Shows
The Bike Shed464: Modelling the stars with Rémy HannequinJoël and Rémy draw inspiration from the stars as they discuss Rémy’s new open source Ruby gem, Astonoby.
Rémy reveals the challenges he faced in taking on this project, the scientific translation work that went into making it accessible for everyone, as well as the key lessons he learnt from modelling the cosmos.
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The Sponsor for this episode has been Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way. Check out the link for your free gift!
If you’re enthusiastic about space and want to try out Rémy’s new ge...2025-05-2042 minThe Bike Shed462: Decomposition as a key developer skill with Steve PolitoJoël and Steve sit down to discuss the ins and outs of decomposition within their respective workflows and how they use it to their advantage when working on certain projects.
Together they look at working with vertical slices over other decomposition methods, when and how to break down code as efficiently as possible, and Joël lays out his three key principles that help him write code dubbed “The Triangle of Separation”.
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The Sponsor for this episode has been Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way. Check out the link for your free gift!2025-05-0642 minThe Bike Shed460: Programer Productivity with Valerie BurzynskiStart taking notes in this episode as Joël and Valerie discuss the different ways in which they structure their note taking systems to improve their workflows.
Together they cover the best ways to get started with serious note taking, how to best map out your thoughts so they make the most sense when you come back round to them, as well as examining the different use cases they have for them both over the course of a working day.
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The Sponsor for this episode has been Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way. Che...2025-04-2236 min
Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots570: Rolling for Initiative with Chad, Will and SamiChad, Will and Sami discuss life outside of thoughtbot and the hobbies that occupy them in their down time.
Sami talks about taking the cold plunge, Will about his recent efforts with running, before Chad takes his co-hosts down the rabbit hole that is Dungeons and Dragons.
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Watch the trailer for Chad’s upcoming production Thresher, a collaboration between his production company 12 Sided Studios and Critical Role!
Check Out Sami’s Running Shoes
You can find Chad all over social media as @cpytel and Sami through his website. You can al...2025-04-1750 minThe Bike Shed459: Paper Data Structures with Sally HallJoël and thoughtbot colleague Sally Hall set out to find an answer to the question, what exactly are the differences between paper data structures and digitals ones?
They compare the different ways humans store and access data, from rolodexs to the dewey decimal system, browsing a system vs searching it, and how the digital age has changed the way we assess and look at data stored in those systems.
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Change your organisational workflow and get yourself a Rolodex!
Find out more about the Dewey Decimal System.
Your guest thi...2025-04-1542 minThe Bike Shed458: Learning Typescript with Aji SlaterJoël and fellow thoughtboter Aji Slater examine the unfamiliar world of Typescript and various ways of working within it’s system.
They lay out the pros and cons of Typescript over other environments such as Ruby and Elm and discuss their experience of adopting LLM partners to assist in their workflows. Using ChatGPT and Claude to verify code and trim down syntax, all while trying to appease the type checker.
Discover the little tips, tricks and bad habits they picked up along the way while working with their LLM buddies in an effort to imp...2025-04-0842 minThe Bike Shed457: Time Zones with Sally HallJoël enlists the help of thoughtbot colleague Sally Hall as they dive into the complex world of time zones, daylight savings, measurements and coding.
Together they discuss their struggles with daylight savings throwing off their recent project reporting, the constant struggles of writing for different time zones and why writing your own code is never worth the hassle, and the similar battle of writing for different units of measurement.
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Check out the idea behind "If Hemingway Wrote Javascript" and how it could help you with your coding.
Watch Tom Scott’s own...2025-03-1846 minThe Bike Shed456: Typescript with Jimmy ThigpenJoël turns to fellow thoughtboter Jimmy Thigpen as he looks to expand his knowledge about the wide world of Typescripts.
Together they discuss the differences between Typescript and other common systems such as Elm and Javascript, how to best handle their edge cases and error flags, as well as the benefits of using Zod as your typescript library.
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Just starting out in Typescript? Try enabling Strict Mode!
Try out Zod for yourself in their browser playground, or check out Zod's homepage for more info.
If you’d like to co...2025-02-2537 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots562: The evolution of design sprints with Dawn Delatte and Elaina NatarioChad talks with fellow thoughtboters Dawn Delatte and Elaina Natario about the evolution of design sprints within the company.
Listen to how design sprints helped shape and streamline the discovery stage of work with clients, how it helps route out what should and shouldn’t be done in a project, as well as the way thoughtbot has tweaked the formula over the years to build their own playbook.
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Check out thoughtbot’s Design Sprint Guide!
Read through thoughtbot’s AI ethics guide and ask yourself thoughtbot's six key questions when working with AI...2025-02-2037 minThe Bike Shed455: Noisy Animals Kata with Fritz MeissnerJoël talks with fellow thoughtboter Fritz Meissner about the thinking process behind his latest kata project and the vast world of coding problems.
Fritz explains why he developed the noisy animals kata and how it helped to better understand and streamline his code, the best ways to break down conditionals and how to clean them up efficiently within your workflow, as well as knowing where the limits of improvement are in each project you work on.
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Refine your conditional logic technique with a copy of 99 Bottles of OOP and then test your ski...2025-02-1846 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots561: The One with Chad, Will, and Samithoughtbot hosts Chad, Will and Sami shoot the breeze in this laid back episode of Giant Robots as they discuss the ins and outs of being a parent and growing up with tech.
The trio discuss how they manage screen-time with their kids as well as themselves, Sami’s internal HTTP coding for his children’s temper tantrums, and other challenges of bringing up their kids in the digital age.
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Listen to the ‘Therapy Through Gaming’ episode for a deeper dive into some of the topics mentioned in today’s episode.
Your hosts f...2025-02-1341 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots559: The European Accessibility Act: Are You Ready for 2025?Sami and Rémy are back as your hots as they talk with fellow thoughtbot colleague Caro Sotillo Silva about new EU accessibility laws coming into effect later this year.
Together they discuss the importance of keeping accessibility at the forefront of every project you work on, why you should be testing your code on a wide range of systems and not just the major OS, as well as a few tips and advice on how to prepare yourself for the new laws that come into effect as of June this year.
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Learn mor...2025-01-3037 minThe Bike Shed453: The Bike Shed Wrapped 2024Happy New Year from The Bike Shed!
Tune in to the one wrapped edition that really matters this holiday season, The Bike Shed Wrapped! Recap the year with Joël and Stephanie as they reminisce over their favourite moments of 2024.
The pair discuss ways they’ve stepped outside their comfort zone to gain a different perspective on their work, the growth they’ve each achieved as a result, and their ambitions for 2025 and beyond.
Discover Joël and Stephanie’s favourite episodes from the year as well as Joël’s favourite blog post of 202...2024-12-3131 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots555: AI Meets LEGO® Creativity with Keira CzarnotaChad is joined for a special interview by Keira Czarnota, founder of Emagineer, as they talk all about their recent collaboration on a new AI powered LEGO® app.
Listen to Keira’s incredible journey, the challenges they faced with early AI models, why LEGO® was so keen to support their project and how thoughtbot was brought in to help.
