helping self-funded founders find product marketing fit with the least amount of spend possible. But alas, it would not pay my rent. Does this help?

rachelbell·Sep 23

How do you find the female founders to volunteer your time? Also interested in what skills you focused on to go from a sr pm to principal. Thx!

risagoodman·Sep 26

I posted a short list in this thread; should have tagged you! I left one thing off: I try to meet people adjacent to VC communities- not to meet people in VC-- but to meet non-technical founders who are considering funding. Before a founder decides to seek funding I typically offer to help them build a business model canvas, value prop canvas or review their deck. These are things that take ~ 4 hours to support but might mean a founder gets a better shot at funding. Is this answer and the above helpful?

rachelbell·Sep 30

Yes, thanks - that list is helpful. I will look into these suggestions. I have helped folks, mostly women, get into the tech space with resume and interview help but I want to expand what I do.I am seeking pro-bono product work for NGOs in the climate and conservation space, if you see anything like that. Trying to figure out an angle.. it's kind of interesting how it can be a challenge to find someone or an org that needs the work you offer. I am going to continue looking!

risagoodman·Sep 26

Oh! I also forgot one thing specifically for you @rachelbell: I go wayyyyy back with the RetailMeNot business: to my days at Commission Junction. I also owned several Chrome extensions as a contractor-> we have a lot of professional overlap and overlap in skill sets.

rachelbell·Sep 30

Small world! Yes, we have a lot of overlap.

jo2jo·Sep 24

Thanks for this :) I wish I had this when I got laid off for the first time last year. That little voice has also been telling me it was probably coming for awhile. I got laid off the day after returning from FMLA and looking back I wish I had just given myself more time to feel the feels and process that it really wasn’t me (it’s them). Maybe some concentrated therapy time would’ve been well worth it around this.+1 on the volunteering - I just so happen to pass a nonprofit thrift store while meeting a friend for coffee to talk about the job hunt and it helped my mental health immensely to think I still had something to give somewhere that someone wanted. I think doing so in any capacity helps so much mentally.Would love to hear more about how you set your short term and long term goals at once. I had trouble looking past the immediate next steps and mostly ended up with a generous timeline to get back to the next role with my leading indicator smaller metrics to hit in the meantime like apps sent, referrals gotten, interview stages, etc

risagoodman·Sep 26

Thanks for confirming my experiences and sharing that. I am a solid +1 on therapy. there was a long time in which the major issue I was taking to my therapist could be roughly understood as "being female in tech" because that in and of itself- was enough. Asking maybe about "how I set goals?" does that sound right? If so: 1. I set short- medium terms goals on cash flow: "What MUST I accomplish before I run out of cash?" Then, reverse engineer getting there as fuss-free as possible. That means: I must redo my resume; I already applied for unemployment. I schedule my pro bono hours to keep my spirits alive. and earmarked one day to learn more about building products with AI in mind. Yes, I probably need a portfolio and a couple of decks as case studies but first priority? A text-only resume. Unsexy but the most-useful format.2. How I set my long-term goals = a ton of soul searching & research of current market maybe? My current goal has not changed in 5 years: To find a SaaS startup where I can build both the Product & the Product practice as employee 1. I would like to continue on this path but the volatility of early-stage ventures means I need to shift my professional goals to: find a SaaS startup where I can build both the Product & the Product practice as contract employee 1 or cofounder. Ultimate goal: Freelance FRACTIONAL startup CPO or cofounder - why not? --I know how to launch a product on the cheap. I don't know that having all my professional eggs in one company basket actually provides any sort of real security so I'd like to iterate away from it.

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