Product Habits - How to spot a unicorn early

The Nuances of Hiring and Managing Remote Employees for Software Development

We were starting to see the slow shift toward distributed workforce models before 2020. But, one of the most subtle changes I think will benefit workers in the long run is the move toward fully remote teams rather than the hybrid model of both co-located and remote workers. It's never been more important for tech companies to learn how to hire, manage, and motivate a remote team of software developers. If you're looking for guidance on helping a remote team succeed, read this. 

What Comes After Smartphones?

First, there were mainframes, followed by PCs. Those were followed by the web, and now, smartphones. To date, more than 4 billion people have a smartphone—to say the market is saturated would be an understatement. So, what comes next? There are a handful of new things going on, but which one will be the next big thing? This perspective is sure to get you wondering. My take: AR is the next big thing, though it'll probably take some time to move mainstream. Do you agree?

Unicorn Traits

Elad Gil is one of the most successful angel investors around, with a portfolio that includes: Airbnb, Airtable, Coinbase, Gusto, Instacart, Opendoor, Samsara, Square, and Stripe. How does he spot companies before they become unicorns? Here are his four "tells"—and they aren't necessarily obvious. My favorite is the idea that every successful startup needs at least one significant miracle. 

The Anti-Mac Interface

This is a fascinating article, exploring the idea that the human interface is currently stuck on the WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointer) model, with very little innovation anymore. What would happen if, for example, we violated each of Macintosh's core human interface design principles? This is what the anti-Mac user interface might look like. 

Stripe's Payments APIs: The First 10 Years

This is a thoughtful behind-the-scenes look at the history of Stripe's payments APIs. While not entirely accurate, the notion in a Bloomberg Businessweek feature story that "seven lines of code" is all that was needed for a business to power payments through Stripe became something of a north star for the company. About halfway through this article, you get an inside look at the rules and routines a team of five people used to work on Stripe's unified payments API. If nothing else, you'll learn a lot from this section alone. 

9 Customer Retention Metrics You Need to Start Tracking ASAP

Retaining a customer is five times cheaper than gaining a new one, so I always advise startups to focus on retention at least in lock step with acquisition. In order to optimize your customer retention efforts you have to track and understand the right metrics. Here are nine of the top ones, but I recommend whittling it down even further and making just a few of them your core retention metrics to begin with. 

2020 DocSend Startup Index: Pitch Deck Interest

The DocSend team put together this fascinating report to help startups gauge VC appetite for pitch decks. In this index, you get a peek into how many pitch decks founders are sending out, the amount of pitch decks potential investors are reviewing, and how much time they're actually spending reading those decks. There's even a list of status updates for over 360 VC firms. This is a brilliant and informative pitch deck interest index, worthy of a bookmark. 

The Almost Epic Engineering Disaster at Uber

Buckle up, this is quite a long Tweetstorm—but it's worth it. McLaren Stanley was a senior software engineer at Uber for four years, and shares the story of what was almost a massive, multi-million-dollar engineering disaster. It all comes back to—one word—Swift. This is an enthralling story that will get any engineer's heart racing, and it's also a cautionary tale. It goes to show just how powerfully detrimental the sunk cost fallacy can be.