This episode is a unique crossover event between AI in Focus and Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots. It originally live-streamed over on thoughtbot’s YouTube channel and features some hands on demos with the new ap...2024-12-2648 minThe Bike Shed452: Hotwire Essentials with Steve PolitoStephanie is joined by follow thoughtbot-er Steve Polito as they discuss his latest GitHub resource, Botcasts.
Find out why Steve was so keen to make the app, what he learnt about Hotwire in the process and why he thinks you should stop listening to the show in your current pod-catcher and pick it up in Botcasts instead!
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Try building Botcasts for yourself over on Github!
Your host for this episode has been thoughtbot’s own Stephanie Minn, and was accompanied by Steve Polito.
You can find more of St...2024-12-2428 minThe Bike Shed451: Making Time for and Managing FocusIt’s officially the holidays at the Bike Shed! Defrag your hard drives and take a break with Joël and Stephanie as they breakdown different ways to manage your focus during the day.
The pair discuss separating coding time from thinking time when working, the pros and cons of blocking out time for different tasks and clever ways to move seamlessly from one project to the next without losing momentum.
Joël has some more timezone facts to share, while Stephanie reveals her worst enemy when it comes to productivity.
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Try ou...2024-12-1729 minThe Bike Shed450: Javascript-Driven Development?Joël and Stephanie go back to fundamentals as they pick apart some recent conversations they’ve been having around the office.
Together they discuss the advantages of GraphQL over a REST API, how they utilise JSONB over a regular column or table, and the use-cases for and against a frontend framework like React.
But what’s the theme that ties all these conversations together?
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The article mentioned in this episode was Why I’m over GraphQL
Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Stephanie Minn and Joël Quenne...2024-12-1039 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots553: The One with Sami and ChadAfter 10 years and 550 episodes of Giant Robots, Chad and Sami are ready to discuss what’s next for the podcast. The pair dive into some podcast role-play as they test out some ideas for iterating the show’s formula.
Peek behind the curtain as they discuss the inner workings of the show, the challenges of working on a mature codebase, how thoughtbot tackles impostor syndrome when onboarding new employees and the developing accessibility of AI.
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Your hosts for this episode have been Chad Pytel and Sami Birnbaum.
You can find Chad all over s...2024-12-0538 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots551: System Design is a Team Sport with Tom JohnsonIf system design is a team sport, then you need to make sure that your team has the tools they need to work together. In this episode, entrepreneur, CTO, and co-founder Tom Johnson joins us to discuss Multiplayer, a collaborative tool streamlining system design and documentation for developers. Multiplayer is often likened to “Figma for developers,” as it allows teams to map, document, and debug distributed systems visually and collaboratively. Tom shares his experience building this tool, drawing on years of backend development challenges, from debugging to coordinating across teams. We also discuss the business side of startups before lear...2024-11-2137 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots550: Disrupting and Democratizing Private Chefs with Iyabo BelloWhat if booking a private chef was as easy as ordering an Uber? Iyabo Bello is a serial founder and entrepreneur, best known for iKooK, an app connecting private chefs to their target audience. Join us as she shares the unlikely story of how she came up with the idea to start iKooK after working in fashion design and food science. We get into the weeds with the premise of the app, how it differs from other home chef experiences, and how the cooks are vetted before being allowed to register on the app. Iyabo shares her experience of...2024-11-1439 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots549: Scaling Startups and AI-Powered Real Estate with Chris FellowsHow do you build a tool that redefines the real estate game for agents and brokers? Today on the show, host Chad Pytel sits down with Chris Fellows, founder and CEO of Bold Street, to explore how his AI-powered platform is reshaping residential investment for real estate professionals. Originally focused on data analytics for big investors, Bold Street pivoted after the Great Recession to meet the needs of agents and brokers. Chris shares how the platform, developed over 18 months, helps agents master investor math and market analysis, boosting efficiency. The conversation dives into current market dynamics, like the rising...2024-11-0733 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots548: Product Management vs Project Management with Bethan AshleyWhat if, instead of asking how to integrate AI into your product, the question was, should you? During this episode, Jared Turner and Sami Birnbaum interview Senior Product Manager at thoughtbot and Founderland Startup Mentor, Bethan Ashley, who shares her insights and advice on how and when to leverage AI tooling. Sharing her career journey leading up to this point, Bethan makes the key distinction between project management and product management, and why this is essential to understand. Next, you’ll hear about her views on the importance of talking to customers about your products and the different ways to...2024-11-0134 minThe Bike Shed443: Rails World and Open Source with Stefanni BrasilLearning from other developers is an important ingredient to your success. During this episode, Joël Quenneville is joined by Stefanni Brasil, Senior Developer at Thoughtbot, and core maintainer of faker-ruby. To open our conversation, she shares the details of her experience at the Rails World conference in Toronto and the projects she enjoyed seeing most. Next, we explore the challenge of Mac versus Windows and how these programs interact with Ruby on Rails and dive into Stefanni’s involvement in Open Source for Thoughtbot and beyond; what she loves about it, and how she is working to educate oth...2024-10-0832 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots541: Fixing the way that families hire, manage, and pay in-home care professionals with Jon LevinsonBy addressing the way that families hire, manage, and pay in-home care professionals, Clara Home Care is reimagining the way that home care is delivered in America, and Jon Levinson is at the helm. He joins us today to share his personal experiences with in-home care that led him to research the industry, identify the challenges, and co-found Clara. Hear how Jon was able to draw on his background in product management for TripAdvisor and Uber to pioneer his company, what it was like to develop early iterations of the product, and how all this resulted in creating the...2024-09-0542 minThe Bike Shed436: Creating Conditions For Your Best Work with Steph ViccariHow can we optimize our time and environment to do our best work as developers? In today’s episode, we are joined by Stephanie Viccari, former co-host of The Bike Shed and Senior Developer at thoughtbot, to unpack the steps for creating work conditions that enhance productivity. In this conversation, we delve into her unique communication style and approach to optimizing productivity within a team. She explains why she decided to hang up her consulting hat and join the product team at Cisco Meraki, her new role there, and how her consulting skills benefit her new position. Tuning in, yo...2024-08-1343 minThe Bike Shed430: Test Suite Pain & Anti-PatternsStephanie and Joël discuss the recent announcement of the call for proposals for RubyConf in November. Joël is working on his proposals and encouraging his colleagues at thoughtbot to participate, while Stephanie is excited about the conference being held in her hometown of Chicago!
The conversation shifts to Stephanie's recent work, including completing a significant client project and her upcoming two-week refactoring assignment. She shares her enthusiasm for refactoring code to improve its structure and stability, even when it's not her own. Joël and Stephanie also discuss the everyday challenges of maintaining a test sui...2024-06-2540 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots530: Giant Robots On TourHost Will Larry announces an exciting new Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots podcast limited series focusing on Europe, West Asia, and Africa and introduces new co-hosts Sami Birnbaum, Svenja Schäfer, Rémy Hannequin, and Jared Turner! Sami sets a fun challenge for the team to devise a name for the new series by the end of the podcast. The co-hosts engage in an icebreaker game where Sami randomly generates questions for each to answer.
