Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben & Derrick discuss music in the workplace, optimizing Redis, reaching larger markets beyond early adopters, and standing out in job application e-mails. Upcase FormKeep Hostile Architecture on 99% Invisible twemproxy Crossing the Chasm: Geoffrey A. Moore

Derrick considers learning a new language to be prepared for scaling Drip's optimization, and gives new details on the tech used to streamline queries for large accounts. Ben breaks down his post to finding the best candidate for product Head of Marketing, and pointers on developing an entrepreneur's mindset. Podcast Swag Bundles Upcase FormKeep Drip You Should Take A Codecation You're an Elixir Developer Now on The Bike Shed Podcast Mutability Ruins the Whole Party- José Valim on The Bike Shed Podcast We're Hiring a Head of Marketing for our Products Start Small, Stay Small- Rob Walling Minimum Path to Awesome- Rob Walling on Giant Robots

Ben discusses the lessons of mimicked learning and tempering of judgmental thinking gleaned from a sports book, and muses on how to apply them to career advice. On Drip, faced with a mountain of catch-up work after the holiday, Derek confronts scalability. Podcast Swag Bundles Upcase FormKeep The Inner Game of Tennis How to Get Good at Making Money- Jason Fried thoughtbot Style Guide We're Hiring a Head of Marketing for Our Products Ben's Personal Site Edgar Laura Roeder on Giant Robots

Ben decides to hire a support firm, document support processes, completes the Hound pricing change, and prepares to make products their own division for next year. Meanwhile, on Drip, Derrick addresses a performance challenge. Podcast Swag Bundles Upcase FormKeep CoSupport Bootstrapped Web Podcast The Checklist Manifesto: Atul Gawande The Checklist I Use To Start My Day Hound

Ben is joined by Mike Perham, author of Sidekiq, to discuss running a business solo, taking a side project from hobby to full time job, and scaling support as an app grows. Upcase FormKeep Indie Hackers- Sidekiq Sidekiq Open Core Software Business Model MikePerham.com Kill Your Dependencies

On Drip, Derrick launches a free tier, and utilizes credit card anti-fraud measures. Ben publicly launches FormLinter, pauses exploring new product ideas in favor of giving attention to existing ones, and starts to rebuild the product team. They also discuss the merits of remote vs in-person collaboration, the pros and cons of open offices, and dealing with interruptions from notifications and meetings. Upcase FormKeep Drip Stripe: Radar Caffeine Effects on Sleep Study The Development Abstraction Layer- Joel Spolsky Announcing FormLinter

Ben and Nick get super nerdy this week and chat about Meetspace's architecture using Go, Postgres, and HMAC including custom cookie signing, rendering, error handling, tooling, and more! Upcase FormKeep Meetspace- use code GIANTROBOTS30 for 30% off your first month Go Postgres Driver Google's Websocket Driver WebRTC Uniform Interface Secure Signed Cookies- Nick Gauthier HMAC errcheck Go linter Think Like a Software Developer- Geoffrey Grosenbach Tubesock Jeff Casimir on Giant Robots Nick on Twitter

Sadly, Ben is stuck in hammock somewhere, and we are without a new episode this week. However, we would love you all to check out thoughtbot's newest podcast, interviewing inspirational designers, developers, and other makers in tech, The Laila & Brenda Show! Give their latest episode a listen here, and if you like it subscribe to their feed however you listen to podcasts! The Laila & Brenda Show

Ben and Nick chat about ways to pitch your product, working solo as well as sustainably, and the costs of doing business. Upcase FormKeep Meetspace- use code GIANTROBOTS30 for 30% off your first month Staying Motivated While Working Solo Nick on Twitter

Ben talks to Nick Gauthier, founder of MeetSpace, about the importance of validating ideas, reading through API documentation, and pricing surveys. Podcast Patreon Survey Upcase FormKeep MeetSpace- use code GIANTROBOTS30 for 30% off your first month HMAC Random Postgres Docs App Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter How Our Users Picked Our Pricing Go Newsletter SaaSFest Nick on Twitter

Derrick finds some new areas to improve after walking new hires through Drip's architecture, and discusses his custom billing engine. On Hound, Ben delegates the new-pricing project, and validates a new product idea. Podcast Patreon Survey Upcase FormKeep Drip Briefs FullStory Hound techzing podcast The War of Art Content Marketing ROI

