The Art of Product

Ben is set to launch his course and is using the looming deadline as an efficiency booster. He recently spoke at Rocky Mountain Ruby, and spent time prepping the talk with a friend at a beach house but unfortunately lost his data due to a hardware malfunction. The talk was still a great success, but a very stressful experience. The next week he spoke at Southeast Ruby in Nashville and it was a much smoother experience. Otherwise he is finishing up launch strategy details and looking forward to shipping the project. Drip.com is now live after a long process, and the Drip team is thrilled. Derrick has also found an opportunity to use Elm at Drip, and is looking forward to implementing it in a new project he can’t yet discuss. Drip is currently looking for a front-end engineer in the Minneapolis area, with Elm experience if possible. Derrick has been travelling recently and even had a flight cancelled due to the California wildfires. Today’s Topics Include: Deadline pressure and work efficiency Ben’s recent speaking engagements Last minute details for Ben’s course release Time-pressure and discount strategies for launch Drip.com domain acquisition Elm programming language If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes</a>. Links and resources: How we structure our work and teams at Basecamp (https://m.signalvnoise.com/how-we-set-up-our-work-cbce3d3d9cae)by Jason Fried <a href="http://elm-lang.org/">Elm</a> RefactoringRails.io (http://refactoringrails.io/) <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a>

This week Ben Orenstein is interviewing guest Avdi Grimm, Founder of RubyTapas, which is a subscription service that provides screencasts of “gourmet” ruby programming. Avdi discusses the topic of his talk at Southeast Ruby in Nashville, which was the value of avoiding code and strategies to bypass the need to write unnecessary coding. Join us as he shares his advice on optimizing workflows and his experiences building RubyTapas. Today’s Topics Include: The value of avoiding code Hidden complexity in building out content platforms Using Wordpress for publishing content Code as a liability Episode production and future of RubyTapas Finding leverage in business and creative work Delegating workflows Views on side-hustling and product development If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes</a>. Links and resources: RubyTapas (https://www.rubytapas.com/) WordPress (https://wordpress.com/) Spacemacs (http://spacemacs.org/), Emacs (https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/), Vim (http://www.vim.org/), Neovim (https://neovim.io/) Side-hustle mindset versus product-business mindset (http://www.virtuouscode.com/2017/02/08/side-hustle-mindset-versus-product-business-mindset/) by Avdi Grimm Avdi.codes (https://avdi.codes/) VirtuousCode.com (http://www.virtuouscode.com/) RefactoringRails.io (http://refactoringrails.io/)

Ben has finalized the logo for his Refactoring Rails course and is currently getting the intro/outro animations and the sales site designed. He also finished the notes for all the videos and was very pleased with the final edit quality. The launch date for RefactoringRails.io is October 16th, 2017. He is still considering options for his post-launch speaking tour. At Drip, Derrick is deep in the backend scaling challenges with a lot of attention towards Black Friday for their ecommerce customers. They are looking to historical data in order to anticipate peak volumes and simulate high loads. One particular initiative they’re working on is “fair queuing” to improve Drip’s user experience under periods of high load. Today’s Topics Include: Refactoring Rails course development Scaling challenges and Black Friday volume High-load simulations Amazon auto-scaling groups Fair queuing Open source libraries If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes</a>. Links and resources: <a href="http://elm-lang.org/">Elm</a> <a href="https://www.meetup.com/Boston-Elm/">Boston Elm Meetup</a> <a href="http://www.benorenstein.com/images/rr-logo.png">Refactoring Rails course logo</a> <a href="https://gumroad.com/">Gumroad</a> <a href="https://rockymtnruby.com/">Rocky Mountain Ruby</a> <a href="http://graphql.org/">GraphQL</a> <a href="https://www.narro.co/">Narro.co</a> <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="http://refactoringrails.io">RefactoringRails.io</a>