The team members talk about their paths into the tech industry. Jared, Rémy, and Will share stories of discovering the...2024-06-2025 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots527: Exploring AI in Business with PrimeLab io’s Wendell AdamsHost Victoria Guido welcomes Wendell Adams, CEO of PrimeLab.io, as he talks about his lifelong passion for technology and entrepreneurship. Wendell shares his experiences, from hacking electronics as a child to studying various fields in college and eventually starting his own business. He emphasizes the importance of understanding market needs and leveraging language to make technology accessible. Wendell's drive to improve encryption and data security led to the formation of PrimeLab; a company focused on making encryption functional and accessible without compromising performance.
Wendell discusses PrimeLab's strategic direction and market fit. He outlines the challenges and...2024-05-3044 minThe Bike Shed427: RailsConf Recap and Conversing About CouplingJoël and Stephanie talk RailsConf!. Joël shares how he performed as a D&D character, Glittersense the gnome, to make his Turbo features talk entertaining and interactive. Stephanie's talk focused on addressing test pain by connecting it to code coupling, offering practical insights and solutions.
They agree on the importance of continuous improvement as speakers and developers and trying new approaches in talks and code design, and recommend Jared Norman's RailsConf talk on design patterns, too!
That One Thing: Reduce Coupling for More Scalable and Sustainable Software
Connascence.io
[Connascence as a vocabulary to di...2024-05-2837 minThe Bike Shed426: Bringing "Our Selves" to WorkJoël shares his preparations for his RailsConf talk, which is D&D-themed and centered around a gnome character named Glittersense. Stephanie expresses her delight in creating pod-related puns within thoughtbot's internal team structure, like "cross-podination" for inter-pod meetings and the adorable observation that her pod resembles "three peas in a pod" when using the git co-authored-by feature.
Together, Stephanie and Joël discuss bringing one's authentic self to work, balancing personal disclosure with professional boundaries, and fostering psychological safety. They highlight the value of shared interests and personal anecdotes in enhancing team cohesion, especially remotely, and st...2024-05-1433 minThe Bike Shed424: The Spectrum of Automated Processes for Your Dev TeamJoël shares his experience with the dry-rb suite of gems, focusing on how he's been using contracts to validate input data. Stephanie relates to Joël's insights with her preparation for RailsConf, discussing her methods for presenting code in slides and weighing the aesthetics and functionality of different tools like VS Code and Carbon.sh. She also encounters a CI test failure that prompts her to consider the implications of enforcing specific coding standards through CI processes.
The conversation turns into a discussion on managing coding standards and tools effectively, ensuring that automated systems help rather th...2024-04-3036 minThe Bike Shed422: Listener Topics Grab BagJoël conducted a thoughtbot mini-workshop on query plans, which Stephanie found highly effective due to its interactive format. They then discuss the broader value of interactive workshops over traditional talks for deeper learning.
Addressing listener questions, Stephanie and Joël explore the strategic use of if and else in programming for clearer code, the importance of thorough documentation in identifying bugs, and the use of Postgres' EXPLAIN ANALYZE, highlighting the need for environment-specific considerations in query optimization.
Episode mentioning query plans
Query plan visualizer
RailsConf 2024
Episode 349: Unpopular Opinions
Squint test
Episode 405: Retro on Sandi Metz ru...2024-04-0935 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots512: Unboxing thoughtbot's Revolutionary Design Sprint KitIn this episode of the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots podcast, hosts Will Larry and Victoria Guido discuss the intricacies of product design with thoughtbot's Senior Designers, Rami Taibah and Ferdia Kenny. They delve into the newly launched Product Design Sprint Kit by thoughtbot, which is designed to streamline and enhance product development.
Ferdia and Rami explain how the kit aims to compress the design process into a focused five-day sprint, allowing teams to move from idea to user-tested prototype efficiently. They discuss the genesis of the kit, its components, and the rationale behind making...2024-02-1534 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robotsthoughtbot's Incubator Program Mini Session 3: Episode 08: Goodz with Mike Rosenthal and Chris CerritoIf you missed the other episodes with thoughtbot Incubator Program partcipants and founders Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito of Goodz, you can listen to the first episode and the second episode, and the third episode to catch up!
Lindsey Christensen and Jordyn Bonds catch up with the co-founders of Goodz, Chris Cerrito and Mike Rosenthal, where they share insights from their journey during the Incubator program, including the usefulness of the application process in aligning their vision and the challenges and benefits of user interviews and the importance of not overreacting to single user feedback and finding...2024-01-2328 minThe Bike Shed413: Developer Tales of Package ManagementStephanie shares her task of retiring a small, internally-used link-shortening app. She describes the process as both celebratory and a bit mournful. Meanwhile, Joël discusses his deep dive into ActiveRecord, particularly in the context of debugging. He explores the complexities of ActiveRecord querying schemas and the additional latency this introduces.
Together, the hosts discuss the nuances of package management systems and their implications for developers. They touch upon the differences between system packages and language packages, sharing personal experiences with tools like Homebrew, RubyGems, and Docker.
Transcript:
JOËL: Hello and welcome to...2024-01-2333 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robotsthoughtbot's Incubator Program Mini Session 3: Episode 07: Knect with Josh Herzig-MarxIf you missed the other episodes with thoughtbot Incubator Program partcipant and founder Josh Herzig-Marks of Knect, you can listen to Josh's first episode, his second, an his third to catch up.
Josh Herzig-Marx, founder of Knect, discusses the latest developments in his startup journey since his last appearance on the show. He emphasizes the program's value in helping founders like himself refine ideas and strategies. He particularly notes the program's effectiveness in addressing challenges unique to startups, such as managing professional networks and dealing with the rapid growth of online presence.
The conversation also...2024-01-1638 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robotsthoughtbot's Incubator Program Mini Season 3 - Episode 06: Goodz with Mike Rosenthal and Chris CerritoIf you missed the first and second episodes with thoughtbot Incubator Program partcipants and founders Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito of Goodz, you can listen to the first episode and the second episode to catch up!
Lindsey Christensen, head of marketing at thoughtbot is joined by Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito, co-founders of the startup Goodz, and Danny Kim, Senior Product Manager at thoughtbot.
Mike and Chris discuss the progress of Goodz, focusing on the recent intense weeks they've had. Goodz, a startup merging the digital and physical worlds of music, has stayed on course...2024-01-0926 minThe Bike Shed411: Celebrating and Recapping 2023!Stephanie is hosting a holiday cookie swap. Joël talks about participating in thoughtbot's end-of-the-year hackathon, Ralphapalooza.
We had a great year on the show! The hosts wrap up the year and discuss their favorite episodes, the articles, books, and blog posts they’ve read and loved, and other highlights of 2023 (projects, conferences, etc).
Olive Oil Sugar Cookies With Pistachios & Lemon Glaze
thoughtbot’s Blog
Episode 398: Developing Heuristics For Writing Software
Episode 374: Discrete Math
Episode 405: Sandi Metz’s Rules
Episode 391: Learn with APPL
Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
Confident Ruby
Working with Maybe from Elm Eur...2023-12-1938 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robotsthoughtbot's Incubator Program Mini Season 3 - Episode 05: Knect with Josh Herzig-MarxIf you missed the first and second episodes with thoughtbot Incubator Program partcipant and founder Josh Herzig-Marks of Knect, you can listen to Josh's first episode and his second to catch up.
