Louisa Barrett of Haught Codeworks tells us about how to become an effective junior developer. We also speak in depth about how to become a better teacher. Here's what to listen for: 01:54 - Who is a junior developer? 02:59 - How did you go from going to an art school to wanting to learn about code? 06:43 - How long did it take to become a junior developer? 08:14 - How comfortable were you when you first started working out of bootcamp? 09:16 - How well do you feel that the dev bootcamp prepared...
Oct 20, 2015•43 min•Ep. 25
Diana Smith of Segment tells us how to get the most out of our analytics tools. In the pursuit of trying to be data-driven, we have been conditioned to track everything. Diana tells us why this can be dangerous if we want to draw useful insights from our data. Here's what to listen for: 00:49 - What specifically are we talking about when we are talking about analytics in this context? 01:55 - What is the difference between user path and funnel tracking? 03:10 - Are there tools similar to Kissmet...
Oct 13, 2015•44 min•Ep. 24
Sarah Doody, a UX designer, consultant, and writer, tells us how to build products with great user experiences. We will hear why user experience is far more important than design. Here's what to listen for: 00:46 - What is Sarah’s background in UX (User Experience)? 03:09 - What is the distinction between the experience and the interface? 05:53 - How do you create the ideal team at a startup? 10:53 - What is the distinction between experiential design and visual design? 13:14 - Which comes first...
Sep 22, 2015•50 min•Ep. 23
Ben Orenstein of Upcase tells us how to go from a junior to a senior developer. He reveals a number of things senior developers do that junior developers don't. Here's what to listen for: 02:34 - Would a degree in computer science benefit somebody who is interested in starting programming? 03:23 - How do you convince people that getting a computer science degree isn’t necessary? 08:41 - What is the path from zero to junior developer? 14:16 - How do you define what a junior developer is? 15:35 - ...
Aug 25, 2015•45 min•Ep. 20
Lincoln Ritter, director of engineering at Animoto, shares how they use data to make more informed product decisions. Here's what to listen for: 02:01 What can we do with data? 04:21 Why should a company care about data and trends? 08:02 How can you become more data-driven? 12:28 How can you get more people involved in caring about data? 16:41 What are the tradeoffs when it comes to agility in software development? 18:29 How do you combat paralysis and help people on your team understand the dat...
Aug 18, 2015•43 min•Ep. 19
Abby Covert, author of How to Make Sense of Any Mess , teaches us about information architecture, a subject she strongly feels is a core life skill. She's seen people get fired over language and informs us that – quite obviously in hindsight – architecture is less expensive than design. Here's what to listen for: 00:44 What is information architecture? 01:52 How is information architecture used specifically in building software? 04:25 Is information architecture synonymous with customer developm...
Aug 11, 2015•38 min•Ep. 18
Sven Lenaerts joins us to share his expertise on product design and user experience. This conversation includes some thoughts on MVPs, when to hire a designer, and what a product person really does. Here's what to listen for: 00:46 What do you do as a product designer and UI/UX designer? 04:18 What should I figure out before I talk to a designer or developer about building a product? 07:01 What things can I do inexpensively that are lower-risk to see if building an app is the right solution for ...
Aug 04, 2015•58 min•Ep. 17
James Ward shares how the hosting landscape has changed for web applications over the years and how you can avoid some of his middle-of-the-night pager nightmares. Here's what to listen for: 00:47 What are the differences between hosting services? 05:19 What is a sysadmin? 07:14 What is the advantage of having people or a service do system administration for you? 09:23 What are some things that Heroku does for you that a lower-level server won’t? 13:36 Given all the choices out there, how do you...
Jul 28, 2015•55 min•Ep. 16
Jonathan Cornelissen tells us about DataCamp, the need for data scientists, and how to become one yourself. We also learn about some popular languages and libraries for analyzing data. Here's what to listen for: 00:43 What is the story behind DataCamp? 02:06 What is data science? 02:52 What kind of xdata is out there that can be analyzed? 04:46 Do I need a scientific or statistical background to work with data science? 05:26 Does DataCamp help establish a theoretical background? 06:21 Do only bi...
Jul 21, 2015•42 min•Ep. 15
Jeff Patton, author of User Story Mapping, teaches us how to map user stories by focusing on the user's journey to an outcome. He shares his opinion on the notorious "MVP" and how he helped Gary Levitt build his MVP with Mad Mimi. Here's what to listen for: 00:49 What is a user story? 02:07 What does a user story look like? 02:57 When people refer to user stories do they mean the documentation around the conversations they’ve had? 03:44 Why is just having stories written down in a document not s...
Jul 14, 2015•52 min•Ep. 14
Michael Bernstein of Code Climate explains how to monitor your code's quality with static analysis. He tells us how you can maintain or improve quality over time, and what you can do to fix poor code. Here's what to listen for: 00:44 What is high quality code? 02:06 What is code that’s easy to read? 04:12 What is overly clever code? 06:44 What is the danger of overly clever code? 07:30 Is code able to document itself? 09:47 When do developers read code? 10:40 Why do people spend more time readin...
Jul 07, 2015•41 min•Ep. 13
Anthony Thomas tells us how he made the leap from manufacturing to starting a tech team at Sticker Mule. He explains why your first developer is so critical to your founding team. Here's what to listen for: 00:51 What was your background prior to starting Sticker Mule? 01:39 What was the drive to go from manufacturing into starting Sticker Mule? 03:13 Did you see other companies doing what you wanted to do? 04:02 What was your co-founder’s background? 06:09 Did you start your company as a non-te...
