Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Chris digs into the causes for a MRR drop, discovering usage trends with seasonality; and in the process gets a clearer picture of Upcase's user base. Also, he welcome Geoff to the project, and begins a new marketing initiative driven by user testimonials. Ben welcomes Tyson onto team Formkeep to begin redesigning on boarding, and continues FormLinter improvements / marketing. Upcase Formkeep Typeform Hiten Shah on Giant Robots ChefSteps FullStory FormLinter Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

This week, we ruminate on the meta-organization of project management. Ben embraces team feedback on FormLinter.com, reaches the end of Formkeep's grandfathered pricing window, and removes sandboxing to streamline plan structures. Chris contemplates Upcase's role as a product within thoughtbot, prepares to welcome on new team members (bye Gabe!), and restructures topic relationships to improve discoverability. Also, the return of Dance Talk! Upcase Formkeep Getting Things Done Warren Buffett's 2-List System FormLinter Ruby on Rails 15 Minute Blog Engine Demo Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

On Formkeep, Ben launches FormLinter to increase form accessibility and conversions, and looks forward to additional persons on thoughtbot product work. Chris continues marketing of the Bourbon Smash course, wrestles with metrics and analytics, and improves team logins on Upcase. Upcase Formkeep FormLinter AccessLint Traction- Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares inbound.org Failing on Day One- Chad Pytel Panopticon Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

On Upcase, Chris releases the Bourbon course, restructures how new courses are highlighted, and discusses juggling the various factors that contribute to MRR. Ben takes on-boarding notes from a century old dance school to improve activation on Formkeep. Upcase Formkeep Hardcore History Bourbon Smash Course on Upcase Ruby Tapas Arthur Murray Dance Centers Bootstrapped CPC Rule of Thumb- Jason Cohen Dark Age of Camelot Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben changes product activation flow, possibly for the worse, launches a new UI, and muses on new customer acquisition for Formkeep. On Upcase, Chris starts to see benefits from the domain transition, and brainstorms on how to un-bottleneck course releases. Upcase Formkeep Thinking, Fast and Slow Getting Things Done Planet Money 667: The Experiment Experiment Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben delays a new feature until an easier implementation can be reached, adds additional event tracking for better site usage feedback, takes a medium to large digression to rant about Javascript, and makes headway on Formkeep's UI refactor. On Upcase, Chris steps back from the content spotlight, takes a hit to traffic from the domain transition, and tests all things email. Upcase Formkeep Amplitude Analytics Segment Analytics Bike Shed #58- Rewrite vs refactor episode Keeping the Front-End Modular with BEM- On Giant Robots Blog Inline CSS at Khan Academy: Aphrodite Clearbit Your Money or Your Life How to 10x in 15 months- Rob Walling 2012 SaaS Conversions Benchmark Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Chris transitions Upcase to thoughtbot.com/upcase for SEO and branding purposes, and introduces reactivate & resubscribe functionality. Ben publishes a blog post on Formkeep's pricing history, optimizes the initial form setup page, and begins work to implement a no credit card up-front trial. Upcase Formkeep ConvertKit’s 3,000% revenue growth that nobody saw coming- Josh Pigford Is your company really only doing $45,000 per month?- Josh Pigford Hedonic Treadmill A Tale of Three Pricing Models- Ben Orenstein 2012 SaaS Conversions Benchmark Wim Hof Method Fastly Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben switches from Mandrill to Sendgrid, turns a corner on his guarantee vs trial test, and begins the process of overhauling Formkeep's UI. Meanwhile, on Upcase, Chris utilizes an interesting method for A/B Testing, teases a secret project, and increases SEO by changing out the header. Upcase Formkeep Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben and Chris muse on the nature of weather-related happiness. Also, Ben works on instrumenting Formkeep's activation funnel, utilizes a monitoring utility to optimize sign-up flow, and vows to almost certainly not toy with pricing any more. Meanwhile on Upcase, Chris confronts multiple root causes for a dip in MRR, updates content displays, and overhauls the checkout. Upcase Formkeep The Hedonic Treadmill FullStory Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben and Chris discuss taxes and financial (as well as bedtime) routines. On Upcase, Chris showcases "The Weekly Iteration" on the site, reveals a long-term dream for the platform, and patches a critical security issue. Ben adds a bunch of features to cut down on support requests, does some UX cleanup, and performs other general tasks to improve usability on Formkeep. Upcase Formkeep Philips Hue The Weekly Iteration Campaign Monitor- HTML Email Design Guidelines Git remote code execution vulnerability Flexbox Flexbox on The Weekly Iteration AccountDock calendly Thank you to Hired for sponsoring this episode!Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots