Ben Orenstein

103: Code Quality and Balancing TDD

September 12th, 2019  |  35 mins 19 secs

Ben’s been adding variety to work by biking to breakfast and the beach, while working in-between during his stay on Martha’s Vineyard. He’s feeling lucky to work remotely, and still be able to connect with co-founders!

Derrick enjoys a change of scenery from time-to-time during workdays, especially to kickstart his blood flow during an afternoon lull or breaking point.

102: Single Sign On (SSO) for Tuple?

September 5th, 2019  |  27 mins 7 secs

The true life of an entrepreneur! From backgrounds to beards, change is in the air for both Ben and Derrick. Ben is a 36-year-old man who is back living with his parents temporarily to save some cash. Ben considered himself a minimalist, until he realized just how much stuff he had to move. So, he hired movers.

Derrick describes the importance of documenting lessons learned and accumulating knowledge. As a result, he got his first paying customer for StaticKit. A meager $10 in revenue is greater than zero.

101: Mentorship Momentum with Matt Wensing of SimSaaS

August 29th, 2019  |  32 mins 16 secs

While Ben’s on vacation, Derrick welcomes Matt Wensing, founder of SimSaaS and co-host of the Out of Beta podcast. Matt was also the co-founder and CEO of Stormpulse.

Derrick credits Matt for giving him great advice to make the winding down of Level less daunting. Now, Derrick’s on the upswing of rebuilding his confidence, despite challenging cluster headaches and stress cannibalising productivity.

100: A Cool 100th Episode: Celebrating With Our Past Guests

August 22nd, 2019  |  1 hr 2 mins

One of the benefits of having a podcast is being able to interview interesting people. Being a podcast guest is the best gig in the universe. Spew some knowledge, or just ramble.

It’s time to celebrate the 100th episode of the Art of Product (AoP) podcast by catching up with previous guests to share updates and what’s next. Thanks for listening!

99: The Binge Is Real, Countdown to the 100th Episode

August 15th, 2019  |  25 mins 34 secs

There’s no need to ask them who they are, what they do, businesses and products they built because listeners know them through their stories. After a lot of random, but worthwhile conversations, they’re getting good at being podcast co-hosts.

How long does it take to listen to all episodes of Ben and Derrick’s Art of Product (AoP) podcast? Who knew it would be binge-worthy? One more down, one to go before they reach Episode 100!

98: Adam Covers for Derrick

August 8th, 2019  |  37 mins 7 secs

Derrick’s short notice about not co-hosting this episode because of being on a plane, and Ben not knowing or planning what to discuss, who and what’s left?

Updates and reports on Tuple and Tailwind. Welcome back Adam Wathan!

97: To Build, or Not to Build - Jane Portman of Userlist

August 1st, 2019  |  28 mins 40 secs

While Ben’s on vacation, Derrick welcomes another podcast host who can commiserate with him about email automation.

Jane Portman is a UI/UX expert and consultant who hosts the UI Breakfast Podcast and co-founded Userlist.io. She describes what it takes to create a customer messaging tool.

96: Tuple Official Launch and Taking Time to Unplug

July 25th, 2019  |  32 mins 44 secs

Is something bugging you? Need to get away from everything? Derrick can’t wait to once again ride rugged waters on Minnesota’s many lakes. Not unlike startups, it isn’t always easy to stay afloat when under pressure.

Heeelllloooo! Are you there? Still interested? Ask and you shall receive. Ben shipped a major feature for Tuple. Drumroll please…video support. I’ll Tuple you!

95: What Really Happened to Screenhero

July 11th, 2019  |  43 mins 56 secs

While Derrick is away, Ben welcomes Don Goodman-Wilson, who was the first hire at Screenhero in 2013.

Don shares his version of Screenhero’s incredible journey, its migration to Slack, and Tuple coming to the rescue. Better late than never!

94: Seeking Clarity

July 4th, 2019  |  34 mins 28 secs

Summer is in full swing. Ben spent a fun and productive day talking about work at a Red Sox game. It was an own-your-own business startup moment.

Derrick can see clearly now, thanks to SMILE laser eye surgery. But he’s still seeking clarity on whether to make the masses happy, or stick to core concerns to attract specific customers when creating a new product.

93: Company of One with Paul Jarvis

June 27th, 2019  |  48 mins 48 secs

After a QuickTime error eradicated Paul Jarvis’s conversation with Ben and Derrick for an Art of Product episode, he’s back with an update on his recently published book, Company of One.

92: Slack Leaves the Market

June 20th, 2019  |  30 mins 13 secs

The world received amazing news in the form of a great gift: Slack is making a major change in the market—it’s leaving!

Ben and Derrick share their thoughts on Slack’s reasonable and rational decision to remove remote control functionality. What happens now? Try Tuple! Just sayin’, actually that’s what Tuple customers are suggesting.

91: Feeling Superhuman with Rahul Vohra

June 13th, 2019  |  41 mins 44 secs

Today’s guest is Rahul Vohra, co-founder and CEO of Superhuman.

90: The Mom Test with Rob Fitzpatrick

May 30th, 2019  |  47 mins 43 secs

Ben and Derrick welcome Rob Fitzpatrick, author of The Mom Test: How to talk to customers and learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you. It’s not your typical non-fiction business book, but short and straight to the point. It should be a mandatory prerequisite for anyone embarking on the startup journey.

Derrick’s Level Retrospective describes how Rob’s book had a major impact on his most recent startup experience. People want to be supportive, so it’s difficult to get unbiased feedback during customer validation. Derrick already knew this to be correct, but underestimated the degree to which everyone lies. So, he felt betrayed by early validation efforts proved to be radically different from reality.

89: Go Big, or Stay Small?

May 23rd, 2019  |  35 mins 37 secs

Ben announced a medium-sized step forward for Tuple. A bug where the video portion would freeze at the start of or during a call was replicated and resolved. It was a double bonus: Fixed the bug and made the Tuple app faster.

Derrick’s contemplative mode continued as he tried to figure out the future of Level. He retreated to think and disconnect. He sought clarity on what to do and is confident that he has made the best decision.

88: Will They Make the Jump?

May 9th, 2019  |  29 mins 30 secs

Recently, Ben felt gloriously empty and described how nice it was to have nothing going on. In his stomach, that is. He successfully finished a 48-hour fast. It was difficult, but pleasurable. Now, he’s back to craving calories, eating, and work!

Derrick had a challenging week with feelings of uncertainty. He invited more people to try Level, but got similar results. He fears that people may not progress with the product. Will people actually make the jump to Level?