The Art of Product
Ben and Derrick chat weekly about building software companies.
Episodes
-
140: We Have Customers
August 13th, 2020 | 28 mins 12 secs
Ben is looking to hire a WebRTC expert to prepare Tuple for multi-way calls and continue improving performance. Derrick has onboarded a handful of paying Mighty Cal customers and is rapidly iterating on their feedback. Oh, and Ben has groceries now.
-
139: Efficiency Starts With Groceries
July 30th, 2020 | 26 mins 48 secs
Ben is taking his first day off in a while to recharge. He's experimenting with clustering calls on specific days to allow for more focus time on other days. Derrick finished the Zoom integration for Mighty Cal and experienced the joy (and sorrow) of onboarding his first outside user.
-
138: That's Not How Cults Work
July 23rd, 2020 | 36 mins 13 secs
Derrick has officially begun using Mighty Cal for his own scheduling needs. He plans to start onboarding early users this week. The Zoom integration is underway. Ben is considering ways to compensate and incentives Tuple hires. As Tuple keeps growing quickly, Ben continues to navigate decision fatigue and transitioning from individual contributor to business operator.
-
137: Approved!
July 16th, 2020 | 30 mins 54 secs
Mighty Cal received Google API verification this week, which was a critical blocker to onboarding users. Derrick worked on scheduling link personalization this week. The Tuple team revamped their call feedback form and are now receiving a broader spectrum of messages from customers.
-
136: Feedback Is Everything
July 9th, 2020 | 33 mins 17 secs
Ben ran his first all-hands meeting this week. Tuple got featured in a Stripe blog post about the customer portal feature that Tuple was beta testing. Ben has some observations about how Stripe approaches product development. Derrick reached his goals this week with Mighty Cal and is now working toward onboarding the first customers.
-
135: Do We Really Need An Office?
July 2nd, 2020 | 32 mins 16 secs
Derrick is driving toward the first milestone of using Mighty Cal for his own scheduling and is facing the reality of setting ambitious goals for the week. The Tuple team moved into their new office, which spurred on a healthy conversation about the value of working in-person and accessing the remote talent pool.
-
134: Introducing Mighty Cal
June 25th, 2020 | 31 mins 49 secs
Derrick details the launch of the landing page for his new scheduling app, Mighty Cal. The Tuple team took a retreat and did a feedback exercise modeled after the Great CEO Within. Tuple is officially moving into their first office.
-
133: Perfect Is The Enemy Of Good
June 18th, 2020 | 31 mins 26 secs
Derrick is dangerously close to shipping his MVP, but is also lamenting how long it's taking. He's committed to naming a public ship date by next recording time. Ben is on the hunt for an executive coach. The Tuple Boston team is eyeing their first real office space outside of Joel's condo.
-
132: Digging a Moat
June 11th, 2020 | 27 mins 22 secs
We're back! The Tuple client redesign shipped and Derrick is going to help out with an overhaul of the Tuple onboarding process. Ben asked for users to record their first-run experience in exchange for a discount and has learned a ton about what could be improved. The Tuple team is considering how best to plan out their roadmap this quarter.
-
131: Making Calculated Bets
May 21st, 2020 | 33 mins 38 secs
Derrick had a productive maker week and is (hopefully) a few weeks out from onboarding his first customers for the new product. He is becoming well-acquainted with the Google Calendar API. The Tuple team hired a full-time Mac OS engineer. Ben is thinking about opportunities to innovate with Tuple and taking inspiration from Bezos' shareholder letters.
-
130: Certainty Isn't The Goal
May 14th, 2020 | 30 mins 21 secs
Tuple hired a firm for QA testing and is gradually ramping them up. Derrick is exploring how best to approach architecting the initial version of his new product (still in stealth mode) and is taking inspiration from Ryan Singer and Jason Fried's recent Rework episode on product strategy.
-
129: Remember When Software Came on Floppy Disks?
April 30th, 2020 | 27 mins 2 secs
Derrick explores the difference between the craft of software development and the building minimum-viable products (and why it's good to exercise both). Ben explores hiring a QA testing firm. They reflect on the nature of shipping software and the differences between web apps and native, cross-platform apps.
-
128: One Day At A Time
April 23rd, 2020 | 31 mins 31 secs
Derrick is enjoying work the last week by taking joy in setting and achieving small goals each day.
-
127: A Tuple Growth Spurt
April 9th, 2020 | 27 mins 34 secs
The Tuple team is growing as Ben kicks up sales efforts with help of an industry veteran and the engineering team onboards a new team member. Derrick is continuing to work in stealth mode on a new product and is bringing in some cash flow from a consulting project with...tune in to find out.
-
126: Tuple Takes Over
April 2nd, 2020 | 39 mins 4 secs
Ben and Derrick hang out with Tuple co-founders Spencer and Joel and talk shop.
-
125: Keeping Things in Perspective
March 26th, 2020 | 26 mins 59 secs
Ben and Derrick are doing their best to focus right now with so much going on in the world. Ben is spending less time on Twitter these days. Derrick is working on hedging his opportunity bets by doing jobs-to-be-done interviews in the scheduling space.