In the third interview with Josh, Lindsey Christensen, head of Marketing at thoughtbot, and Jordyn Bonds, head of the Incubator Program at thoughtbot, discuss the progress of Knect in the thoughtbot Incubator Program. Most of the conversation involves identifying and focusing on the right target audience. Initially, they considered startup enthusiasts, but after exploring other segments like journalists, they returned to startup enthusiasts with a...2023-12-1227 minThe Bike Shed409: Support & Maintenance and Rotating DevelopersStephanie recommends "Blue Eye Samurai" and a new ceramic pot (donabe) for cooking. Joël talks about the joy of holding a warm beverage in a unique mug.
Stephanie discusses her shift to a part-time support and maintenance role at thoughtbot, contrasting it with her full-time development work. She highlights the importance of communication, documentation, and workplace flexibility in this role. Stephanie appreciates the professional growth opportunities and aligns this flexible work style with her long-term career goals.
Blue Eye Samurai
Donabe pots
thoughtbot’s Support & Maintenance services
Transcript:
JOËL: Hello and welc...2023-12-0528 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robotsthoughtbot's Incubator Program Mini Season 3 - Episode 04: Goodz with Mike Rosenthal and Chris CerritoIf you missed the first episode with thoughtbot Incubator Program partcipants and founders Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito of Goodz, you can go here first to catch up!
Startup founders Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito are participating in thoughtbot's eight-week incubator program. Mike, with a background in the music industry, and Chris, experienced in physical computing and exhibit development, are collaborating on a startup that creates physical objects linked to digital content, primarily in music. Their goal is to enhance the connection between tangible and digital experiences, starting with a product that resembles a mixtape, using NFC...2023-12-0525 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robotsthoughtbot's Incubator Program Mini Season 3 - Episode 03: Knect with Josh Herzig-MarxIf you missed the first episode with thoughtbot Incubator Program partcipant and founder Josh Herzig-Marks of Knect, you can go here first to catch up.
A key focus of Josh's second episode is the importance of user research and customer discovery. Josh stresses that talking to users is crucial, as it grounds the development process in reality. thoughtbot's Director of Product Strategy, Jordyn Bonds, adds that direct engagement with users builds empathy and understanding within the team, making it more effective.
They also discuss the challenges of identifying a product's target audience and the importance...2023-11-2824 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots500: Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots 500th Episode!We released episode one of this podcast on June 11, 2012. Now, more than a decade later, we're celebrating the 500th episode of our show. In honor of this milestone, Victoria, Will, and Chad caught up with each of the past hosts of the show: Ben Orenstein, Chris Toomey, and Lindsey Christensen.
We chatted about what they’re up to now, what they liked and learned from hosting the show, their time at thoughtbot, and more!
Follow thoughtbot on X or LinkedIn.
Become a Sponsor of Giant Robots!
Transcript:
VICTORIA: This is the Gi...2023-11-161h 12Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robotsthoughtbot's Incubator Program Mini Season 3 - Episode 02: Goodz with Mike Rosenthal and Chris CerritoThis episode introduces the second participants of the season's thoughtbot's Incubator Program, Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito. Mike has a background in music industry marketing, and Chris is a maker and tinkerer with experience in exhibit development. They're developing a product combining physical objects with digital content, starting with music. Their concept involves creating physical items like wooden mixtapes with NFC chips linking to digital playlists. This blend of physical and digital aims to revive the tangible aspects of fan engagement in a digital era.
Their project, named Goodz, is the first pure consumer product in the...2023-11-1433 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robotsthoughtbot's Incubator Program Mini Season 3 - Episode 01: Knect with Josh Herzig-Marxthoughtbot's Incubator Program is back for a third round! This episode introduces founder Josh Herzig-Marks of Knect, and he will be sharing his journey from freelance work to joining the program and what happens throughout! So far, he appreciates the deliberate communication practices required for practical remote work, despite remote work already being second nature to him, and he understands the importance of proactive and transparent communication in a team setting.
One critical insight for Josh so far was the misconception surrounding the term "CRM" in personal relationship management. His moment involved mislabeling a survey, which led...2023-11-0737 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robotsthoughtbot's Incubator Program Mini Season - Episode 04: AvidFirst with Ashley ShebleDawn Delatte, Vendela Colavecchio, and Jordyn Bonds interview Ashley Sheble, the Founder of AvidFirst, about her experiences and progress in thoughtbot's Incubator Program, which aims to help founders like Ashley turn an idea into a viable product.
The discussion covers various aspects of the program, including the evolution of the product idea, insights gained from industry conferences, the importance of listening to customers, and the ongoing development of the go-to-market strategy. Everyone emphasizes the value of the Incubator Program in helping founders connect with their market and refine their strategy.
Just catching up? Listen to...2023-11-0128 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robotsthoughtbot's Incubator Program Mini Season - Episode 03: AvidFirst with Ashley ShebleDawn Delatte and Jordyn Bonds interview Ashley Sheble, the Founder of AvidFirst, about her experiences and progress in thoughtbot's Incubator Program, which aims to help founders like Ashley turn an idea into a viable product.
In the third part of the Mini Incubator Series, they talk about user interviews, data analysis, and prototyping to validate ideas. They emphasize the importance of being open to user signals and adjusting their approach accordingly. They also discuss the upcoming weeks of the program and the goal of refining their story and business strategy.
Just catching up? Listen to...2023-11-0123 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robotsthoughtbot's Incubator Program Mini Season - Episode 02: AvidFirst with Ashley ShebleIn this second conversation in this Mini Incubator Series, Dawn Delatte and Jordyn Bonds interview Ashley Sheble, the Founder of AvidFirst, about her experiences and progress in thoughtbot's Incubator Program, which aims to help founders like Ashley turn an idea into a viable product.
The trio talks about Ashley's experiences and progress in the program. She emphasizes the significance of user research and interviews in shaping product strategy and understanding customer needs. She also highlights the need to narrow their focus to specific customer segments to build a product that resonates with a particular group. Additionally, they...2023-11-0125 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robotsthoughtbot's Incubator Program Mini Season - Episode 01: AvidFirst with Ashley ShebleLindsey Christensen is back as the Marketing Lead at thoughtbot! She's joined by guests Jordyn Bonds, the Director of Product Strategy at thoughtbot, and Ashley Sheble, a founder currently participating in thoughtbot's eight-week startup incubator, to discuss the multifaceted journey of entrepreneurship.
thoughtbot's Incubator Program aims to help founders like Ashley turn an idea into a viable product. They're currently at the stage of validating assumptions about the problem space and target market. Jordyn introduces a new concept: a project roadmap visualization that includes an "emotions workstream." This is designed to help founders anticipate and navigate the...2023-11-0130 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots493: Mobile Development at thoughtbot with Stephen HansonWe are thrilled to announce the third session of our new Incubator Program. If you have a business idea that involves a web or mobile app, we encourage you to apply to our eight-week program. We'll help you validate your market opportunity, experiment with messaging and product ideas, and move forward with confidence toward an MVP.
