What's the Work-Life Balance Like at BrainPOP?

Share your principle for sustainable pace — and the signal that proves it works for your team?

To deliver on BrainPOP's mission to empower kids to shape the world around them and within them, we need sustainable team workflows and practices that give us the energy, focus and longevity to show up for teachers and students every single day. There's no one-size-fits all solution to the different things that get in the way of creating a sustainable pace of work. 

Through coaching, I’m able to help each research and design team member think through and solve problems that might be causing the work to be more difficult to handle. Oftentimes, recalibrating expectations and goal alignment are part of the solution. For example, we talk about how we don't need to “rip out the entire floor” in order to create an effective design solution for customers.

At a strategic level, staying aligned with other leaders in terms of priorities and approach encourages sustainability. When we agree in principle about the most important things to work on and how, we can go a long way. Weekly product and engineering operations and product leadership sessions are where we bring our diverse perspectives to the table.

Which policy or norm makes flexible working arrangements succeed — and how do you measure its impact?

Being conscientious about balancing meetings with the need to do deep, focused work is an important norm. Recognizing that research and design team members belong to cross-functional groups also helps. For example, mornings are reserved for sessions with their squads that have colleagues in an overseas timezone. My team has the ability to update our check-in invites to better accommodate their schedules, instead of mine. They can keep themselves in the flow of deep work, or make hard-to-schedule meetings with cross-functional colleagues.

My team has a standing, bi-weekly collaboration session. A day before the session, we suggest various topics for the agenda. Our sessions promote knowledge sharing, development of a shared view on quality and connecting personally. We record sessions so people can catch up async if they need to.

Which wellness resource do people actually use — and what improvement have you seen on your team?

BrainPOP's hybrid work model and flexible PTO have positively impacted team wellness over time. Both resources enable members to navigate the less controllable schedules of personal obligations, as well as manage their energy through periods of intense work.

Professional development stipends definitely help my team keep pace with the changes in our field happening as a result of AI acceleration. This investment supports our career growth and makes space for exploring our curiosity that's separate from day-to-day activities.

I have a lot of success working with my career coach at Bravely, a coaching platform membership sponsored by BrainPOP. We meet about every two weeks, reflecting on what's working — and what isn't. Our sessions help me grow leadership and communication skills.