Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben finalizes Formkeep's Ember removal, toys with the idea of manual on boarding, and positions himself to begin experimenting with plans and pricing. Meanwhile, Chris deals with credit card fraud, too many inodes on Upcase's server, and finishes the changes required to offer free videos. Upcase Formkeep Barbell Investment Strategy Designing Forms That Convert Free Gitsh Video from The Weekly Iteration What is 2.5 * 26?

Chris talks with growth expert Brian Balfour on starting and sustaining SaaS business, and his team's approach to addressing growth issues. Upcase Pirate Metrics Airbnb Growth Study Be the Best at Getting Better Traction vs Growth How to Become a Customer Acquisition Expert Power Law Coelevate- Brian’s personal writings Brian on Twitter

Chris gets a surprise while reviewing Upcase's Q4 profit & loss statement, gains some insight into e-mail marketing, wrestles with the added complexity of adding github auth-to-access, and brainstorms new community-driven projects. Meanwhile, Ben gets his hands dirty with Formkeep's Ember removal, is tempted by the siren's call of distraction, and gets an open review from the Bootstrapped Web podcast. Also, Chris does a live user-test of Formkeep's new user activation flow. Formkeep Upcase The Chris Toomey of Real Estate Deep Work- Cal Newport Bootstrapped Web Ep 98- Formkeep Teardown! xkcd: Nerd Sniping Pave the Cowpaths Cooper Press

Ben resolves to cut back on dashboard checkins, makes progress on Formkeep's Ember extraction, and struggles with product-market fit. Meanwhile, Chris tackles some analytics issues, opens up Upcase landing pages from behind the paywall to improve marketing and SEO, and steps up his marketing and social-media game. Formkeep Upcase baremetrics Formkeep Blog The Pragmatic Programmer SPIN Selling Radical Candor Bootstrapped Web Podcast

Ben and Chris both struggle with cancelations coming into the new year, Formkeep continues to strip out Ember and focus on content marketing, and Upcase resolves a major issue in the exercise system and improves the checkout flow. Formkeep Upcase The Mythical Man-Month Levenshtein Distance Edgar Laura Roeder on Giant Robots How to 3x your productivity in 10 minutes a week- Mitchell Harper gitolite Test All the F***in Time Finding Your Flywheel- Rob Walling SPIN Selling

Chris tracks new members after the release of the new Mastering Git course from Upcase, launches a drip e-mail campaign to attract more members, and focuses on increased content output. Ben continues removing Ember from Formkeep, rethinks an activation sequence A/B test, conducts user tests to improve the checkout flow, and adopts a mindset of continuous improvement. Formkeep Upcase Mastering Git course on Upcase Drip Marketing Mastermind Alliance Startup Playbook- Sam Altman Rob Walling on Giant Robots How to 10x in 15 Months The Content Marketing Handbook Airbnb vs Hotels The Effective Executive- Peter F. Drucker

As Ben transitions from Upcase to Formkeep, so too will the podcast transition to an open discussion around growing thoughtbot's internal projects and maintaining them as businesses, highlighting our hopes, experiments, tactics, failures, and success along the way! Today Ben and new co-host Chris discuss finding that magic feature or metric around which to structure pricing, selecting the right framework for your app, and customer acquisition tactics. Formkeep Upcase Price Intelligently Audience Ops Bootstrapped Web Podcast Middleman Traction Wistia Turnstile Rob Walling on Giant Robots Visual Website Optimizer Mastering Git course on Upcase Chris on Twitter

Ben talks with Ashe Dryden about ways to approach diversity in the tech community from workplace, conference, and personal perspectives. AlterConf The Diverse Team The Inclusive Event Model View Culture Brianna Wu - 9 Ways to Stop Hurting and Start Helping Women in Tech Fund Club Ashe on Twitter

Ben and Laura Roeder, founder of Edgar, chat about anthropomorphizing your brand to build better engagement, going the extra step to care about customer success, and some tips for social media marketing best practices. This episode is brought to you by Formkeep: Form endpoints for designers and developers Edgar Edgar is my boyfriend- Sticker shown at the top of this glowing love-letter to Edgar thoughtbot Playbook Laura on Twitter

