Episode 699 | How to Build Elegant, Scalable Software Products with Derrick Reimer

In episode 699, Rob Walling chats with fan favorite Derrick Reimer, the founder of SavvyCal, about scaling products tastefully. Derrick offers his perspective on maintaining a tidy UX and deciding which features to implement. They also cover best practices for maintaining knowledge bases, changelogs, and documentation. As a bonus, Rob and Derrick offer podcasting advice to their past selves.

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Topics we cover:

• 2:35 – Establish design systems and language as you scale your product
• 8:36 – Building out a front-end directory to maintain consistency
• 10:17 – Truly understand how customers are moving through your product
• 16:28 – Naming convention dilemmas, industry norms vs. accuracy
• 19:22 – Hiding product features with feature flags
• 23:04 – Scaling new products that serve different verticals
• 31:12 – Best practices for maintaining a product knowledge base
• 37:11 – Bonus: What advice would you give to your prior self starting a podcast?

Links from the Show:

• Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024
• The SaaS Playbook
• Derrick Reimer (@derrickreimer) I X
• SavvyCal
• Allen D King (@allendking) | X
• FunJoin
• FullStory
• Episode 681 | Why Launching a Second Product is Usually a Bad Idea
• Help Scout Knowledge Base
• Headway Changelog
• CleanShot X

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!

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