I’ve always kept a spare key in a lockbox outside my apartment. That habit has saved me many times when I locked myself out or had a friend stay over while I was out of town. …

Whether you’re a veteran product manager, a first-time PM or an engineer yourself, this reference guide should be a fun (and hopefully educational) read. Estimation & Scale Trivial “Once we decide on the API schema, writing the endpoints will be trivial.” Easy or unimportant. The opposite, non-trivial, is commonly used to mean that…

This October will mark the 4th Boston Drunk User Testing. What started as just a handful of “design-y” startups and a couple of kegs has grown to hundreds of people and dozens of simultaneous usability tests. It’s no coincidence that DUT aligns with Appcues’ mission of helping teams create products…

In the Summer of 2016, the Appcues Product team was killing it. If you had a checklist for a high-performing product team, we were nailing all the important marks. ✅ Everything we were building was backed by heavy validation. ✅ We resolved most bugs as soon as they were reported. ✅ Our…

Earlier this week, we made a new addition to the Appcues employee benefits package. While some startups try to woo new hires with catered lunch and nerf guns, we enjoy being fun in a different way. That’s why I’m proud to announce the Appcues Trust Fund, a budget for building…

The short answer: no. There’s a better way. I’m a follower of Lean thinking and have become addicted to the thrill and benefits of immediate feedback. When starting Appcues, I wanted (maybe needed) to get those same benefits from my marketing activities. My ideal marketing strategy was: At my own…

One of the things I struggled with was saying “no” to people. I emailed my mentors about it, posted the question on Quora and sought advice often. The turning point came from something Dharmesh said. Remember that your time is finite. …

It’s been just over nine years since Dave McClure first shared his Pirate Metrics with the world. That same year, Dropbox and Hulu were founded, T-Mobile had just IPO’d, and a share of Apple stock cost $12. Over nearly a decade, every tech startup founder has referenced Pirate Metrics in…

We’ve all heard the adages. “Fake it ’til you make it.” “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.” “Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.” These sayings are motivating, but they advocate too heavily in favor of deceit. Should you really spend years as a…