Ben talks with Hiten Shah, co-founder of Crazy Egg and Kissmetrics, on the value of helping others, frameworks for a better life, being an infovore, and tips for finding a successful product niche. Upcase: 50% Off Your First Month For Giant Robots Listeners! Crazy Egg Kissmetrics Jeff Bezos - Regret Minimization Framework Hacks for Infovores "Be Good"- Paul Graham The Lean Startup Jack Dorsey on CEO as Editor The Startup Chat Podcast Saas Weekly Hiten on Twitter

Ben and Eric Normand of LispCast and PurelyFunctional.tv talk about the pros and cons of Haskell and Clojure, empathize on some of the pain points of running an educational coding platform, and hypothesize on how the next great programming "killer demo" will present itself. Upcase: 50% Off Your First Month For Giant Robots Listeners! LispCast- With welcome message for Giant Robots listeners PurelyFunctional.tv Nil Punning Original LispCast Kickstarter Ruby on Rails 15 Minute Blog Demo Eric on Twitter

Ben talks with Steli Efti, CEO and Co-founder of Close, on maintaining energy and passion in speaking, why engineers make great sales people (and how they can be even better), and managing your emotions to be more productive and happy. Upcase: 50% Off Your First Month For Giant Robots Listeners! Close How to Build a Solo SaaS Sales Machine Engineers Vs Sales People The Startup Chat Steli on Twitter

Chad talks with C. Todd Lombardo & Trace Wax about their new book, co-authored with Richard Banfield, Design Sprint: A Practical Guidebook for Building Great Digital Products, as well as the process and benefits of design sprints. Upcase: 50% Off Your First Month For Giant Robots Listeners! Design Sprint: A Practical Guidebook for Building Great Digital Products Giant Robots #106 The Character Growth Card at Character Lab The IKEA Effect- Michael Norton Design Museum Boston Jobs to be Done Framework and Jobs Stories GoToMeeting Lean Startup Methodology Tentative #6 C. Todd on Twitter Trace on Twitter

Brenda talks with Sara Chipps on the desire to educate in code, her inspiration to work on hardware, and the troubles of manufacturing. Upcase: 50% Off Your First Month For Giant Robots Listeners! Jewelbots CSS Dev Conf Girl Develop It Mesh Networking FIRST Robotics Programs Web Summit Barbie, You Can Be Anything Campaign NodeBots Highway1 Sara on Twitter Sara on Medium

Chad Pytel and Laila Winner welcome Star Simpson to discuss PLIBMTTBHGATY (Programming Languages I’ve Been Meaning To Try But Haven’t Gotten Around To Yet), fostering community through meet-ups, and the finer points of taco delivery via drone. Upcase: 50% Off Your First Month For Giant Robots Listeners! Makani TacoCopter CloudApp PLIBMTTBHGATY Laila on Bike Shed Brain𝑓*ⓒ# plibmttbhgaty.com MIT / BU Legal Clinic Freedom to Innovate Summit Star's Projects Star on Twitter Laila on Twitter Chad on Twitter

Ben talks with thoughtbot designer Brenda Storer on fitting both development and design in her job title, tips for public speaking, and introduces a new change to the show. Upcase: 50% Off Your First Month For Giant Robots Listeners! Girl Develop It CSS Dev Conf The Tim Ferriss Show Startups for the Rest of Us Comedy Bang Bang The Bike Shed Savage Lovecast Get to know your new sometimes-host better! Brenda on Twitter Brenda on Reboot Podcast Brenda on Tentative Podcast

Ben talks with John Norman about his process and modified approach to the delivery, payment, and tech of modern managed health care. They also touch on age bias in the programming world, living a purpose-driven life, and dealing with startup growth. Iora Health "The Hot Spotters"- Atul Gawande The Healing of America- T.R. Reid WellnessFX Agile Manifesto HIPAA Being Mortal- Atul Gawande "How to Scale a Development Team"- Adam Wiggins "The Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design"- Peter Merholz John on Twitter

Ben talks with Adam & Jerod of The Changelog Podcast to discuss their personal interviewing modalities, doing full-time media creation, and a new video project aimed to explore the actual people behind your programming heroes. The Changelog Beyond Code Keep Ruby Weird The Moth Semisonic- "Closing Time" Wistia Wistia on Giant Robots thoughtbot's Podcasts (just in case you didn't already know about our other great shows) Ping The Changelog Changelog Weekly Adam On Twitter Jerod on Twitter

Ben talks with Mirabai Knight about the technology and uses of modern stenography; including using steno with Vim, and her work on Plover, the open source Steno engine. StenoKnight CART Services Giant Robots 164 Transcript White Coat Captioning Stenotype Steno Alphabet Chart Drew Neil on Giant Robots Plover: The Open Steno Project How Stenography Works Stenoboard- 3D Printed Kit Stenosaurus Success Stories from Steno Autodidacts Using Plover with Vim for Captioning Coding in Python with Plover Mirabai On Twitter

Ben talks with Nadia Odunayo about giving non-technical conference talks and full-time pairing. Playing Games in the Clouds- Nadia's 2015 RailsConf Talk Floobits Makers Academy RubyConf Nadia On Twitter

Ben is joined by Brinkley Warren of MegaBots Inc. to discuss the history, build, and strategy behind the MegaBot Mk II, USA's entrant in next years giant robot duel! MegaBots Giant Robot Duel Kickstarter MegaBots Inc. (with initial challenge videos) Darpa Robotics Challenge IHMC Grant Imahara MegaBots On Twitter Brinkley On Twitter

Ben and Jules Coleman, founder of Hassle, discuss staying close to the codebase while in a more managerial role, the challenges of rapid growth, and the value of internalizing feedback. Hassle Kaizen The Shit That TechCrunch Doesn't Tell You Jules On Twitter

Ben and Drew Neil discuss freeing up Vim's leader key, the value of visual learning, and using GitHub to crowd source closed captions. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Retronyms: Make music whenever, wherever. Tap your inspiration and remember to keep it fresh. Visit to get a free download of AudioCopy. Links & Show Notes Follow My Leader speeddating.vim rails.vim unimpaired.vim surround.vim Vimcasts Practical Vim Peer to Peer Vimcasts #12: Modal editing: undo, redo and repeat Neovim Drew On Twitter

Ben and fellow thoughtbotter Mike Burns take time out of their Summer Summit schedule to chat about launching offices, the art of classical code, and why Mike no longer loves Haskell. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Links & Show Notes The Classical Code Reading Group of Stockholm Hackers OpenBSD Mike On Twitter

Ben is joined by trepidatious producer, Thom Obarski, to talk all things media at thoughtbot, compare working in tech to entertainment environments, and bestow some beginner advice on starting one's own podcast. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Links & Show Notes Levelator Ben, transcribed & annotated Seth Godin Episode of Giant Robots Original Producer Position Posting Acitve thoughtbot Podcasts Thom on IMDB thoughtbot Youtube (Warning, a welcome video autoplays if you're not already a subscriber) Ben's first blooper reel Robots at Play Video Playlist Thom's Investment Time Wistia Wista on Giant Robots Mou Podcasting for $0 Down- Submitted talk proposal Podclear Thom on Twitter

Ben is joined by Tom Stuart to talk about incorporating computer science topics into Ruby, his process of preparing talks, enriching your development career with a bit of computer science knowledge, and gushing about how amazing computers truly are. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Links & Show Notes Refactoring Ruby With Monads A Lever for the Mind The Elements of Computing Systems (From NAND to Tetris) OmniOutliner "Doing the hard work to make it bearable"- Russell Davies To the Moon!-Russ Olsen Ben, transcribed & annotated Understanding Computation- Tom Stuart How to Write a Web Application in Ruby London Ruby User Group Tom on Twitter