Derrick brings a few more new hires onto the team, and ships a change to make clients' Javascript snippets more performant. On Hound, Ben does some direct outreach sales, considers bringing on someone to help with marketing, and muses on the balancing act between product manager, developer, and marketing. Podcast Patreon Survey Upcase FormKeep Drip Bootstrapped Web Podcast Greg Pollack Founder's Talk Hound Third-Party JavaScript ZenFounder Podcast Grand Trunk Hammocks

On Hound, Ben sends out announcements for pricing changes, questions when a decision is the "right" decision when it comes to customer feedback, and toys with per-seat pricing model feasibility. Derrick has a successful first week on-boarding the new dev-ops hire, offers Ben some advice on balancing features with price, and discusses some customer acquisition campaigns. Podcast Patreon Survey Upcase FormKeep Drip Schlep Blindness- Paul Graham (Ben meant 'Schlep' rather than 'Slog') Conversion Cast

Ben plans a camping trip, acquires a new Twitter account, releases his notes on giving great conference talks, and begins to tell users of Hound's new pricing. Derrick reacts to the announcement of Github Projects and what that means for Codetree, ships the new form design on Drip, and muses on the ramifications to Google's announced penalizing of intrusive mobile pop-ups. Upcase FormKeep Drip Ultralight Backpackin' Tips We're on Twitter Projects on GitHub- from GitHub Universe 2016 Codetree Om Next- David Nolen, Euroclojure 2015 'Dear Github' How to Scale a Development Team Speaking for Hackers Google Pop-up Guidelines

On Drip, Derrick deals with a high-bandwidth customer and hires a new devops team member. Meanwhile, Ben brainstorms new pricing structures for Hound. Upcase FormKeep Drip Lessons From the Saas Metrics of 1500 Companies- Patrick Campbell MicroConf Session Overview (video not currently available)

Derrick switches domains from getdrip.com to drip.co, begins to update the design of the Drip widget, and tries to find balance in his varying roles as CTO. Ben hands off the reigns of Upcase, switches to a low-tech project management solution, and mixes work and personal todos. Upcase FormKeep Drip Implementing a Strong Code-Review Culture- Derek Prior Seeking Wisdom Podcast 16Personalities Momentum Chrome Extension

Ben welcomes guest co-host Derrick Reimer, co-founder of Drip, getting to know his background and products for our first outside-thoughtbot view on SaaS strategy (as well as Ben's arm-twisty methods for getting him on the podcast in the first place)! Upcase FormKeep Drip MicroConf Sidekiq Codetree Drip Workflows Derrick on Twitter

thoughtbot CEO Chad Pytel joins Ben to discuss our recent office closings and reasons necessitating this decision, what this means for the product team, and the future of thoughtbot. Also, a teaser of what to expect next from Giant Robots Podcast. Upcase FormKeep Hound Chad on Giant Robots from last year Chad on Twitter

Fresh back from vacation, Ben shifts his attention to a Hound project, adding in tiered plans and pricing. Chris begins to build out a drip sequence for content recommendations, prepares to roll off to return to client work, and leaves us with some final reflections, takeaways, and lessons learned while on Upcase. Upcase FormKeep Hound ./bin/setup Warren Buffett's 2-List System

Chris delves into marketing mode for the TDD course, removes more client-side analytics code, and starts redesigning the information architecture on Upcase. On FormKeep, Ben alerts users to site down-time, removes all pay-per-form logic from the codebase, and begins to set up trials sans credit-card. Upcase FormKeep Netflix Culture Deck Fundamentals of TDD on Upcase Fundamentals of TDD Blog Post Pingdom Sandi Metz on Bike Shed

Ben receives some insight on customer referrals for FormKeep, applies his pricing philosophy to Hound, and realizes a personal blind-spot when it comes to customer satisfaction. On Upcase, Chris patches an automated follow-up messaging bug leading to enhanced focus on server-side analytics, welcomes Tyson to the team to begin work on trail mapping course content, and soft launches the Fundamentals of TDD trail. Upcase FormKeep Age Motivation extension The Laila & Brenda Show .fm wiki Amplitude HitTail Hound Fundamentals of TDD

