The Art of Product

Derrick’s been traveling and finding inspiration from re-reading Deep Work, a kind of manifesto of what Level stands for. He’s discovering how to position and market Level, as well as recognize things in his own work patterns that need to change. Ben’s been feeling anxiety and thinking about Tuple’s broader mission and impact on the world. He believes deep work can be accomplished through the powerful practice of pair programming. Today’s Topics Include: Embracing Boredom: Derrick removed Twitter and email client from his phone as dependence on distraction Recruiting next wave of paying customers; reminding people what Level is and why they should care about it Learning is a valid category of work you can do during the day; productive use of time Ability to go deep and focus is a skill most people have lost; getting back into the mindset Tuple’s mission and onboarding campaign; selling a solution to an underlying problem Apprenticeship: Learn and gain expertise from peers Derrick’s main piece of content for Level may not be about specific tool to achieve mindful workplace Celebrating call quality feedback feature in Tuple; customized CRM to close the deal Links and resources: Art of Product on Twitter Derrick Reimer Website Derrick Reimer on Twitter Ben Orenstein Website Ben Orenstein on Twitter Level Tuple Tuple’s Pair Programming Guide Deep Work by Cal Newport The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon Heroku Screenhero Ruby on Rails Podcast Motor Clearbit Brennan Dunn’s Double Your Freelancing

Ben shares that Tuple is now out of alpha and into beta, which is an arbitrary marker of stability and feature ability. The move is working as planned by serving as a way for customers to choose to opt in or out, depending on if they want it now or wait until it’s launched. Derrick choose to steer away from such labels with Level, but understands they might have been beneficial to clearly denote the product’s progress. Today’s Topics Include: Ben’s in onboarding mode with Tuple; spent February selling, people pre-pay first month Where are these people coming from? Inbound interest via email list Derrick’s next high-level thing to do is proactively recruit key teams, but how? No more free trials for Level; Derrick has no qualms about asking people to pay for it Tuple’s always testing new pricing, so some prices were tweaked recently Two New Tuple Things: Ability to control resolution of call from guest side, and retrospective added to discuss how product and company are better than last week Notifications feature in Level finally shipped on Friday; Derrick’s responding to feedback Level’s Potential Golden Metric: Switching rate from Slack If it’s not worth paying for, why not? Feeling ready and right, not forcing a decision Links and resources: Art of Product on Twitter Derrick Reimer Website Derrick Reimer on Twitter Ben Orenstein Website Ben Orenstein on Twitter Level Tuple Drip Clearbit Enrichment Patrick McKenzie on Twitter Brian Casel on Twitter

We all freak out about things from time to time. Ben becomes neurotic about feedback, but fellow Tuple team members have different triggers that put them into a tailspin. Fortunately, Ben has found ways to better handle stress. In this episode, Ben and Derrick are joined by Sebastian Marshall, co-founder of Ultraworking. In previous episodes, Ben has mentioned Ultraworking and how he has benefitted from it. Today’s Topics Include: Using what he learned about monthly planning from Ultraworking, Ben did March for Tuple Ben met meditation goal via Ultraworking’s Lights spreadsheet, accountability partners 10 to 10: Ben’s theme for March; wants to win the night and beginning of the day by going to bed at the right time and developing a morning routine to be more alert and energetic Ben’s doing Tuple demos and getting positive feedback; promising things are happening Derrick decided to move forward with notifications feature for Level; shipping it soon Note about Level’s performance improvement offers positive sentiment and sanity check How much do you trust your own emotional memory, if you feel like you’re making progress or not? Do a data-driven review of week to assess and analyze headway Track where your time is spent using start and end time; only track most important work Defining wasted vs. leisure time; aren’t they the same? Depends on how you feel afterwards? Good or bad? Two categories of “bad” time: Neurotic flow and regret agreeing to something Average day in the life of Sebastian at Ultraworking; what makes or breaks his week Building a company and keeping it alive; Ben’s “duh” moment about delegating Ultraworking’s Work Cycles: Doing work (creative, technical, etc.) in structured way Links and resources: Art of Product on Twitter Derrick Reimer Website Derrick Reimer on Twitter Ben Orenstein Website Ben Orenstein on Twitter Level Tuple Ultraworking Ultraworking: Monthly Planning Ultraworking: Cycles Template Ultraworking: Lights Spreadsheet Roguelike by Sebastian Marshall GitLab Bench Drip Extreme Productivity by Robert Pozen

