Catalyst

Accountability is friction: On this week’s episode of Track Changes Paul and Rich sit down to chat about different types of accountability software. Whether it’s a CRM, a to-do list or an app, we discuss what works best for staying on track and getting things done. We talk about the importance of empathy and support and why tactics based on fear never work in the long run. We also discuss why some software is moving away from adding accountability into its workflows despite it’s importance.    Links:  Sony Aibo  Clippy  Pipedrive  Dash for Slack  Postlight Labs  Mirror  Peloton  Mother by The Police  Sydney Cummings - YoutubeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The new entertainment system: On this week’s episode of Track Changes Paul is flying solo without Rich. He is joined by New York Times writer Taylor Lorenz. Taylor answers all of Paul’s questions about influencers, including how they actually monetize their brand in such a crowded online market. Taylor addresses stereotypes about influencers being vapid and shallow and shows us just how hard influencers work.  LINKS New York Times - Taylor Lorenz  Tumblr  Tyler Oakley - Youtube  Hannah Hart - Youtube  Vine  Instagram  Lilly Singh - Wikipedia  Noah Centineo - Wikipedia  Tik Tok  Patreon  Rosanna Pansino - Youtube  United Talent Agency  WME  Community  Forget DMs. Celebrities Want You To Text Them - New York Times  Discord  The Rise and Fall of the Jeremy Renner App, Which Was a Real Thing - New York Times  Kim Kardashian: Hollywood  Taylor Swift’s mobile app, The Swift Life, is the latest celebrity app to shutter - TechCrunch  The Instagram Aesthetic is Over - The Atlantic  Teens Are Being Bullied ‘Constantly’ on Instagram - The Atlantic  Pewdiepie - Youtube  Taylor Lorenz - Twitter Taylor Lorenz - Instagram See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Software is like people: On this week’s episode of Track Changes, Paul and Rich sit down to discuss software baggage. We chat about how a simple software idea can morph into layers and layers of product features and about how implementing use-cases can lead to confusing and bloated software. We also share our many HR software gripes.      Links:  Recruitment Software Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis - Fortune Business Insights  Scala  JQuery Jira  SAP  Basecamp  Slack  Dash for Slack - Postlight  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Removing Friction: On this week’s episode of Track Changes, Paul and Rich sit down with Noah Brier and James Gross ahead of a Postlight event to talk about the new trend that is taking enterprise software by storm, product-led growth. We discuss why the shift to PLG is as big as a transition for enterprise as the switch from on-premise to cloud software and how this move to more user-centric products removes friction from all levels of product implementation.  Links:    Salesforce Lattice  Pingboard  Google Sheets  Google Docs  Abacus  Dropbox  Google drive Invision  Figma  Sketch  SAP Slack  Percolate  Variance  Zoom Datadog  Oracle  Concur   Mailchimp Notion  Product Led Growth Index - OpenView Partners Amplitude Pendo   Atlasian  Jira  ZohoSuite   See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Listen, don’t tell: Having trouble convincing your boss to invest in new software? On this week’s episode of Track Changes, Paul and Rich teach you everything you need to know about selling software services. We chat about changing the narrative to be about selling growth instead of products, and give some great sales tactics. Paul also shares some interesting car purchasing tips he learned from his brother.  Links:  Sarbanes Oxley - Wikipedia  Chevy Blazer  CarMax  Google Analytics  J.P. Morgan  Amnesty International  NodeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Adjust the quirks: On this week’s episode of Track Changes we ask the question, “is programming becoming obsolete?”. As user-friendly visual interfaces continue to get more and more popular, we discuss why programming remains so important to tackle complex tasks and long-term software challenges. Paul and Rich also come up with a new, nicer, way to talk about bugs. In this week’s Hello Postlight segment, we hear from product manager Jorge Mir Alvarez, who tells us how he went from a Track Changes listener to a Postlight employee.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Constant tweaking and improving: This week on Track Changes we are joined by friend and tech writer Clive Thompson, to talk about his most recent book Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World. We chat about coder culture, its influence on society, and why the search for efficiency can sometimes be a double-edged sword. Paul and Rich also share their worst bug stories.  Links:  Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World  Shift Magazine This Magazine  The Nation Code for America  Kickstarter Tilde ClubSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Beware the low-hanging fruit: On this week’s episode of Track Changes, Paul and Rich share some industry warning signs. We chat about why you should be wary of long research phases and of people who have total faith in the product funnel. We also share some tips on how you can tell if your deadline is slipping and chat about the importance of long term product thinking. In this week’s Hello Postlight segment we meet Stephen Koch, a lead engineer who joins us to talk about his transition from marine biologist to musician to computer engineer.   Links:  GraphQL  Big Spaceship Agency  Frog Design McKinsey  Letter of Recommendation: Bug Fixes by Paul Ford  Amazon Dropbox  Sketch Adobe  Athletic Brewing CompanySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

To scrape or not to scrape: In this week’s episode of Track Changes, Paul and Rich sit down to discuss the recent verdict in the hiQ v LinkedIn lawsuit. We chat about the importance of this case and how it helped solidify a basic aspect of the web: public information access. But first, in this week’s Hello Postlight segment we hear from Thomas Rudczynski, our Director of Product Management, who shares advice on how to be a good product manager and how to get into the field.  Links:  Huge LinkedIn  Medium Wired HiQ HiQ v. LinkedIn and the Legality of Web Scraping  Common Crawl See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Fun of the Struggle: On this week’s episode of Track Changes we are joined by Netflix’s first CEO and co-founder, Marc Randolph. Marc talks about the origins of Netflix and how he helped grow the company from a Patsy Cline CD to a billion dollar publicly traded media provider. He shares some tips on how to stay flexible in the face of changing demands and talks about the importance of timing and luck when starting a business. He also shares some details about why he left the company and talks about his new book That Will Never Work.   Links:  Blockbuster  The Netflix Prize: How a $1 Million Contest Changed Binge-Watching Forever How Netflix Lost 800,000 Members, and Good Will - New York Times That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea   Redbox  Looker Data See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.