Ben rants about bad jokes on twitter, doesn't ship any improved activation features on FormKeep this week, irons out some bugs on FormLinter, and begins an ad campaign. Chris contemplates shifting Upcase's business model, and walks through the impetus driving this decision. Upcase FormKeep John Carmack Twitter Fan-In FormLinter The Weekly Iteration

Ben encounters a downed FormKeep and enables a monitoring service, completes the un-grandfathering process for accounts on old tiers, and begins work on improving activation flow. Chris sends out a survey to users and discovers a shift in the Upcase demographics. Upcase FormKeep pingdom FormLinter

Chris digs into the causes for a MRR drop, discovering usage trends with seasonality; and in the process gets a clearer picture of Upcase's user base. Also, he welcome Geoff to the project, and begins a new marketing initiative driven by user testimonials. Ben welcomes Tyson onto team Formkeep to begin redesigning on boarding, and continues FormLinter improvements / marketing. Upcase Formkeep Typeform Hiten Shah on Giant Robots ChefSteps FullStory FormLinter

This week, we ruminate on the meta-organization of project management. Ben embraces team feedback on FormLinter.com, reaches the end of Formkeep's grandfathered pricing window, and removes sandboxing to streamline plan structures. Chris contemplates Upcase's role as a product within thoughtbot, prepares to welcome on new team members (bye Gabe!), and restructures topic relationships to improve discoverability. Also, the return of Dance Talk! Upcase Formkeep Getting Things Done Warren Buffett's 2-List System FormLinter Ruby on Rails 15 Minute Blog Engine Demo

On Formkeep, Ben launches FormLinter to increase form accessibility and conversions, and looks forward to additional persons on thoughtbot product work. Chris continues marketing of the Bourbon Smash course, wrestles with metrics and analytics, and improves team logins on Upcase. Upcase Formkeep FormLinter AccessLint Traction- Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares inbound.org Failing on Day One- Chad Pytel Panopticon

On Upcase, Chris releases the Bourbon course, restructures how new courses are highlighted, and discusses juggling the various factors that contribute to MRR. Ben takes on-boarding notes from a century old dance school to improve activation on Formkeep. Upcase Formkeep Hardcore History Bourbon Smash Course on Upcase Ruby Tapas Arthur Murray Dance Centers Bootstrapped CPC Rule of Thumb- Jason Cohen Dark Age of Camelot

Ben changes product activation flow, possibly for the worse, launches a new UI, and muses on new customer acquisition for Formkeep. On Upcase, Chris starts to see benefits from the domain transition, and brainstorms on how to un-bottleneck course releases. Upcase Formkeep Thinking, Fast and Slow Getting Things Done Planet Money 667: The Experiment Experiment

Ben delays a new feature until an easier implementation can be reached, adds additional event tracking for better site usage feedback, takes a medium to large digression to rant about Javascript, and makes headway on Formkeep's UI refactor. On Upcase, Chris steps back from the content spotlight, takes a hit to traffic from the domain transition, and tests all things email. Upcase Formkeep Amplitude Analytics Segment Analytics Bike Shed #58- Rewrite vs refactor episode Keeping the Front-End Modular with BEM- On Giant Robots Blog Inline CSS at Khan Academy: Aphrodite Clearbit Your Money or Your Life How to 10x in 15 months- Rob Walling 2012 SaaS Conversions Benchmark

Chris transitions Upcase to thoughtbot.com/upcase for SEO and branding purposes, and introduces reactivate & resubscribe functionality. Ben publishes a blog post on Formkeep's pricing history, optimizes the initial form setup page, and begins work to implement a no credit card up-front trial. Upcase Formkeep ConvertKit’s 3,000% revenue growth that nobody saw coming- Josh Pigford Is your company really only doing $45,000 per month?- Josh Pigford Hedonic Treadmill A Tale of Three Pricing Models- Ben Orenstein 2012 SaaS Conversions Benchmark Wim Hof Method Fastly

Ben switches from Mandrill to Sendgrid, turns a corner on his guarantee vs trial test, and begins the process of overhauling Formkeep's UI. Meanwhile, on Upcase, Chris utilizes an interesting method for A/B Testing, teases a secret project, and increases SEO by changing out the header. Upcase Formkeep