Ben is coming back from a restorative vacation in Martha’s Vineyard and loves the vibe there. He is enjoying his Vitamix blender and the Dr. Rhonda Patrick micronutrient smoothie. In Refactoring Rails news, Ben is committing to a launch date of October 16th. He is also scheduled to speak at three different conferences before the launch, and is looking forward to the challenge. He got feedback regarding a premium course tier, and is weighing his options on developing these materials. He has a proposal for the design element work and is close to wrapping up on the content. Derrick attended ElixirConf in Seattle and now feels more confident to use the language in Drip in the future. He’s feeling the pain of running a large Ruby application and is looking for a higher power language. They are heading into using auto-scaling groups and other ways of optimizing the system. He was also interested in the code formatter that Elixir is developing. Today’s Topics Include: Health and nutrition in smoothies ElixirConf and the state of the Elixir language Erlang Programming language Scaling Drip, speed and hosting costs Code formatters Launch of Refactoring Rails Premium tier survey and material options Hiring a designer for the course graphics Ben’s upcoming speaking engagements: Rocky Mountain Ruby, Southeast Ruby Conference and Boulder Ruby Group If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes</a>. Links and resources: <a href="https://www.vitamix.com/us/en_us/">Vitamix Blenders</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys86ZgjQQYg">Dr. Rhonda Patrick micronutrient smoothie</a> <a href="https://elixirconf.com/">ElixirConf</a> <a href="https://elixir-lang.org/">Elixir</a> <a href="https://www.erlang.org/">Erlang</a> <a href="https://rockymtnruby.com/">Rocky Mountain Ruby</a> <a href="https://southeastruby.com/">Southeast Ruby</a> <a href="https://www.meetup.com/boulder_ruby_group/">Boulder Ruby Group</a> <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="http://refactoringrails.io">RefactoringRails.io</a>

Ben and Derrick are back from vacation this week are feeling refreshed. Ben tweeted something that went viral and has dealt with some people’s misinterpretation and bias. He is working on hiring a designer for some of the course finishing touches and is honing in on the premium tier offerings. Ben also has two side projects, Briefs and Trail Mix, that he is thinking of doing a tour about. RefactoringRails.io is set to launch the end of September. Drip has been onboarding a new developer onto the core-product team and Derrick discusses his interview and hiring process. He also shares how Drip is doing as a customer-driven product team, inspired by David Cancel’s top ten criteria in a recent Conversion Cast episode. Today’s Topics Include: Going viral and dealing with public reaction Ben’s side projects, Briefs and Trail Mix Finishing and preparing to launch Ben’s course RefactoringRails.io Hiring process at Drip Allocating time for housekeeping tasks to avoid ‘noise’ David Cancel’s top ten items to determine if you’re doing well in a customer-driven product team If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes</a>. Links and resources: <a href="http://refactoringrails.io">RefactoringRails.io</a> <a href="https://www.briefs.fm">Briefs</a> <a herf="https://www.trailmix.life>"Trail Mix</a> <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/conversioncast-conversion-journey-as-told-by-leadpages/id831152218?mt=2">Conversion Cast</a> - <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/conversioncast/e/51266601">Episode with David Cancel</a> <a herf"https://www.drift.com">Drift</a>

This week Ben is on vacation and Derrick is here to share some fresh knowledge behind the scenes at Drip. They’re experimenting at Drip with how to scale the system to handle more customers and what changes are needed to make the architecture support all their customers and future large customers in the sales pipeline. Derrick goes over his team’s recent brainstorming session and plans to repeat the exercise for more subsystems at Drip. Today’s Topics Include: The many seasons of scaling a SaaS business Starting with simplistic architecture Arriving at bottlenecks and incremental evolution of the system How to have brainstorming sessions with engineers Reevaluating assumptions and tradeoffs If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes</a>. Links and resources: <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a>