Learn more and apply at tbot.io/incubator. We look forward to seeing your application in our inbox!
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Co-host Will Larry interviews Stephen Hanson, the Director of Mobile Development at thoughtbot. The two explore the complexities of...2023-09-2134 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots487: OtisHealth with Marc Mar-YohanaIntroducing thoughtbot's ongoing maintenance service. Need reliable support and maintenance for your software? Look no further. Our expert team handles upgrades, bug fixes, UI adjustments, and new feature development. And the best part? Our maintenance packages start at just 5k per month for companies of all sizes.
From Ruby on Rails to Node, React, and, yes, even PHP, we've got you covered. Trust thoughtbot for top-notch support and optimized performance.
To receive a custom quote, contact sales@thoughtbot.com.
Marc Mar-Yohana is the CEO and Founder of OtisHealth, a personal health application and...2023-08-1036 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots486: Blox with Simon RitchieIntroducing thoughtbot's ongoing maintenance service. Need reliable support and maintenance for your software? Look no further. Our expert team handles upgrades, bug fixes, UI adjustments, and new feature development. And the best part? Our maintenance packages start at just 5k per month for companies of all sizes.
From Ruby on Rails to Node, React, and, yes, even PHP, we've got you covered. Trust thoughtbot for top-notch support and optimized performance.
To receive a custom quote, contact sales@thoughtbot.com.
__
Simon Ritchie, the founder and CEO of Blox, discusses his background and...2023-08-0346 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots485: Pointz with Maggie Bachenberg and Trisha BallakurIntroducing thoughtbot's ongoing maintenance service. Need reliable support and maintenance for your software? Look no further. Our expert team handles upgrades, bug fixes, UI adjustments, and new feature development. And the best part? Our maintenance packages start at just 5k per month for companies of all sizes.
From Ruby on Rails to Node, React, and, yes, even PHP, we've got you covered. Trust thoughtbot for top-notch support and optimized performance.
To receive a custom quote, contact sales@thoughtbot.com.
__
Maggie Bachenberg, CEO, and Trisha Ballakur, CTO, are the co-founders of Pointz...2023-07-2738 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots484: Ruby On Rails: The Podcast with Brittany MartinIntroducing thoughtbot's ongoing maintenance service. Need reliable support and maintenance for your software? Look no further. Our expert team handles upgrades, bug fixes, UI adjustments, and new feature development. And the best part? Our maintenance packages start at just 5k per month for companies of all sizes.
From Ruby on Rails to Node, React, and, yes, even PHP, we've got you covered. Trust thoughtbot for top-notch support and optimized performance.
To receive a custom quote, contact sales@thoughtbot.com.
--
Brittany Martin is an Engineering Manager at Shogun, where she manages...2023-07-2050 minThe Bike Shed390: The Truth about TruthinessJoël's new work project involves tricky date formats. Stephanie has been working with former Bike Shed host Steph Viccari and loved her peer review feedback.
The concept of truthiness is tough to grasp sometimes, and JavaScript and Ruby differ in their implementation of truthiness.
Is this a problem?
Do you prefer one model over the other?
What can we learn about these design decisions?
How can we avoid common pitfalls?
[EDI](https://www.stedi.com/blog/date-and-time-in-edi](https:/www.stedi.com/blog/date-and-time-in-edi)
[Booleans don’t exist in Ruby](https://thoughtbot.com/blog/what-is-a-boolean](https://tho...2023-06-2739 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots478: Senga with Agnes MalatinszkyAgnes Malatinszky is the Founder of Senga, which takes care of back-office administrative needs for freelancers, contractors, and solopreneurs.
Victoria and Will interview Agnes about the thoughtbot Incubator program and what led Agnes to choose to apply, what the demands on her time were like, how it worked, and how she feels now that she's at the end of the program.
Senga
Follow Agnes Malatinszky on LinkedIn or Twitter.
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WILL: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other...2023-06-0822 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots477: 20th Anniversary EpisodeChad joins cohosts Victoria and Will to talk about thoughtbot's 20th birthday! 🤖🎉
In this episode, you'll find the 411 on the thoughtbot mascot, "Ralph," taking the company fully remote, and our company values and how we believe products should be designed and built!
Follow Chad Pytel on LinkedIn, Twitter, or visit his website.
Follow thoughtbot on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Become a Sponsor of Giant Robots!
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VICTORIA: Hey there. It's your host Victoria. And I'm here today with Dawn Delatte and Jordyn Bonds from our Ignite team. We are thrilled to announce the su...2023-06-0152 minThe Bike Shed385: The Boring Parts of TechJoël is joined by thoughtbot Software Developer and Dirt Jumper Daniel Nolan. Dirt jumping is BMX-style riding 🏍️ with really enormous dirt jumps.
But for a person who loves excitement in his spare time, for Daniel at work, it's not the new and shiny that interests him. When he dives into something, the "boring" parts of tech are what he finds most fulfilling. He wants to know the "why," and in this conversation, he explains how it sustains his career.
This episode is brought to you by Airbrake. Visit Frictionless error monitoring and performance insight for yo...2023-05-2324 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots475: Designing Data Governance From the Ground Up with Lauren MaffeoLauren Maffeo is the author of Designing Data Governance from the Ground Up.
Victoria talks to Lauren about human-centered design work, data stewardship and governance, and writing a book anybody can use regardless of industry or team size.
Designing Data Governance from the Ground Up
Follow Lauren Maffeo on LinkedIn or Twitter.
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VICTORIA: Hey there. It's your host Victoria. And I'm here today with Dawn Delatte and Jordyn Bonds from our Ignite team. We are thrilled to announce...2023-05-1848 minThe Bike Shed375: Deleting Codethoughtbot had an in-person Summit in the UK! Joël recalls highlights. Stephanie is loving daily sync meetings on a new project.
The idea of deleting code has been swimming around in Stephanie's brain recently because she's been feeling nervous about it. Together, Joël and Stephanie explore ways of gaining confidence to delete code while feeling good about it.
This episode is brought to you by Airbrake. Visit Frictionless error monitoring and performance insight for your app stack.
Thoughtbot summit video
Gather Town
Sustainable Rails episode
Chelsea Troy on deleting features
Unused
elm-review-unused
...2023-03-1431 minThe Bike Shed374: Discrete MathJoël is joined by a very special guest, Sara Jackson, a fellow Software Developer at thoughtbot.
A few episodes ago, Stephanie and Joël talked about "The Fundamentals" and how many of the fundamentals of web development line up with a Computer Science degree. Joël made a comment during that episode that his pick for the most underrated CS class that he thinks would benefit most devs is a class called
"Discrete Math." Sara weighs in!
This episode is brought to you by Airbrake. Visit Frictionless error monitoring and performance insight for you...2023-03-0730 minThe Bike Shed372: Onboarding (Well!) Onto a ProjectStephanie raves about more software development-related zines by Julia Evans. Joël has been thinking about the mechanics of rolling dice.
