Hello dear reader,
I’m at a desk parked in front of a window at my home on the fourth floor of a residential building complex. I’m overlooking a little garden. It’s 8am on a Saturday morning. A handful of ladies are out for on a group walk. In one corner of the garden, an elderly club is assembling for what I can only imagine is going to be a laughter club. And then there’s a lean man, mid-30s, clad in nike running gear, talking to his… wrist.
Alright, it's an apple watch. He's pacing now, waving his other hand in the air, opening his palm sideways in what I think means no or can't.
"Where's the ROI in THAT!?". That was tad loud for 8am.
So it's a work call. He's stretching his hamstrings and hips as he talks. Man is clearly looking to get on with his workout. The talking watch won't seem to shut up.
That this scene should unfurl in front of my eyes just as I sit down to write is only poetic. Lenny published his tech workers sentiment survey results this week. ICYMI, Lenny Rachitsky is perhaps the most widely read and followed product leader. This is the second time he's run a survey to capture the sentiments of his readers—tech workers around the world—on the state of tech work as is today.
Now, this report is especially relevant to all of us interested in mental health innovation and today, I'm going to talk about why, and how.
Why Care About Tech Worker Sentiments Survey
5,920 tech professionals around the world, predominantly in senior and leadership roles, predominantly in product management, and majority working fully remotely responded to this survey.
Yes, this is not representative of all tech workers everywhere.
However, I argue that this slice of population, the one that regularly reads and responds to Lenny's survey, is representative of the key influencers and decision makers at major tech hubs around the world. I'm reading it that way deliberately—I read Lenny's community and paid subscribers as one of the in-clubs in tech.
These are folks who get curated access to the cutting edge products and are open to the new and experimental. They try new products first and fast, and are unafraid to be outliers in their tech habits.
These are the same folks who are already convinced mental health is important and will likely regularly see their therapist. They'll be in continuous pursuit of personal growth and development with the same zeal they extend to the products they build.
So naturally, I pause to deliberate.
We must look at the responses of the tech worker sentiment survey closely because it affords us a glimpse into the future of mental health innovation.
An Announcement (!!!)
Hit a pause on tech worker sentiment for a second because I have massive news to share.
Next month in Bangalore, TiNT is hosting it's very first in-person event which also happens to the first ever hackathon for therapists everywhere!
I've been waiting with baited breath to tell you this because as unbelievable as it may be, believe me when I tell you that I'm not suited to be an internet person.
I write on Linkedin and out here and meet some of you through little windows on my screen and it all seems very smooth but really I'm a sucker for old-school, face-to-face chats, silently working together, lunching and chai breaks and all the little things that come with IRL workspaces.
If the solitary nature of the clinical practise is any indication, I know you're craving it too.
August 9th. Bangalore. Come let's make things together! Therapists Who Build Hackathon RSVP here.
What Tech Worker Sentiments Tell Us About MH innovation
Alright, back to where I was.
There are 10 key takeaways of this survey that I urge you to read, if not the entire report.
Takeaway point #5 is...
The underlying fear is of being overworked. Only 22% worry about "losing my job to AI." Far more worry about being expected to do more for the same pay (51%), getting trapped in an unsustainable pace (46%), and the quality of their work going down (41%).
...quite literally our Apple Watch guy—he wants to exercise on a Saturday morning but he's stuck at work.
What the report findings tells me are 3 things.
1. Tech-Mediated Psychopathology Is On The Rise, Both In Presentations & Research
Cognitive fatigue, thought-suspension, erosion of independent judgment from AI overuse is surfacing in tech workers first, because they're the ones living inside the tooling all day. Burnout jumped from 44.7% to 55.7% in a year, career optimism fell from 54.8% to 48.7%. The workforce's relationship to its own competence is breaking down as the story unfurls. The workforce's relationship to its own competence is breaking down as the story unfurls
For those of you who have a majority tech workers as clients, you have front-row seat to understanding "AI-mediated cognition".
This will eventually show up in case conceptualisations and assessments. I'm already meeting therapists applying for PhDs with theses on these lines. Tech workers are early, we'll see this reach the general population. Similar to how social media brought the attention-span discourse.
2. Tech Clients As A Specialisation
53% of tech workers said they'd steer a newcomer away from their own role, even the ones who are personally optimistic. Layoff anxiety, workplace insecurity, immigration distress are so commonplace they're the new normal in tech. Only 22% worry about losing their job to AI outright, far more fear being squeezed to produce more for the same pay.
I view the "AI-era tech worker" as a specialty niche for which service demand will only increase.
The Bay Area has had therapists-for-tech-workers for a decade. I've seen psychiatric concierge to tech royalty and on-demand MH services specifically tailored to routines of tech leaders. In
India, this phenomenon is more covert. List all the group practises in Indiranagar (BLR's tech neighbourhood) and you'll find that they present themselves in an aesthetic tailored to tech-workers. Their spaces, their online presence, their choice of English verbiage—it speaks to someone who draws a comfortable tech salary.
3. Product Evolution
My hunch, though this survey doesn't prove it directly, is that the people paying for B2C AI mental health products right now are disproportionately tech-forward first adopters, the same population this survey is describing.
The survey does however leave us with the knowledge that whether someone feels amplified or diminished by AI is one of the strongest predictors of career optimism, stronger than role, seniority, or company size combined.
Which leads us to believe that therapy clients who are tech-forward, early adopters, make for engaged users—who then turn influence products from both from inside and out.
TiNT Studio Updates
→ InnerOS User Research Sprint wrapped up this week. I'll be sharing all assets and learnings with sprint participants plus a bonus of how to leverage this knowledge to push yourself ahead in MH innovation.
→ Emoneeds Hiring Sprint for a Product Strategist is well underway. Cofounder of Emoneeds Tanmay is currently going through all application docs. You should hear from me next week.
→ TiNT will look a little different over the coming weeks–we're undergoing a brand re-design!
It's 10am.
The Apple Watch guy has thankfully left for his run. The laughter club has been my background music through this writing session. I hope your weekend morning has something as unremarkable and perfect as the scene outside my window.
Take care and see you soon,
Harshali
Founder, TinT
Follow along on @be_tint
For more resources view the website
Connect with me, Harshali on LinkedIn