This week Ben has been managing his projects and to-do list with OmniFocus, which helps as his business and stress level continue to increase. He has outlined and will be recording his last video about form objects and is glad to be approaching the finish line on the course. He also experimented with adding a Call to Action button in his emails but wants to get more data comparing metrics to get the best strategy with different email clients. Derrick has been in the trenches working on scaling Drip this week by strategizing on architecture with the backend team. They have onboarded one of their biggest customers and are working with them to segment and filter subscribers to be more efficient. He discussed the importance of legacy code base and how it is re-invented and improved over time. While their backend has become more complicated and fast-paced, he and his team are committed to keeping high quality and continue shipping things out quickly. Today’s Topics Include: Working around a schedule and dealing with notifications Email data metrics and call to action tests Scaling backend architecture Brain-dumping to address issues Defining legacy in a code base and continuous re-evaluation Consistency in a code base Moving fast and increasing complexity while maintaining high quality If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes</a>. Links and resources: <a href="http://refactoringrails.io">RefactoringRails.io</a> <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus">Omnifocus</a> <a href="https://getpocket.com/">Pocket</a> <a href="https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/">Final Cut Pro</a> <a href="https://github.com/">Github</a> <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom?hl=en-US">AdBlock</a>

This past week Ben has hit a mental slump in the final phase of his course. However, he is moving through it and will be recording another video today towards the new final goal of 8 total course videos. He is tentatively scheduling the course launch for the first week of September. He has also scheduled his first Meetup event of his tour, on September 13th at the Atlanta Ruby Users Group. Derrick brings up a recent Giant Robots podcast episode with Seth Godin, which talks about the dips experienced in business, “crossing the chasm” by moving from innovators into the mass market, and the personal transparency of the host Chad Pytel. Derrick relates what he heard to the phase Drip is in at the moment, and where he wants it and himself to go in the future. Today’s Topics Include: Finishing a project and psychological momentum Ben’s Ruby Meetup tour and launch sequence Giant Robots podcast episode with Seth Godin Being real and transparent as a podcaster Reflecting on business and choosing what market you want to serve Drip’s current stage and market Deciding the way you want to work while growing a company Innovation versus mass market Admin and internal dev tools If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes</a>. Links and resources: <a href="http://refactoringrails.io">RefactoringRails.io</a> <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="https://www.meetup.com/atlantaruby">Atlanta Ruby Users Group</a> <a href="http://giantrobots.fm/244">Giant Robots podcast Seth Godin Episode</a> <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/">Thoughtbot</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-High-Tech-Mainstream/dp/0060517123">Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore</a> <a href="http://www.scalingsaas.com/">Scaling SaaS</a>

This week Ben discusses his experiment live-streaming a practice recording of his next video. He received helpful feedback and saw a spike in email subscribers, so it was very successful. He now has six videos done in the course and is considering a multiple tiered pricing model for his course release. On a personal note he has decided to move from his apartment in downtown Boston and will soon relocate to a hip area outside of the city. His goal this month is to finish and launch the course before the move and start his Meetup tour in September. Derrick has been working on the Drip free trial to help clarify the product plans. He debated split testing this move, but in talking to his team they decided to just go for it. There was a bit of user confusion during the onboarding workflow for the free plan so this should clear things up. On the backend, this week the team is upgrading to Rails 5 and working to replace Capistrano with Amazon’s CodeDeploy. Derrick is also reviewing his code review processes and Ben weighs in on his thoughts on this problem. Today’s Topics Include: Regular yoga practice and posture Ben’s live-stream experience and results Relocating living space and minimalist lifestyles Multiple tiered course pricing models Changes to the Drip free trial program Keeping up with Rails versions Amazon CodeDeploy Code review processes If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes</a>. Links and resources: <a href="http://refactoringrails.io">RefactoringRails.io</a> <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/">Twitch</a> <a href="http://rubyonrails.org/">Ruby on Rails</a> <a href="http://capistranorb.com/">Capistrano</a> <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/codedeploy/">Amazon CodeDeploy</a> <a href="https://www.heroku.com/">Heruko</a>

