[58] How to Manage a Software Product Dev Process w/ The Carthook Team

Today I’ve got a unique one because this episode is cross posted from my other show Bootstrapped Web, co-hosted with Jordan Gal. Jordan is the co-founder of Carthook, a product...

Today I’ve got a unique one because this episode is cross posted from my other show Bootstrapped Web, co-hosted with Jordan Gal.

Jordan is the co-founder of Carthook, a product for eCommerce stores which handles abandoned carts but it also has a 1-page checkout for Shopify.

Jordan Gal, Ben Fisher and Rok Knez join us in this episode to talk about their product development process.

It’s very interesting to hear all 3 perspectives: Jordan’s as the non-technical sales/marketing head, Ben as the technical one, head of product and design, and Rok, the technical lead.

We talk about their tech stack, their choices and how they’ve switched tech, how they prioritize what to build next, and how to get the entire team to participate.

A lot of nuggets specially interesting for software developers or if you are in a team environment.

Enjoy!

[6:40] Why most Carthook Engineers come from Slovenia. Handing design to a project based contractor.

“When you bootstrap, everything is risk. Everything that is unknown like the relationship with an Engineer is risky.”
“Where designers are most valuable are establishing a style guide effectively.”

[11:53] What is the tech stack for Carthook today. Moving from Digital Ocean to AWS for scaling.

“In the beginning they kept coming to me involving the word money in the technical decisions. ‘You fools, we are trying to build something worth a hundred million dollars, don’t tell we are going to save a hundred bucks. Spend where it’s meaningful to spend!‘”

[16:19] How the software evolved in terms of technology used, pursuing loading time and reliability optimization.

“You choose technology on what you know, and then, what you know changes, so you have to go back.”
“We were taking a huge risk building a second product when the first one barely started to get traction.”

[25:04] 3-Questions frameworks to decide which feature to build next. Tools to capture costumer insights.

“It doesn’t matter if you have a good process if you don’t have a clear goal.”

[33:46] Involving the whole company in the process. Managing progress from day to day while managing staff in different countries.

“If we want higher quality from the output, we have to invest in better inputs.”

[51:08] What’s next.

“When you start off alone you get most of your joy interacting with people. When you start to grow your team, most of your joy and fun and challenges comes from your colleagues.”

Links

Jordan Gal on Twitter
Ben Fisher on Twitter
Rok Knez on Twitter
Carthook website
The Carthook Team Talks Product Development Process – Bootstrapped Web Podcast
Laravel
Vue.js
Angular
AWS
Digital Ocean
OpsCalendar
AirTable
Shipright