Episode description

Alan Shreve is the founder & CEO of ngrok. 

ngrok is a simplified API-first ingress-as-a-service that adds connectivity, security, and observability to your apps in one line

What we cover:

• Creating a simple experience for users.
• Designing for the 90% use case vs. the 10%.
• How did the idea for ngrok emerge?
• How the first iterations of the product came about.
• The internal struggle to create simple interfaces.
• How do you test your library design?
• One of the best ways to test library design.
• Amazon's one-click checkout.
• Chasing simplicity vs complexity in a complex system.
• Product processes to help chase simplicity.
• How does NGrok measure and track user growth?
• Time to value, kpi, time to value.
• Empowering developers to do their jobs.
• How does a hobbyist use case expand into a commercial use case?
• How do you think about the problems that ngrok solves?
• How do you get an application online with minimal configuration?
• What’s the takeaway for other developers or founders?

Links:
- ngrok: https://ngrok.com/
- Alan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/inconshreveable
- Thanks to Danger Casey https://twitter.com/CaseySoftware for organising this
- swyx article https://www.swyx.io/self-provisioning-runtime
- Joel Spolsky talk https://mixtape.swyx.io/episodes/elegant-software-joel-spolsky