Derrick is coming back from a much-needed vacation in San Francisco and enjoyed walking tours thanks to the Detour app. He returns refreshed and was able to get back into the swing of things and even into his yoga classes. It was also officially announced this week that Clay Collins, Founder and CEO of LeadPages is stepping down and will be replaced by former COO John Tedesco. Clay had a great amount of self-awareness in his announcement and this brings up the topic of The Founder’s Dilemma and best management practices for startups. Last week Ben published a new sample course video on speeding up slow test suites. He is improving his recording and editing processes using Final Cut Pro. He is now working on the fifth video and nearing the halfway point on the course. He is also going to try live streaming the practice run of his next video and incorporating early feedback into the final recording. To market the course, he is looking forward to traveling the country and speaking at Ruby meetups. Today’s Topics Include: Taking real vacations and disconnecting from work in order to recharge The restorative power of yoga Company history and leadership changes at Leadpages The Founder’s Dilemma and knowing what you are optimizing for Freedom, wealth and ambition as a startup founder Outsourcing and the value of having a personal assistant Video editing processes, software and live streaming Ruby meetup tours as a marketing tool If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes</a>. Links and resources: <a href="http://refactoringrails.io">RefactoringRails.io</a> <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="https://www.detour.com/">Detour - guided walking tour app</a> <a href="https://www.leadpages.net/welcome">Leadpages</a> <a href="https://hbr.org/2008/02/the-founders-dilemma">The Founder’s Dilemma by Noam Wasserman</a> <a href="https://blog.asmartbear.com/rich-vs-king-sold-company.html">Rich vs. King in the Real World: Why I sold my company by Jason Cohen</a> <a href="https://goinswriter.com/build-a-business/">Don’t Build a Business Because You Want Freedom by Jeff Goins</a> <a href="http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/">Startups for the Rest of Us podcast</a> <a href="https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/">Final Cut Pro</a>

Today Ben’s guest is Brennan Dunn, co-founder of RightMessage, a tool that allows you to personalize your website based on user information and behavior. This allows you to customize your messaging to each user’s unique story and needs. Brennan explains the value of customer targeting, shares his ambition for Right Message, his personal journey and advice for other software startups along the way. Today’s Topics Include: Brennan’s experiences and genesis of RightMessage Targeting with ads and website content Technical details on customer targeting Most profitable targeting activity Onboarding hesitant customers with course material Current status and future plans for RightMessage If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes</a>. Links and resources: <a href="https://rightmessage.io/artofproduct">RightMessage</a> <a href="https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/">Double Your Freelancing</a> <a href="https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/drip-pro-tools/">Drip Pro Tools</a> <a href="https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/drip-course/">Master Drip Email Automation Course - Brennan Dunn</a> <a href="https://www.bouncex.com/">Bounce Exchange</a> <a href="https://webpack.github.io/">Webpack</a> <a href="https://planscope.io/">Planscope</a> <a href="https://churnbuster.io/">Churn Buster</a> <a href="https://baremetrics.com/open">Baremetrics Open Startups</a>

This week Ben is adjusting to jet-lag from his travels to Las Vegas and Martha’s Vineyard last week. He did however manage to release another episode of his sample campaign that was recorded before his vacation, so he is making good progress with the course. He has a welcome to the mailing list campaign featuring the three sample videos, and has nailed down a pacing and difficulty level for recording each video. He will finish a fourth video in the next few days and is thinking of pre-launching the course once at least half has been recorded. Derrick is celebrating and reflecting on the one year anniversary of the Drip acquisition. They have gone from 3 to 10 engineers in the last year, and have really hit their stride in productivity. Their free plan has launched, which has only been feasible since receiving funding, and it has been a successful market strategy. Overall he has been a bit stressed at managing the large scale use of their platform while planning for future growth. Today’s Topics Include: Falling out of good routines while traveling Releasing evergreen content instead of broadcasts Thinking about non-native English speaking viewers when recording videos Celebrating the Drip one year anniversary of acquisition Managing current workloads while scaling and also planning for growth Scaling challenges in SaaS businesses Keeping mental and physical health up during stressful times Getting used to using the Amazon Echo If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes</a>. Links and resources: <a href="http://refactoringrails.io">RefactoringRails.io</a> <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="http://www.scalingsaas.com">Scaling SaaS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/r00k?lang=en">Ben Orenstein on Twitter</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/derrickreimer?lang=en">Derrick Reimer on Twitter</a>

