The Art of Product

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 iTunes. Links and resources: RefactoringRails.io Drip Scaling SaaS Ben Orenstein on Twitter Derrick Reimer on Twitter

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 iTunes. Links and resources: Drip Udacity Elm Elixir

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 iTunes. Links and resources: Deep Work by Cal Newport RefactoringRails.io Refactoring from Good to Great - Aloha Ruby Conference talk by Ben Orenstein Blameless post-mortems

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 iTunes. Links and resources: RefactoringRails.io Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers Test-Driven Rails course on Upcase Spring Upcase courses Audio-Technica ATR2100 Drip Amazon DynamoDB SendGrid Amazon API Gateway How I Built This podcast by NPR

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 iTunes. Links and resources: Drip RefactoringRails.io FormKeep GitHub/Pulse

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: Drip Leadpages Thoughtbot WWDC2017 SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark Test Brennan Dunn How to exit the Vim editor Podcast Motor

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: Podcast Motor F*ck You, Pay Me by Mike Monteiro Patrick McKenzie @Patio11 Drip Julian Shapiro Elixir Phoenix Framework Programming Phoenix

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: Ben’s Newsletter Drip Leadpages Thoughtbot From Good to Great a talk by Ben Orenstein Sherry Walling

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: CIC Boston Omnifocus Drip Leadpages Thoughtbot Brennan Dunn