Ben’s been checking in with Tuple users to find out how things are going. Things aren’t working perfectly with the product. Before this feedback, he was feeling pretty good about things. It’s not the feedback’s fault, but Ben focusing too much on it. Derrick can empathize with Ben because of his experience with Level. It takes just one negative outcome to have an irrational impact on your mental state. Reset your perspective! Today’s Topics Include: Considering additional indicators within Tuple to gain feedback Ready to buy another seat? Tuple’s first expansion revenue Having a healthy level of stress vs. being in a state of complacency or false optimism As a coping mechanism, Ben reached his goal to mediate every day for a month Don’t let negativity infect everything else; improvement and growth are important Onboarding process and positive changes between original and revised product versions Oh no! Say it isn’t so; Tuple’s using Slack for feedback dialogue Lack of sleep didn’t stop Derrick from shipping performance improvements to Level Derrick expresses gratitude for open source technology that he’s using to build Level Tuple team finally getting a paycheck, a well-earned achievement; Derrick did the opposite and transferred a bucket of cash into Level’s account Getting to the next level of swag; trials and T-shirts to put credit card on file Product advice and ideas for notifications and posts in Level’s Inbox Selling annual deals to specific people, companies; we’re in this together for the long haul Trying to find time to write and talk about journey of starting a new product and company Links and resources: Art of Product on Twitter Derrick Reimer Website Derrick Reimer on Twitter Ben Orenstein Website Ben Orenstein on Twitter Level Tuple Zoom DataLoader Waking Up with Sam Harris Elixir Elm Stripe Honeybadger Heroku Jason Cohen MicroConf Brian Casel

Derrick’s been on a startup roller coaster. It’s been one of those weeks for him. So, he’s grateful for Scotch! He just factors it into Level’s budget. Along the same lines, Tuple bought lunch today for its staff. It feels free, but Ben doesn’t think you can write off such expenses, even if you talk about business between bites. Today’s Topics Include: Boring numbers stuff and stress of assembling financials for 2018 taxes Ben’s goal to meditate every day in February to feel centered in the startup world Spotify surfacing new music helps re-energize Derrick’s work day Tuple’s Goals: Focus on stability in February; onboard additional teams and return to feature development in March Don’t assume; ask users what they want and make sure you clearly understand them Derrick shares Level updates on Startups for the Rest of Us podcast Do metrics matter? Derrick’s on an information diet to uncloud his brain No Twitter for Ben before noon because it’s too much of a distraction Performance overhaul and interface update to improve users’ impression of Level Tuple’s recent improvements include proxy server support and a feedback button Ben’s Tuple Onboarding Calls: Fun to show people the product for the first time Links and resources: Art of Product on Twitter Derrick Reimer Website Derrick’s Level Manifesto Derrick Reimer on Twitter Ben Orenstein Website Ben Orenstein on Twitter Level Tuple Waking Up with Sam Harris Headspace Naughty Professor on Spotify Episode 429: Building a Launch List of 5,900 and Grinding Out Customer Development Drip Ruby on Rails

Ben is thankful for Tuple’s success so far. It is helping companies improve efficiency and countries improve the quality of their residents’ lives. Derrick also expresses gratitude for companies being interested in his product, Level. He is setting up a specific team in Level and addressing concerns to convert them. Today’s Topics Include: People want to work at Tuple, and specifically for Ben; it’s flattering, but Tuple is not hiring Tuple beat out a competitor during a company’s trial use Tuple will be given to Watsi, a non-profit that does crowdfunding for medical procedures in third-world countries and is developing a platform for countries to manage healthcare Core Competency: Keep your brain sane during challenges and changes Vice vs. Virtue: Coach and convince champions that Level may not be immediately gratifying, but a virtuous and better way to work Tuple is no longer offering free trials; pain of purchase and pre-qualification put up front Calls to action, connections, and surveys help identify ideal prospects and leads Links and resources: Watsi YNAB Ultraworking Art of Product on Twitter Derrick Reimer Website Derrick’s Level Manifesto Derrick Reimer on Twitter Ben Orenstein Website Ben Orenstein on Twitter Level Tuple

Do you lack energy or motivation at work? Ben tried a new service called, Work Gym from Ultraworking. He found it worthwhile and got a lot of work done on Tuple that he had been putting off for quite awhile. Tuple is about to reach a major milestone - recent PR deployments mean no more global list of online users. Derrick has also been addressing how to set up companies, teams, and individual users interested in trying Level. So, he hasn’t intentionally built any billing model into the backend of Level, yet Today’s Topics Include: Prioritizing tasks and trying to be comfortable with the lack of knowing everything Ben and Derrick find value in sales and onboarding calls, although the take up time Doesn’t matter if something isn’t right, right now; keep experimenting, learning, and testing to figure out what works People are willing to pre-pay to be placed on the newly created Tuple trials wait list Tuple Status: Stability is going up, bugs are being fixed, and crashing occurs less often Tuple plans to deploy a fix where users don’t have to enter a keychain password every time to update the app and support for them to choose which display they want to share Results from Superhuman Product Market Fit Survey sent to Tuple users Ben’s Bad Idea: He decided not to do Habits for Hackers due to lack of pricing and bids Derrick continues to do onboarding calls with Level users and reach out to those who were invited and pre-paid, but have not scheduled a demo Derrick shipped an integration for users to post a message to an endpoint that will be directly posted to a channel or another person in Level to centralize relevant notifications Links and resources: Ultraworking Ultraworking’s Cycles Template Zoom Superhuman Product Market Fit Survey Habits for Hackers Zapier Art of Product on Twitter Derrick Reimer Website Derrick Reimer on Twitter Ben Orenstein Website Ben Orenstein on Twitter Level Tuple