This episode Ben is on vacation and we have a guest, Ian Nance, a Drip team member here to talk about his backstory and how he got into software development. Ian has an interesting story about how he started programming later in life and his work experiences. Join us as he shares his journey and some great advice for beginners in the field. Today’s Topics Include: Ian’s background and start in programming Going from online and in-person courses to working on the job Troubleshooting customer problems and on-the-job learning Continuing education and keeping up with technology Advice to beginners in the programming world If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes.</a> Links and resources: <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="https://www.udacity.com">Udacity</a> <a href="http://elm-lang.org">Elm</a> <a href="https://elixir-lang.org">Elixir</a>

This week Ben has been trying new productivity techniques and studying different systems of workflow. He finished a new course video on Page Objects, and has sketched out a second video to hit his pre-vacation goal. He also released a re-edit of his first video, and is strategizing on how much material to drip out in promoting the course. He’s thinking of approaching his course videos similar to how he would approach giving a talk, and giving each one more practice before going live. Derrick had a technical issue over the weekend, which his team worked out and stabilized. He has decided to adopt a “blameless post-mortem” approach to problem-solving going forward. The incident ended up turning into a learning exercise and they are going to focus on building a playbook as a resource in the future. Today’s Topics Include: Testing work productivity methods Planning a drip release of a video course Improving video recording prep and practice Pacing and speed of course videos A “blameless post-mortem” approach to problem solving Building documentation to help teams respond to technical issues If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes.</a> Links and resources: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692">Deep Work by Cal Newport</a> <a href="http://refactoringrails.io">RefactoringRails.io</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/DC-pQPq0acs">Refactoring from Good to Great - Aloha Ruby Conference talk by Ben Orenstein</a> <a href="https://www.etsy.com/progress-report/2015/blamess-post-mortems">Blameless post-mortems </a>

On today’s episode we discuss Ben’s release of the first video in his Refactoring Rails course, on the benefits of following Rest in Rails applications. He goes over how he produced the video, sent it out and the feedback he got on his initial release. He now knows the rough format he wants to follow for the course, and he is still figuring out how many modules that would include. He is getting ready to release a final polished version, and has ordered some better audio recording equipment for future videos. His goal for next week is to release two more videos. Derrick has been shipping even more this week, and has seen a huge improvement in his workflow by reducing the notifications on GitHub. His team is adjusting to a more efficient way of working instead of push notifications. He shipped out a widget to embed sharable workflows within a website that includes affiliate links. He and his team have also been strategizing about their back-end infrastructure and scaling their Drip delivery system. Today’s Topics Include: Ben’s Refactoring Rails course first course video release and feedback The goals for the course format, length and possible supplementary materials The tools and skills included in the video course that could be expanded Releasing his video to a mailing list and ways to get more traffic Reflecting on doing the course solo and how he’s liking the co-working space Derrick’s improving work clarity by reducing GitHub notifications by unwatching of main drip repository Creating a new system for the team to be most productive Sharable workflows and the new embed widget Improving scale for Drip delivery system and looking for new infrastructure systems If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes.</a> Links and resources: <a href="http://refactoringrails.io">RefactoringRails.io</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Working-Effectively-Legacy-Michael-Feathers/dp/0131177052">Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers</a> <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/upcase/test-driven-rails">Test-Driven Rails course on Upcase</a> <a href="https://github.com/rails/spring">Spring</a> <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/upcase">Upcase courses</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATR2100-USB-Cardioid-Dynamic-Microphone/dp/B004QJOZS4">Audio-Technica ATR2100</a> <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/dynamodb/">Amazon DynamoDB</a> <a href="https://sendgrid.com/">SendGrid</a> <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/api-gateway/">Amazon API Gateway</a> <a href="http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this">How I Built This podcast by NPR</a>