Ben and Chris muse on the nature of weather-related happiness. Also, Ben works on instrumenting Formkeep's activation funnel, utilizes a monitoring utility to optimize sign-up flow, and vows to almost certainly not toy with pricing any more. Meanwhile on Upcase, Chris confronts multiple root causes for a dip in MRR, updates content displays, and overhauls the checkout. Upcase Formkeep The Hedonic Treadmill FullStory

Ben and Chris discuss taxes and financial (as well as bedtime) routines. On Upcase, Chris showcases "The Weekly Iteration" on the site, reveals a long-term dream for the platform, and patches a critical security issue. Ben adds a bunch of features to cut down on support requests, does some UX cleanup, and performs other general tasks to improve usability on Formkeep. Upcase Formkeep Philips Hue The Weekly Iteration Campaign Monitor- HTML Email Design Guidelines Git remote code execution vulnerability Flexbox Flexbox on The Weekly Iteration AccountDock calendly Thank you to Hired for sponsoring this episode!

Chris makes progress on Upcase's to-dos in order to shift focus to after-the-funnel improvements, and makes a renewed vow to talk to customers for direct feedback. Meanwhile, Ben attends a conference, and while he picked up some great strategies for Formkeep onboarding, he mostly just wants to fix the airline industry. Upcase Formkeep Advanced ActiveRecord Querying- Bloopers Gail Goodman: When software and people mix- Business of Software 2012 Startups For the Rest of Us Ep 212- The Long, Slow Death of SaaS Ramp MicroConf Thank you to Hired for sponsoring this episode!

Chris keeps improving MRR on Upcase, patches a Javascript problem with a Javascript solution, and implements benefit focused text on course descriptions. On Formkeep, Ben discovers a flaw in an A/B test, deals with squirrely payment code, and prepares for a conference talk. Upcase Formkeep MicroConf Briefs Dark Patterns on Tentative Podcast Percy.io- Visual regression testing Paul Fernell (Litmus) on Giant Robots Weekly Iteration- Intro to Accessibility Thank you to Hired for sponsoring this episode!

Ben decides to A/B test pricing, begins grandfathering existing customers to the new tiers, teases new features on Formkeep, and recounts some interesting customer interactions. Meanwhile, Chris drives conversions through e-mail and Twitter, identifies unique customer segments, and brings in more of the thoughtbot voice to Upcase. Formkeep Upcase Visual Website Optomizer Split Gem Honeybadger thoughtbot YouTube Thank you to Hired for sponsoring this episode!

Chris welcomes a new member to team Upcase, confronts a drop in MRR, and looks forward to increased content production. On Formkeep, Ben introduces tiered pricing and trials, considers tier differentiators, and muses on what next to implement. Formkeep Upcase Zapier a smart bear Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business- Jason Cohen

Ben and Chris welcome on Ryan Buckley, co-founder of Scripted, for an honest discussion on the shortcomings, pain-points, and benefits that arise from restructuring a product's focus. Formkeep Upcase: 50% Off Your First Month For Giant Robots Listeners! Scripted Ryan on Twitter

Ben welcomes SaaS growth and customer success pioneer Lincoln Murphy to discuss the true importance of providing value to existing customers and focusing on their success, as every tactic you undertake as a business is predicated on understanding their desired outcome. He also delves into how focusing on customer type is beneficial for both consumers and producers, as well as gives Ben some feedback about Formkeep. Formkeep The Value of Keeping the Right Customers 80/20 Rule Jobs-to-be-Done Ideal Customer Profile Framework Sixteen Ventures Lincoln on Twitter

Ben accidentally launches a Vim course, debates a B2B vs B2C focus, and feels out different Formkeep pricing tiers. Chris welcomes back a handful of former subscribers to Upcase, continues to work on content production, and integrates relevant content into broader thoughtbot docs. Upcase Formkeep Become a Daily Vim User Vim Tips With Ben Podcast Sublime Text Factory Girl docs with Upcase introductory video

Chris converts with email campaigns, lays out a time-table to churn out a ton of content, and tries to analyze a dip in revenue. Meanwhile, Ben tests the definition of what constitutes a "conference", focuses on how to enrich Formkeep for specific use cases, and makes headway on tiered pricing. Upcase Formkeep Moraware- Countertop Fabricator Software Clearbit

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