Ben is joined by Steve Tooke to discuss the importance of communication, testing, and building Cucumber 2. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Links & Show Notes Your Tests Want You to Change Your Design The Deep Synergy Between Testability and Good Design subtweeting How to Design Programs Functional Programming for the Object-Oriented Programmer- Brian Marick Cucumber Taking Back BDD SwanseaCon Steve on Twitter

Ben welcomes Joe Ferris, thoughtbot's CTO, to discuss design parity within the company, inversion of control, and solving all the world's problems with monads. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by Digital Ocean. Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Links & Show Notes Bourbon Inversion of Control Upcase Ruby Science Maybe Haskell (50% off for our listeners!) Agda Idris Docker boot2docker Upcase Newsletter Joe on Twitter

Ben and Samir Talwar of Codurance discuss the appeal of functional programming, mob programming, and a different take on conferences. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Links & Show Notes Codurance What is Go? (the game, not the language) Mob Programming, and the Importance of Fun at Work Mob Programming- A Whole Team Approach- Woody Zuill SoCraTes UK Hound What Is An OpenSpace Conference? Werewolf / Mafia (Party Game) London Software Craftsmanship Community Samir on Twitter

As Giant Robots nears its 3 year anniversary, Ben welcomes back Chad Pytel to reflect on the highs and lows of the previous year at thoughtbot. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Links & Show Notes Kaplan Acquires Dev Bootcamp Learn is Now Upcase Ship You a Haskell Paid Private Repos for Hound Books Now Available Individually Events (in) October, 2014 Introducing Formkeep Ruby, the Weird Way- Keep Ruby Weird organizers on Giant Robots #122 Announcing The Bike Shed Updated Test-Driven Rails Videos Upcase is Now More Affordable thoughtbot 2014 Report Counting All the F-Words- full podcast breakdown of our 2014 stats on GR #130 Upcase tmux Trail Maybe Haskell- Pat Brisbin Portland Office thoughtbot in Chicago thoughtbot Coaching Tropos Write Yourself a Roguelike- Goose Testing Rails- Josh Steiner Maintaining Open Source Projects- Tute Costa Rototo: Space Survival Design for the Web- Joshua Ogle Carnival for your Site Introducing Design Directors thoughtbot in London Chad on Twitter

Ben welcomes Denise Yu and Rosa Fox of Codebar to discuss the importance of fostering community, mentoring tips, and more. Codebar Denise on Twitter Rosa on Twitter

Ben discusses consulting and open source from within the government, as well as choosing the right clients, and the value of mentorship, with Aidan Feldman of 18F. 18F Hacker Hours Open Source Community Aidan on Twitter

Ben talks with fellow thoughtbotter Derek Prior on conference speaking, code review, and podcasting. Implementing a Strong Code-Review Culture- Derek's RailsConf 2015 Talk How to Talk to Developers Giant Robots on Genius The Bike Shed Podcast Derek on Twitter

Ben talks with fellow thoughtbotter Chris Toomey on networking, mentorship, React.js, and sustainable pace. Boston Vim Meetup Upcase React Pete Hunt- React: Rethinking Best Practices The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement- Mr. Money Mustache Chris on Twitter

Ben talks with Rebecca Miller-Webster, Managing Director of thoughtbot Chicago, on beginners contributing to open-source, organizing conferences, and cultivating a more inclusive culture. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Links & Show Notes Write/Speak/Code Rebecca's Personal Site Increasing the Visibility & Leadership of Women in Tech- TEDx Talk The Becca Complex Rebecca on Twitter

Ben welcomes on Saron Yitbarek to talk about creating communities that foster learning and niceness; as well as getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, and how confronting that discomfort can ultimately lead to success. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Links & Show Notes Flatiron School NY Tech Meetup CodeNewbie Code Club Twitter Chats CodeNewbie Podcast CN Slack Chat Saron- the Flatiron Hopeful Cartoon Demons and CFPs Saron on Twitter

Ben and Shelby Kelly discuss teaching at a coding bootcamp and the future of junior-developer programs. Stick around till the end to catch a sample of her Rocky Mountain Ruby rap! This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Links & Show Notes Galvanize Full Stack Rocky Mountain Ruby Rap Shelby on Twitter