Today we talk about how Ben just launched his new landing page and set up the domain for his new Rails video course. Ben’s also feeling pretty good about being committed to the first thing and now it’s full steam ahead with the video course. Now it is time to put together a marketing and list-building plan and start organizing the content and getting feedback. Ben feels it will be a compelling video course and plans to go after pre-orders. Derrick has been shipping stuff this week. He just rediscovered the pulse tab on GitHub which gives a nice summary of what they have done over the week. They are making improvements to the subscriber page, and they have added global snippets. They have more refinements coming such as search when there are many items in a drop-down list. Derrick has had a lot going on, so he is turning off some of his notifications to avoid overload when he is trying to work. Today’s topics include: Ben is beginning to focus on Rails in particular for his new video course. The next step is driving as many people to the page as possible to collect emails. Then he is putting together a working table of contents and getting feedback on that by reaching out to people who are interested. Going after teams for video course projects. Possible ways to structure things to appeal to teams that would purchase the course. How it’s nice to have someone else you know nearby while working and the benefits of sharing co-working space. Derrick has been making a lot of programming improvements and refinements to Drip. Convenience and flexibility of using plugins. Preventing things from getting lost in the noise. Dealing with notification overload and letting go a little bit. If you’re enjoying the show please give us your ratings and reviews in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-product/id1243627144?mt=2">iTunes.</a> Links and resources: <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="http://refactoringrails.io">RefactoringRails.io</a> <a href="https://formkeep.com">FormKeep</a> <a href="https://github.com/blog/1476-get-up-to-speed-with-pulse">GitHub/Pulse</a>

In this episode, Derrick is broadcasting from California as he visits his family. Ben went to Vermont last week and quickly realized how relaxing it is to be outside and see greenery. Such a different feel from the tension in the city. Ben has been chatting with a couple of people about consulting as a revenue officer. He had an interesting chat with someone but their visions just weren’t aligned in terms of value and compensation. Also it turned out this person wasn’t the decision maker, and the founder wasn’t as agreeable to Ben’s terms. Lesson learned - always talk to the decision maker. Ben is also struggling with whether he really wants to be involved in consulting. He may want to just focus on his product. Enjoy the show. Today’s topics include: Buying Apple laptops and how tricky it can be. When interviewing and making offers it’s always a good idea to talk to the decision maker. Launching info products and being smart about the automation and marketing. Ben’s idea for a SaaS starter kit has been getting positive feedback. Derrick shipped a new Drip feature called sharing workflows. There will be a gallery with workflows that people can just click on and use. Derrick is making good progress and writing less code, so that he won’t be the bottleneck on his team. It’s motivating to have people focused on their area of expertise. Challenges of getting new hires and team members up to speed. Links and resources: <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="https://www.leadpages.net">Leadpages</a> <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/">Thoughtbot </a> <a href="https://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2017/">WWDC2017</a> <a href="https://webkit.org/perf/sunspider/sunspider.html">SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark Test</a> <a href="https://www.doubleyourfreelancing.com">Brennan Dunn</a> <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11828270/how-to-exit-the-vim-editor">How to exit the Vim editor</a> <a href="https://www.podcastmotor.com">Podcast Motor</a>

Updates and pricing strategies highlight today’s episode. Ben did yoga this morning, and he is feeling relaxed as he is settling in with his new lifestyle. Next week Ben is closing his first part-time chief revenue officer engagement. Now it’s time to come up with a contract and a pricing strategy. Derrick is looking at different pricing strategies and markets for Drip. There are so many opportunities for positioning and marketing. The extended trial free plan has created a full pipeline that converts at a healthy rate. Derrick also spent his Memorial Day weekend playing with the programming language Elixir and learning some cool new data manipulation techniques. Enjoy the show. Today’s topics include: The startup life ups and downs and the brain body connection. Doing work as an independent creative professional and how contracts help get freelancers paid. How reaching out to your email list can lead to interesting opportunities. Pricing for services and how to price based on value. Different pricing packages with tiers and bundling strategies. Problems with offering free plans and support and scale issues. When product features increase so do support obligations. People being nice on the Internet. Content hubs or Websites. Learning Elixir. Links and resources: <a href="https://www.podcastmotor.com">Podcast Motor</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVkLVRt6c1U">F*ck You, Pay Me by Mike Monteiro</a> Patrick McKenzie <a href="https://twitter.com/patio11">@Patio11</a> <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="https://www.julian.com">Julian Shapiro</a> <a href="https://elixir-lang.org">Elixir</a> <a href="http://www.phoenixframework.org">Phoenix Framework</a> <a href="https://pragprog.com/book/phoenix/programming-phoenix">Programming Phoenix</a>