Stephanie also started on a new client project that Joël has already been working on for many months. They talk about onboarding.
This episode is brought to you by Airbrake. Visit Frictionless error monitoring and performance insight for your app stack.
Julia Evan's Wizard Zines
Why's Poignant Guide To Ruby
Learn You A Haskell For Great Good
Mazes for Programmers
thoughtbot dotfiles
rcm
Transcript:
AD:
thoughtbot is th...2023-02-2137 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots451: Product Strategy with Jordyn BondsJordyn Bonds is the Director of Product Strategy at thoughtbot. Jordyn helps companies validate new product opportunities and reach that first key milestone, from validating an early adopter market to creating a pitch deck to building a prototype, proof of concept, or an MVP launch.
Chad talks to Jordyn about what a Director of Product Strategy does, how Jordyn's career has evolved (She got to build madonna.com for the Confessions on the Dance Floor release and tour!!), and finding practices that keep you motivated and inspired to be working towards long-term, large goals.
Follow Jordyn...2022-12-0139 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots449: Welcome, Will Larry!Will Larry, Software Developer at thoughtbot, joins Giant Robots as host! 🎉
Will talks about how he got into tech, how everything is going so far at thoughtbot, interviewing at thoughtbot previously, but not getting the job, and why he decided to interview again (and snagged the job!)
Follow Will on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Follow thoughtbot on Twitter or LinkedIn.
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CHAD: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your hos...2022-11-1735 minThe Bike Shed362: Prioritizing LearningThis week, Steph and Joël discuss investment time and keeping track of things they want to learn.
How do you, dear listener, keep track of things you want to learn? When investment time rolls around, what do you reach for, or how do you prioritize that list? Are there things you actively decide not to focus on when choosing where to develop deep expertise? Are there things you wish you could spend time on if you could?
This episode is brought to you by Airbrake. Visit Frictionless error monitoring and performance insight for your a...2022-11-1529 minThe Bike Shed360: ActiveRecord ModelsFellow thoughtboter Sarah Lima joins Joël to discuss an issue Sarah had when she was doing a code review recently: making HTTP requests in an ActiveRecord model. Her concern with that approach was that a class was having too many responsibilities that would break the single-responsibility principle, and that it would make the class hard to maintain. Because the ActiveRecord layer is a layer that's meant to encapsulate business roles and data, her issue was that adding another responsibility on top of it would be too much. Her solution was to extract a class that would handle the w...2022-11-0128 minThe Bike Shed354: The History of ComputingWhy does the history of computing matter? Joël and Developer at thoughtbot Sara Jackson, ponder this and share some cool stories (and trivia!!) behind the tools we use in the industry.
This episode is brought to you by Airbrake. Visit Frictionless error monitoring and performance insight for your app stack.
Sara on Twitter
UNIX philosophy
Hillel Wayne on why we ask linked list questions
History of Unix, Linux, and Open Source / Free Software
Collected Histories of Unix
Selected pages from the nine research editions of the UNIX® Programmer’s Manual illustrate the development of the syst...2022-09-1331 minThe Bike Shed352: Case ExpressionsAs developers, we care a lot about code quality. How do we know how good is good enough? When do we stop improving code? Alternatively, when working on code that's really bad, how much do you improve it before calling it a day? thoughtbot's Stephanie Minn joins Joël to chat about this and case expressions: We recently discussed these as part of thoughtbot's RubyScience reading group. Are case expressions bad? Are they equivalent to multi-way conditionals? When do you use polymorphism?
This episode is brought to you by Airbrake. Visit Frictionless error monitoring and performance insight f...2022-08-3032 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots436: Welcoming our new co-host Victoria GuidoVictoria Guido is the new Associate Director of Business Development and DevOps Strategy at thoughtbot, and is joining Chad as co-host of the show!
Chad talks with Victoria about getting involved in DevOps work, transitioning to agile, moving away from her old community which was based on geography, and tips for people onboarding into a new role.
Follow Victoria on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Follow thoughtbot on Twitter or LinkedIn.
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Transcript:
CHAD: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore...2022-08-1824 minThe Bike Shed349: Unpopular OpinionsSteph and Chris announce Joël Quenneville as the new host of the show! 🎉 Joël talks about his grand plans for where The Bike Shed is going to go from here. (Okay, maybe not grand plans...!)
Together, the group chats about unpopular opinions and hot programming takes.
This episode is brought to you by Airbrake. Visit Frictionless error monitoring and performance insight for your app stack.
Follow Joël on Twitter! Welcome him to the show.
Joël Quenneville - DRY is harmful for intermediate devs
Become a Sponsor of The...2022-08-0940 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots431: DEI at thoughtbot with Geronda Wollack-SpillerGeronda Wollack-Spiller is the DEI Program Manager at thoughtbot.
Chad talks with Geronda about implementing a successful Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program at the company by providing a culture of belonging, the challenges, in particular, the tech industry faces, and acknowledging that many of us work in spaces where when we're bringing someone onto a team who has underrepresented identities, they might be the only one. How do we create a space that's as inclusive as possible?
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at thoughtbot
Follow Geronda on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Follow thoughtbot on Twitter or LinkedIn.
...2022-07-1437 minThe Bike Shed342: Sky IcingAnother toaster strudel debate?! Plus, the results are in for the most listened-to podcast in the RoR community! :: drum roll ::
Steph has a "Dear Gerrit" message to share. Chris has a follow-up on mobile app strategy.
The Bike Shed: 328: Terrible Simplicity
When To Fetch: Remixing React Router - Ryan Florence
Virtual Event - Save Time & Money with Discovery Sprints
Become a Sponsor of The Bike Shed!
Transcript:
STEPH: thoughtbot's next virtual event "Save Time & Money with Discovery Sprints" is coming up on June 17th, from 2 - 3 PM...2022-06-1443 minThe Bike Shed340: Solving People Problems with Rob WhittakerSteph is joined by a very special guest and fellow thoughtbotter, Rob Whittaker.
Rob shares how he became the Software Development Director for Launchpad II, thoughtbot's Europe, Middle East, and Africa team. They also dive into what it's like to be a Development Director, the differences between mentoring and coaching, working with GitHub Codespaces, and strategies for boosting your creativity and problem solving capabilities.
thoughtbot is hiring!
ngrok
Time Off Book
Rob's Codespace Setup
Rob Whittaker on Twitter
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Transcript:
2022-05-3150 minThe Bike Shed333: TapasBeing pregnant is hard, but this tapas episode is good! Steph discovered and used a #yelling Slack channel and attended a remote magic show. Chris touches on TypeScript design decisions and edge cases.
Then they answer a question captured from a client Slack channel regarding a debate about whether I18n should be used in tests and whether tests should break when localized text changes.
This episode is brought to you by ScoutAPM. Give Scout a try for free today and Scout will donate $5 to the open source project of your choice when you deploy.2022-04-1241 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots406: thoughtbot 2021 Year-in-Review with CEO Diana BaldChad talks to the CEO of thoughtbot, Diana Bald, about 2021 in retrospect. thoughtbot, as a company, has settled into a new structure that contains different teams and committed to becoming a fully remote organization.
