The Art of Product

Ben and Derrick chat weekly about building software companies.

About the show

The Art of Product is a podcast chronicling the journeys of two entrepreneurs building software companies. Hosted by Ben Orenstein and Derrick Reimer.

The Art of Product on social media

Episodes

  • 156: Reflections on 2020

    January 7th, 2021  |  46 mins 27 secs

    Ben & Derrick reflect on their journeys the past year and their plans for 2021.

  • 155: How Do You Buy A New Habit?

    December 31st, 2020  |  37 mins 22 secs

    Ben wants to build a meditation habit and is considering ways to facilitate that. Tuple is still searching for a product designer. Derrick & Ben both saw success with their year-end annual upgrade promotions. Derrick is planning a Product Hunt launch in early January.

  • 154: Courtland Allen Must Be Stopped

    December 17th, 2020  |  39 mins 48 secs

    We're nominated for the SaaS Podcast Awards - go vote! The guys muse about the clever marketing behind the awards and their fellow nominee Courtland Allen's unfair charm & good looks. Ben talks through a shared clipboard feature he is shaping for Tuple. Derrick shipped a bunch of marketing projects this past week.

  • 153: The Value of Coaching

    December 10th, 2020  |  29 mins 31 secs

    The Tuple team is finishing up 3-player mode. Ben is continuing to derive value out of coaching (this time with video games). Derrick shipped a 7-day free trial for SavvyCal and competitor comparison pages.

  • 152: Default Alive By Spring

    November 26th, 2020  |  34 mins 51 secs

    Ben opened up a job listing for Senior Product Designer at Tuple. The Tuple team is working on full-featured multi-participant calls. Derrick shipped embedding SavvyCal links on websites and is working on a number of website updates with Corey. Derrick hopes to achieve default alive state by spring through a combination of marketing efforts.

  • 151: The One Comma Club

    November 19th, 2020  |  24 mins 39 secs

    Derrick reached an important revenue milestone for SavvyCal. Ben is looking forward to an upcoming Tuple retreat.

  • 150: It's Like The Vinyl Of Telling Time

    November 12th, 2020  |  31 mins 7 secs

    Ben and Derrick discuss some recent instances of founder CEOs stepping down from their posts. Derrick is shipping a unique feature this week. Ben is trying (but failing) to avoid getting into antique watches.

  • 149: Check Your Business Privilege

    November 5th, 2020  |  40 mins 57 secs

    Derrick has found a new groove working in public again. Ben is polishing a job posting for a Senior Product Designer role at Tuple. The guys discuss long-term visions and harvesting profits vs. reinvesting in the business.

  • 148: No Design Survives Contact With The DOM

    October 29th, 2020  |  34 mins 2 secs

    Ben is enjoying working on marketing activities. Tuple is beginning their experiment of offering pairing coaching calls to customers. Derrick shipped a differentiating feature and received very positive response. A new part-time head of marketing is starting with SavvyCal in November. The guys opine about specialists vs. generalists.

  • 147: Incremental Shipping

    October 22nd, 2020  |  30 mins 2 secs

    Derrick shipped the next part of team functionality, which opened the door for expansion revenue. Ben is zeroing in on hiring a pairing coach for Tuple customers. In his down time, Ben is taking up playing the piano - something his childhood self would be appalled about.

  • 146: Growing Teams

    October 15th, 2020  |  29 mins 22 secs

    The Tuple team is contracting with Thoughtbot for pairing and leveling up their Rails skills. Derrick is working on team permissions and thinking about working with a marketer after wrapping up most of the work around the StaticKit sale.

  • 145: What's Next for StaticKit

    October 8th, 2020  |  27 mins 56 secs

    Derrick is joined by Cole Krumbholz to talk about Formspree's acquisition of StaticKit. They delve into Cole's history as a bootstrapped founder, dealing with competition, defining success, how the deal came together, and what's next for both products.

  • 144: Launching SavvyCal

    September 24th, 2020  |  37 mins 22 secs

    SavvyCal is officially launched! Derrick talks through how the launch went and how he's managing his freshly-restocked information pipeline. The Tuple team is nearing the finish line on their large upcoming release and recorded a "peek behind the curtains" screencast for customers.

  • 143: Networking Thoughts

    September 17th, 2020  |  32 mins 35 secs

    Ben is trying out Roam for organizing his notes. He shares some tips for engineers applying for jobs. After manually onboarding customers for a few weeks, Derrick is soft-launching SavvyCal to accelerate his learning from real-world customers.

  • 142: A Savvy Rebrand

    September 10th, 2020  |  32 mins 59 secs

    Ben reflects on their latest all-hands meeting and a major upcoming release that will improve the Tuple internals. Derrick recounts the Mighty Cal rebrand to SavvyCal.

  • 141: Hiring Optimally

    August 27th, 2020  |  38 mins 39 secs

    Derrick is continuing to manually onboard Mighty Cal users and is incorporating their feedback into the product. He is driving towards optimizing self-service onboarding to enable opening up signups more broadly. Ben is considering hiring a someone to optimize trial conversions. They discuss OKRs and what skills this person might need.