Ben has been experiencing a mix of emotions. Thanks to Tuple, his calendar is packed, and he’s getting more emails, people, and trials. It feels nuts, but it feels like things are working with the new product. It’s a crazy spot to be in, but it feels good. Every day, Tuple gains a little steam. Derrick feels the same way. He has started doing onboarding calls for Level. Now that he has done the Level demo a few times, his anxiety has subsided. Overall, people seem impressed with the product and interested in trying it. Today’s Topics Include: Developing a call to action and pricing process to follow the product demo Trials vs. Pay-Up-Front: Ideal customers expect to try it, before they pay for it Instrumentation put in place to test Level; ship solutions in a speedy manner Users are changing their behavior and using Level in a meaningful or experimental capacity to find a balance between it and Slack Big Surprise: Derrick’s relief about a mobile client not being a big deal, right now Power of Customer Development: You won’t know the most valuable points of a product, until you let people use it People are pretty forgiving; when they offer feedback, be responsive and try to fix bugs Revision of auction for Habits for Hackers; bidding started, but may not be high enough Pros and cons of slowing down growth or allowing it to speed up; it’s hard to improve product without feedback Superhuman Product Market Fit Survey: How disappointed would you be, if you had to stop using Tuple? Keeping people educated on all the things your product can do Trying to not over-engineer things; looking for the simplest solutions and integrations Links and resources: Art of Product on Twitter Derrick Reimer Website Derrick Reimer on Twitter Ben Orenstein Website Ben Orenstein on Twitter Level Tuple Habits for Hackers Drip Justin Jackson Superhuman Product Market Fit Survey Zapier Segment JSON Rand Fishkin’s Lost and Founder Book

Derrick set Jan. 21 as the date to start onboarding some pre-order people for Level. He is trying to keep things in perspective when it comes to both positive and negative feedback. So, he is preparing answers to address questions and concerns about the product’s features and functions, or lack of. Ben’s thirsty for more feedback, customers, and interaction. Fortunately, overall feedback for Tuple has been strongly positively. However, any negativity can be brutal. It’s a mental game. So, he tries to not fear feedback or let it derail progress. Instead, he focuses on celebrating successes. Today’s Topics Include: How to know if a product is ready - present it to people Level’s Onboarding Goals: Introduce them to product via a demo/training, get their account created, and set up game plan for the future Overcoming hurdles and getting people to do stuff Calendly Calls: Preparing for and performing them is more exhaustive than writing code Last-minute list of Level features Derrick wants to include and reconcile Tag Team Mouse Mode: Hand-off feature change made for Tuple Making assumptions, instead of the simplest solution Interesting 4G experience onboarding Tuple team member in India Ben asks for Derrick’s forgiveness and understanding for starting a Slack group to get feedback on Tuple Enterprise Sales Process and Pricing: Customer easily spends $5,000, but it takes 5 weeks - keep the ball rolling Middle-ground Approach: Make Tuple available to those who want it, can have success Links and resources: Art of Product on Twitter Derrick Reimer Website Derrick Reimer on Twitter Ben Orenstein Website Ben Orenstein on Twitter Level Tuple Rob Walling Jason Cohen Calendly John Gruber Drip

Ben has been busy. The alpha launch date for Tuple was Jan. 7. He was nervous about it, but so far, it’s going well. One participant said, “I’m sort of surprised you’re calling this an ‘alpha,’ because everything seems to work!” Ben was glad to hear it, but admits that’s not totally true. He’s still far from where he wants to be with Tuple, but is definitely on the right track. Derrick has been hard at work, too. He continues to develop Level and knows that there will be ups and downs with customers, functionality, etc. But, he continues to move forward and strives to help others solve problems associated with team communication. Today’s Topics Include: Importance of manually onboarding people via calls about product Setting expectations and communication efforts for a rolling roll out Users understand that bugs will happen and offer friendly feedback Experimenting with pricing models for product’s current and future releases Tuple’s performance dashboard displays key details; caring about things that matter Bandwidth: Do fewer things and do them well to be able to compete Level’s future strategies and goals regarding customers and feedback If a product can solve a user’s problem, then it’s good enough to give to them Poor execution and explanation of Drip’s price increase Links and resources: Art of Product on Twitter Derrick Reimer Website Derrick Reimer on Twitter Ben Orenstein Website Ben Orenstein on Twitter Level Tuple Drip Calendly Screenhero MicroConf Superhuman Jason Fried Jason Cohen Brian Casel