Ben talks to Sam Phippen on working on the RSpec core team, new features in 3.3, tips for contributing to open-source, and his favorite parts of Rails. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Links & Show Notes rspec-rerun Sidekiq Kyle Kingsbury's Blog Sam on Twitter

Ben talks to Pam Selle on the importance of self-impossed structure, voice coding, and living with RSI. Recurse Center Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs MacVimSpeak Hands-Free Coding Keyboardio It's Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome! Choosing a JavaScript Framework Pam on Twitter Turing-Incomplete Podcast Haymakers For Hope: Ben's Charity Boxing Match

Ben talks with Carin Meier on the writer's process, how programming relates to the arts, and the importance of a graduated and immersive approach to learning. Living Clojure Mathematica Ease into 5k 4Clojure Wonderland Katas Hitchhiker's Guide to Clojure Parrot AR Drones How Clojure Saved My Chickens Carin on Twitter

Ben talks with Justin Gitlin on changing the experience of a social media platform, as well as shaping game dev to art (and vice versa). Mode Set Ello Facebook real-name policy controversy OhHeckYeah Dwarf fortress Rototo An Interview With Scott Adams Communikey Festival Justin on Twitter

Ben sits down with therapist/writer/podcaster/speaker/Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion Georgia Dow to discuss the value of new experiences, the advantages of private mentorship, and living life to its fullest. iMore Vector Podcast Isometric Podcast Royal Mews Georgia, true to her word Georgia on Twitter

Ben talks to Sir John Hargrave, CEO of Media Shower, about his new book Mind Hacking on the power of reprogramming one's thoughts to maintain new habits, and innovations to the traditional publishing model. Media Shower Mind Hacking CBT Therapy Philsophy Software is Eating the World- Marc Andreessen GitBook Sir John on Twitter

Ben talks to Mike Brittain, VP of Engineering at Etsy, on interacting with the development community, strides in diversity practices, the pros/cons of an open office, and the difficulties in transitioning from engineering to management. The Art of the Dojo Spotify's NYC Office Facebook's Vending Machines Managing Humans- Michael Lopp Mike on Twitter

Ben talks to Craig Andera, developer at Cognitect, on his latest 20% time project, how Clojure gets made, and driving immutability into a database. Cognicast Kinesis Keyboards khordr Datomic "Simplicity Matters"- Rich Hickey Mile...Mile & a Half (Documentary) "Programming with Hand Tools"- Tim Ewald Falcon 4.0 Craig on Twitter

Ben talks with Pat Brisbin on his new book, and the future of Haskell at thoughtbot. Maybe Haskell announcement thoughtbot's books Learn You a Haskell for Great Good Upcase Haskell excercises Carnival haskell on heroku Yesod Maybe Haskell (50% off for our listeners!) Pat on Twitter

Chad officially welcomes Ben back to the podcast, discuses the employer/employee ideology that can facilitate a successful sabbatical, and reveals some exclusives on the future of thoughtbot. Turing School Ben on the Healthy Hacker podcast Pogo-stick Chair Hound Upcase Rugby explained for Chad New thoughtbot Office Bath Ruby

Chad talks with Ben Arent, product manager at Rackspace, on the pros/cons of app acquisition, as well as their favorite Sass tools. Rackspace Airbrake Go Programing Language Hybrid Cloud OnMetal Cloud Servers Open Computer Project Segment Intercom Tender Support Slate Temper Hubspot Ben on Twitter

Chad talks with Paul Dowman, founder of OK GROW!, on replacing Rails with Meteor, and how martial arts has made him a better developer. OK GROW! Meteor Velocity Test Framework Wasting Less Time Replace CoffeeScript with ES6 Jeet Kune Do Paul on Twitter

Chad talks with Matt Aimonetti, co-founder of Splice, on remote worker strategies, fundraising, and his vision for the future of digital musical collaboration. Splice Chromebox For Meetings #NoEstimates excercism.io Matt on Twitter