Last year, Diana successfully transitioned into taking over the company's CEO role. She and Chad talk about the improvements the company made in 2021, including DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) efforts and training sessions, and look ahead to some improvements coming in 2022, such as an expansion of the apprenticeship program.
P.S.: thoughtbot is hiring! To see open roles, visit thoughtbot.com/jobs.2022-01-1348 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots403: Mission Control with Joe FerrisJoe Ferris is thoughtbot's CTO and Managing Director of the thoughtbot DevOps and maintenance team known as Mission Control. Mission Control is our newest team doing DevOps Support, Maintenance, and SRE (Site Reliability Engineering). The goal of Mission Control, rather than building products or pairing with team members to improve their team like the rest of thoughtbot, is to support those teams and support other client teams in deploying and scaling applications. They have an on-call team and do more complex cloud build-outs with the goal being to empower and educate the teams that we work with so that...2021-12-0934 minThe Bike Shed318: Successful Skills with Edward LoveallFellow thoughtboter Edward Loveall joins Steph to cohost and talk about alternative frontends and his own that he created: scribe.rip: an alternative frontend to Medium, learning about what it's like to be a manager/non-IC, and helps answer a listener question re: how do you think about empathy in your work?
This episode is brought to you by ScoutAPM. Give Scout a try for free today and Scout will donate $5 to the open source project of your choice when you deploy.
Empathy Online: Edward Loveall
Scribe
GitHub - mendel5/alternative-front-ends: Overview of alternative open source...2021-12-0744 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots402: Lift Off with Emily BahnaEmily Bahna a Managing Director at thoughtbot who leads the Lift Off team, where they focus on really leaning into the core of the company. The team works with new founders to launch new products or they work with existing companies that want to build out a new service or open up a new area to generate revenue for their business. But, the thing that ties Lift Off together, is that they start at ground zero to build upon an idea and actually build the first version product to get it out live into the marketplace.
Follow Emily...2021-12-0229 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots401: thoughtbot Ignite with Dawn DelatteDawn Delatte a Designer and Managing Director at thoughtbot who leads the Ignite team, where they focus primarily on validating and launching early-stage products through design-thinking, business and product strategy, and iterative design and development. Dawn works collaboratively with designers and developers to ensure they add value to the people and products thoughtbot works with every day.
Follow Dawn on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Visit her website at dawndelatte.com.
thoughtbot's Ignite team
Follow thoughtbot on Twitter or LinkedIn
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CHAD: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into...2021-11-1835 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots400: Launchpad II with Kirsten HurleyChad interviews Kirsten Hurley, Managing Director of thoughtbot's Launchpad II team. The Launchpad II team covers the EMEA area: that's Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. She talks about working remotely for almost the entire time she's worked with the company, her approach to talking with potential customers when she knows she's never going to meet them in person, and what she sees happening to the different geographies that thoughtbot is selling and expanding into.
Follow thoughtbot on Twitter or LinkedIn
Follow Kirsten on LinkedIn
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Transcript:
CHAD...2021-11-0435 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots399: thoughtbot Boost with Joshua ClaytonChad interviews Managing Director at thoughtbot, Joshua Clayton, about what a Managing Director at thoughtbot does, what makes Boost at thoughtbot different than other teams, and the belief in integrated teams of designers and developers company-wide.
Empathize with Your Customer by Josh Clayton
thoughtbot Boost
Follow thoughtbot on Twitter or LinkedIn
Follow Josh on LinkedIn or Twitter
Check out Josh's website
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CHAD: This is The Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your...2021-10-2839 minThe Bike Shed305: Burnout & BugsThis week Chris talks about Bifunctor optics and introduces an app he's been liking recently called CleanShot X, which is a replacement for the built-in screenshot utilities on OSX.
Steph talks about her experience using New Relic Browser Stats to troubleshoot a slow page and burnout. Who's feeling it? (Raise your hand.) How do we identify it? What do we do about it?
Svelte Is Beloved! - Stack Overflow Survey
Bifunctors
CleanShot X
Next.js Image
Transcript:
CHRIS: Hello and welcome to another episode of The Bike Shed, a weekly podcast from your...2021-08-1750 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots393: Reaffirming Values and Taking thoughtbot RemoteChad and Lindsey take listeners behind the scenes and go deep into the nitty-gritty of recent thoughtbot company changes driven by the pandemic and the organization's need (and desire!) to go fully remote – all while reaffirming and revisiting the organization's values, mission, and purpose as part of the process.
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CHAD PYTEL: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Chad Pytel.
LINDSEY CHRISTENSEN: And I'm your other ho...2021-05-201h 05Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots392: Better Together with New CEO of thoughtbot, Diana BaldChad is joined by Diana Bald, the new CEO of thoughtbot, to discuss her background, the organizational changes to the leadership of the company, and the reasoning behind them.
Diana on Twitter
Become a Sponsor of Giant Robots!
Transcript:
CHAD PYTEL: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Chad Pytel. And today, I'm joined by the new CEO of thoughtbot, Diana Bald. Thanks for joining me, Diana.
DIANA BALD: Hi, Chad. This is...2021-05-1337 minThe Bike Shed292: Debugging with Joël QuennevilleOn this week's episode, Steph and Chris are joined by fellow thoughtbotter, Joël Quenneville, to discuss all things debugging. Joël is helping publish a weekly debugging blog series and in this conversation they discuss how the series got started, technology agnostic debugging strategies, writing less bug-prone software, and speculate if Joël moonlights as a hockey coach.
Debugging Blog Series 2021
Classical Reasoning and Debugging
Monodraw
An Elm debugging story
Chelsea Troy - PoSD 2: What causes insidious bugs?
Follow Joël Quenneville on Twitter
Joël Quenneville on the thoughtbot blog post
Transcript:
STEPH: All r...2021-05-1143 minThe Bike Shed193: A Thing I Know Almost Nothing AboutOn this week's episode, Chris is joined by Edward Loveall, former thoughtbot design apprentice and now thoughtbot developer. After a quick chat about Edward's thoughtbot origin story, podcasts, and DNS, they dig into the heart of the conversation talking about their respective "must have" developer tools on new machines.
edwardloveall.com
thoughtbot apprenticeship
Domain Name Sanity
Heroku
DNSimple
Amazon Route53
Giant Robots podcast
Edward's episode on Giant Robots talking about the apprenticeship
Tweet about using a podcast as internal onboarding
Hammerspoon
Slate
Spectacle
Divvy
Vim
Tmux
VSCode Live share
tmate
Alfred
Alfred clipboard
AppleScript
Arch Linux
Jeff Goldblum...2019-04-0547 min
Tentative66: Drink PunctuationsJaclyn starts a new Meetup and wonders about ice-breaking activities & community building. Kyle tries his hand at video editing after filming a skill interview, and starts work planning a thoughtbot.com redesign. Also, stress around social media email / notifications and why we should design them more humanely.
Designers Who Code (Boston)
Previous thoughtbot.com Redesign on Tentative
Why Does McDonald’s Use the Colors Red and Yellow?