Jun 30, 2015•49 min•Ep. 12
Tom Dale tells us about building modern web applications that are becoming increasingly like native apps. We discuss JavaScript frameworks like Ember and the future of the web. Here's what to listen for: 00:43 What is the difference between websites and web applications? 03:05 What is a single page web application? 07:39 How is the web different today with client-side interactivity? 10:21 What changes in the way the web works have paved the way for better web apps? 14:30 What do you see on the h...
Jun 23, 2015•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 11
David Cramer tells us how to catch and fix critical errors that can affect your bottom line. We also discuss the key differences between exceptions and bugs, and how to handle errors gracefully. Here's what to listen for: 00:43 What is an exception? 01:21 What’s the difference between an exception and a bug? 01:56 What might a developer do to cause an exception? 02:30 What is the user’s experience when an exception occurs? 04:32 Do exceptions mean developers aren’t writing code well? 05:40 How c...
Jun 16, 2015•40 min•Ep. 10
Randy Rayess tells us when and how you should outsource development of your software, how to reduce your risk, and the way your team should think about feature prioritization. Here's what to listen for: 00:52 Why do companies outsource software development? 02:10 What’s the difference between companies that have technology as their core product and “tech-enabled” companies? 05:17 What should you look for in an outsourced development team? 08:03 Why are tools important to you? 09:19 Do you also l...
Jun 09, 2015•49 min•Ep. 9
Brad Van Vugt and Matt Harris talk about transactional emails – how to send your users emails they'll act on at critical moments in your application's lifecycle. Here's what to listen for: 00:49 What is a transactional email and how is this different from a regular email? 01:26 Can you give me some examples of transactions? 01:56 How does a transactional email work? 02:49 Do you have some examples of what times transactional emails get sent? 03:53 Are transactional emails more personal than mark...
Jun 02, 2015•38 min•Ep. 8
Justine Jordan explains how your company should treat email, the difference between designing for email and the web, and what you can do to up your open rates. Here's what to listen for: 00:44 How are most people reading email today? 02:46 What are most companies doing to send email? 04:23 What’s the distinction between transactional and marketing email companies? 06:58 What are the downsides of building your own email platform? 08:35 What are the differences between Mailchimp and Mandrill? 11:3...
May 26, 2015•44 min•Ep. 7
Fred Stevens-Smith of Rainforest explains the need for quality assurance testing and how to actually do it in the resource constrained environment of a startup. Here's what to listen for: 4:06 What is quality assurance testing? 5:19 What are the main differences between an automated test and a QA test? 7:11 For those of us that have automated tests, do I still need QA tests run by hand? 11:41 What is the difference between an integration test and a unit test? 14:48 What is the Document Object Mo...
May 19, 2015•47 min•Ep. 6
Jordan Gal of CartHook talks about how he found his technical co-founder, how he de-risked his app before building it, and the tension between business and technology requirements. Here's what to listen for: 2:17 How did CartHook get started? 4:04 How did you find your technical co-founder? 6:55 What stage was CartHook at when you looked for your technical founder? 8:06 What convinced you that you needed to work with someone in-house? 11:35 How was your relationship structured? 14:01 Was your jo...
May 12, 2015•45 min•Ep. 5
Dave Hoover on coding bootcamps and how immersive learning environments are helping to fix the developer talent shortage. Plus: should you learn to code? Here's what to listen for: 0:44 Why are software developers in such short supply? 3:01 How do developer boot camps help solve the talent shortage? 6:28 How do you onboard junior talent? 8:11 Should I go to a coding school? 11:45 How long does it take to become proficient as a software developer? 15:43 Should I learn how to code as a non-program...
May 05, 2015•38 min•Ep. 3
Basecamp's Ryan Singer on the difference between UI and UX, how to build meaningful solutions for problems and people, and what it means to "scratch the itch." Here's what to listen for: 0:40 What is user interface (UI) design? 3:14 Is focusing on user experience (UX) a distraction? 5:04 Who on the team is most responsible for UX? 5:49 Where should a person with just an idea begin? 6:59 How can a non-technical person judge design deliverables? 10:44 Are there any intermediate deliverables before...
Apr 28, 2015•31 min•Ep. 4
Here's what to listen for: 0:54 What is object-oriented programming and what is procedural programming? 5:28 What is object-oriented design? 8:44 Should I plan out all my code in advance? 15:21 What makes for good software? 19:52 What is technical debt? 28:58 What is cargo culting? 32:29 What rules should programmers follow? 34:11 Who is code written for? 36:50 How can I support the technical people on my team?...
Apr 21, 2015•44 min•Ep. 1
Florian Motlik on how testing and validation using the continuous integration and deployment model results in manageable, quality software. Here's what to listen for: 0:52 What is continuous integration? 4:37 What is source control? 7:50 What is automated testing? 18:59 What is high-level testing and what is low-level testing? 25:26 How can we invest in testing and testing infrastructure? 32:52 How should we try and test? 37:22 Where do you draw the line on what you shouldn't test? 40:56 How can...
Apr 14, 2015•57 min•Ep. 2