Welcome to the Art of Product podcast. Derrick is rocking his “I ♥ yoga” shirt because he started practicing yoga at a studio down the street. He also gives us an update on new changes and features at Drip. Derrick was inspired by Ben’s newsletter and decided to work on his own newsletter, which gave him a great opportunity to use his own product. Ben is discovering that unemployment is a roller coaster. His stress level has been about 5X his normal baseline stress level. He started working at the co-working space and attending mixer events. He is emailing people on his list and sharing his ideas to get feedback for possible products for him to work on. Ben has been reflecting on how people and relationships make him shine and is considering finding a co-founder for his product. Today’s topics include: How the metabolic rate of connective tissue is a 5th of muscle tissue. Drip has refreshed their marketing page and is working on adding product. How responsive the people at Drip are with feature requests and customer inquiries. Ben’s top 3 ideas are refactoring his “From Good to Great” talk into a course, a book called The Tiny Book for Faster Rails, and a Rails starter kit. How it is difficult to plan out everything that is going to happen in the future. Ways to find support for Ben’s work and projects. Being open to changing your mind. How awesome and supportive Ben’s online community has been. Links and resources: <a href="http://www.benorenstein.com/newsletter">Ben’s Newsletter</a> <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="https://www.leadpages.net/?gclid=CjwKEAjw07nJBRDG_tvshefHhWQSJABRcE-ZXOoMGQ8dQu4fQKX9M3uGTQw4XWcvGYOhhjBT9c4jaxoC10Dw_wcB">Leadpages</a> <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/">Thoughtbot</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC-pQPq0acs">From Good to Great a talk by Ben Orenstein</a> <a href="http://www.sherrywalling.com">Sherry Walling</a>

Welcome to the Art of Product podcast. This is episode 1, and just the beginning of the journey. This is a show with Ben Orenstein formerly from thoughtbot and Drip co-founder Derrick Reimer. Ben recently quit his job at thoughtbot, and is now focusing on what he is going to do next. Stay tuned. This is going to be a fun journey. Ben and Derrick talk about venturing out on one’s own and starting a new business. Ben has found a new co-working space in Boston. He is even trying a shared desk for interaction with people and to avoid the work-at-home isolation. Keeping focused and staying on task are important issues. Hopefully Omnifocus will help with that. Derrick is excited about the future and growth of Drip. Today’s topics include: How to stay focused when setting up a new business and do more than just the fun things. The importance of having built-in structure when working on your own business. How work can creep into your entire life without the luxury of a set schedule. Putting travel off while getting established. Going from income rate to a burn rate. Having a financial buffer to provide flexibility with establishing a new business. Brennan Dunn just spoke at Leadpages, he also happened to be Drip user number 5 and he pushed the product with his innovator feedback. Derrick enjoyed talking with a power user like Brennan. How Drip is scaling and hiring with the backend and the core product or feature team. Links and resources: <a href="https://boston.cic.us">CIC Boston</a> <a href="https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus">Omnifocus</a> <a href="https://www.drip.co">Drip</a> <a href="https://www.leadpages.net/?gclid=CjwKEAjw07nJBRDG_tvshefHhWQSJABRcE-ZXOoMGQ8dQu4fQKX9M3uGTQw4XWcvGYOhhjBT9c4jaxoC10Dw_wcB">Leadpages</a> <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/">Thoughtbot</a> <a href="https://doubleyourfreelancing.com">Brennan Dunn</a>