I was a guest on Gwen Shapira’s SaaS Developer Podcast.
We talked about the SaaS developer community she launched, the NeverRewrite Podcast, and why my original vision for the show has been a complete failure.
It’s a fun one to watch!
And SaaS Developers, consider joining the slack community
In episode 19 of Never Rewrite, Isaac Askew and I give a name to a strategy we employed in a previous project. The Beachhead Strategy helped us dramatically improve the experience for 90% of our customers, without the constraints of TheeSeeShipping or cost and delay of a full rewrite. The Beachhead Strategy is a hybrid approach where a specific subset of functionality is rewritten in pursuit of a specific improvement.
It’s not a general solution strategy, but when it fits, the results can be amazing.
Listen to it at NeverRewrite, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon Music and let us know if you have feedback or partial rewriting strategies of your own.
In episode 18 of Never Rewrite, Isaac Askew and I discuss strategies for upgrading software. We’ve seen all kinds of successful strategies from folks over the years, from giant language jumps (PHP 5.6 to PHP 7.4) to major upgrades of Javascript frameworks like React and Ember.
Listen to it at NeverRewrite, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts and let us know some strategies your company uses to safely upgrade your systems while minimizing the risk of downtime and negative impact to your customers.
In episode 16 of the Never Rewrite podcast, Isaac Askew and I discuss some tricks and tactics to facilitate conversations with your team. We dive into the psychology of how being obviously wrong can get people talking, why leaders need to hold back their opinions, and giving teams permission to disagree. If you’re having trouble getting your team to brainstorm and collaborate on ideas, this episode is for you!
Listen to it at NeverRewrite, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
Watch on YouTube
In episode 15 of the Never Rewrite podcast, Isaac Askew and I discuss some Red Flag Development Ideas and how moving forward anyway can stunt development for years to come.
Listen to it at NeverRewrite, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
In episode 14 of the Never Rewrite podcast, Isaac Askew and I go in depth about Minimum Viable Products, the tension between viable and product, how fear of rejection drives clients to build far beyond MVPs, and what SaaS developers should do about it.
Listen to it at NeverRewrite, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
Watch on YouTube
In episode 13 of the Never Rewrite podcast, Isaac Askew and I are joined by Josh Beckman to discuss why he led his team on a his journey from a monolith, to a service oriented architecture, and finally back to a monolith. This is a fascinating episode about transformations and the necessary groundwork needed to make it all possible.
Listen to it at NeverRewrite, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
Watch on YouTube
In episode 11 of the Never Rewrite podcast, Isaac Askew and I are joined by special guest Thomas Morris to continue our discussion of company culture.
Listen to it at NeverRewrite, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
In episode 11 of the Never Rewrite podcast, Isaac Askew and I discuss the difference between software that satisfies a specification, and software that delivers client satisfaction. They’re two distinct problems and we talk through how to reduce the risk of delivering one without the other.
Listen to it at NeverRewrite, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
In episode 10 of the Never Rewrite podcast, Isaac Askew and I discuss the phases that most rewrites go through. Rewrites have distinct up and down patterns; if you’ve never taken the ride the switches can feel sudden and confusing. Isaac and I explain the phases and take some of the mystery out of why rewrites follow the pattern.
Listen to it at NeverRewrite, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
Watch on YouTube