Blue-plate Special
Jobs @ thoughtbot
Tropical Storm Jackie
Support Tentative2019-02-2828 minThe Bike Shed186: Let's Duplicate StuffOn this week's episode, Chris is joined by Daniel Colson, developer in our New York studio and current maintainer of all things FactoryBot. Chris & Daniel discuss Daniel's work as maintainer of one of thoughtbot's most popular open source projects and some of the parallels to thoughtbot's consulting work. They then discuss a bit more on the specifics of FactoryBot and what's in store for upcoming versions.
To round out the conversation Daniel and Chris also dig into some of the testing related best practices and patterns common to thoughtbot projects, linting and formatting tools, and even dip...2019-02-0138 minThe Bike Shed174: I've Watched a Lot of Vim CoursesIn this special crossover episode, Chris is joined by Chad Pytel, Co-founder & CEO of thoughtbot and host of Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots podcast, to discuss the content, history, and the process of making Upcase, thoughtbot's online learning platform, FREE.
Giant Robots Podcast
Upcase
Test Driven Rails
Mastering Git
Fundamentals of TDD
SOA on The Bike Shed
Onramp to Vim
thoughtbot Purpose Statement
Chad on Twitter
Support The Bike Shed2018-10-1830 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots294: From a Place of Sharing (Chris Toomey)In this special crossover episode, Chad is joined by Chris Toomey, Development Director at thoughtbot and host of The Bike Shed podcast, to discuss the content, history, and the process of making Upcase, thoughtbot's online learning platform, FREE.
The Bike Shed
Upcase
Test Driven Rails
Mastering Git
Fundamentals of TDD
SOA on The Bike Shed
Onramp to Vim
thoughtbot Purpose Statement
Chris on Twitter
See open positions at thoughtbot!
Become a Sponsor of Giant Robots!Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots2018-10-1830 minThe Bike Shed173: A Combinatoric Explosion of NullsJoël Quenneville joins Chris to discuss Elm, the strongly typed functional programming language for writing reliable client side web apps. They discuss recent changes from the 0.19 release including reduced bundle size from dead code elimination, the somewhat controversial removal of custom operators. Anecdotally, Joël and team saw a reduction from 31.5K to 16.6K in bundle size going from 0.18 to 0.19 and felt no pain from the custom operators removal, so a big net win for them with this new version.
Along the way Joël and Chris detour into the complexity of managing a project and com...2018-10-1250 minTentative51: Batman's Fanny PackThis week, we discuss approaches to prototypes in User Testing, Sharpie preferences, how Batman arrived at the final design of his utility belt, and defining thoughtbot's design values.
Tuxedo Snuggie
Wonder Woman Snuggie
Batman's Utility Belt
thoughtbot Design Team Values
thoughtbot Purpose
Lucy's Psychiatry Booth
Support Tentative2018-04-1830 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots262: The Thought Behind the BotIn 2003, five friends came together to form thoughtbot. In this special episode, we take a look back on the founding of thoughtbot, and it's first years, told from the perspective of the original founders and early partners. From their first meeting in college, to the dramatic first work-experience that led them to create thoughtbot, to the eventual breakup and reformation, we explore the events that led thoughtbot to become the company it is today.
Matt Tucker
Calvin Swaim
Willie Conrad
thoughtbot
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Disc
Pino's Pizza
Build a Blog Demo
Shotgunflat
Become a Sponsor of Giant...2018-02-1257 minTentative42: Start Building, Start MeetingJaclyn and Kyle talk about ways to start a design career, as well as what happens when you're deep in the trenches building products.
Headspace
thoughtbot Jobs
thoughtbot Purpose
Beginning HTML5 and CSS3 for Dummies
A Complete Guide to Flexbox | CSS Tricks
Upcase
Treehouse
Optimizely
thoughtbot Product Design Sprint
jaclynperrone.com
Support Tentative2017-11-0931 min
Build Phase107: I Need a Status Text Field Here, Here, and HereThis week, Mark and Gordon discuss the recent spate of App Store rejections for use of "private" API (spoiler: it's not private API), Gordon's new obsession with project templating, and the decline of Skype.
Homer's Car
liftoff
cookiecutter
thoughtbot/ios-template
thoughtbot/django-template
thoughtbot/android-template
Podcast Patreon Survey
2016-10-0645 minTentative25: Everything's a NailReda and Kyle talk about the new thoughtbot.com. Kyle explains some of the reasons why they redesigned instead of iterating over the existing design. They talk about parts of their process and how tools like code and graphical editors fit in. They discuss the balance between shipping and getting pixel perfection. They wrap up talking about how they balance multiple projects and multiple tasks.
thoughtbot.com
Last iteration of thoughtbot.com on wayback machine
How we use trello
Design sprint repo
Design sprint guide
Redpen
Sketch
Kromatic
Trello
Omnifocus
Tools episode
Support Tentative2016-05-1337 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots153: Auld Lang Syne (Chad Pytel)As Giant Robots nears its 3 year anniversary, Ben welcomes back Chad Pytel to reflect on the highs and lows of the previous year at thoughtbot.
This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by:
Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account.
Links & Show Notes
Kaplan Acquires Dev Bootcamp
Learn is Now Upcase
Ship You a Haskell
Paid Private Repos for Hound
Books Now Available Individually
Events (in) October, 2014
Introducing Formkeep
Ruby, the Weird Way- Keep Ruby Weird organizers on Giant Robots #122
...2015-07-0654 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots12: I think I'll be on a yachtBen Orenstein is joined by Matt Jankowski, COO of thoughtbot. Ben and Matt start off by talking about how Matt came to join thoughtbot and his role at the company. They then discuss the typical thoughtbot sales process. How all problems are communication problems. How the way thoughtbot works is appealing to startups and how they hear about thoughtbot. How thoughtbot handles its 20% investment time in open source and our own products, how we preserve that despite trying to grow the business, and how that has evolved over time. The reasons why it's not always possible to work faster...2012-09-1738 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots7: Something Else Was SmellierBen Orenstein is once again joined by Joe Ferris, CTO of thoughtbot. Joe and Ben dive right in to a technical discussion about Objects versus Structures. They then discuss what Joe does as the new CTO of thoughtbot, and how his goal is to set up a system where everybody is teaching everybody. Finally, they discuss why Joe doesn't like using rspec's let and subject, and his strategy for writing tests without them.
Object Mentor blog, Objects vs. Structures
Robert Martin Shape Hierarchy (Open Closed Principle)
Martin Fowler's Refactoring
Code smell
Case statement code smell
Visitor pattern
Shotgun...2012-08-1034 minGiant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots4: I've got a little thoughtbot angel or devil on my shoulderBen Orenstein is joined by David Thyresson, the founder of Stattleship and a past client of thoughtbot. Ben and David discuss how he got started with Stattleship, how he came to work with thoughtbot, and what it was like to work with us. Also, how the idea of what he would initially build changed, and how through agile software development he discovered how it was wrong. How he learned Ruby on Rails from thoughtbot during his project. Finally, what has worked for driving visitors to the site, and important lessons learned about starting up, building an app, and running...2012-07-2037 min