Mastermind.fm

The European investor's favorite podcast.

Episode 17 – Office Hardware & Tech

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Welcome to Episode 17 of Mastermind.fm! Join masterminds Jean and James today as they discuss hardware- the technology we use to do what we do each day. Computer hardware is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think hardware, but today’s banter isn’t limited to that. Join us as we delve into standing desks, ergonomic chairs, office tech, and more!

Stay on the lookout through this episode for a free Mastermind.fm giveaway you won’t want to miss!

Standing Desks

  • Next Desk
  • Up Desk
  • Evo Desk
  • IKEA

James swears by these and loves them for their ability to get you up and moving while you work. Jean concurs. Getting up and moving (dancing?) can be inspirational! Next Desk tends to be the top of the line ($2k+) while Up Desk better fits the budget range of $400-500. Apparently Jean has found one that can order food for you? Who knew. Jean recommends Ikea standing desks that run around $500.

Ergonomic Office Chairs

  • IKEA

Jean likes IKEA here as well, and you can pick up a nice one for around $150. James can’t remember the name of his chair, but I, your anonymous writer of shownotes, can vouch for their awesomeness as well. Unfortunately they don’t have any branding on them. They’re a cloth mesh seat and back with adjustable lumbar support and adjustable just about everything. The extra lumbar support is amazing.

Monitors

  • Thunderbolt displays
  • Macbook Air, Macbook Pro Retina

James’ office uses 100% Thunderbolt displays, which works because it’s a 100% Mac environment. Jean has tried his both Macbook Air and Pro, and likes the 15” screen of the Pro. He’s also experimented with using his iPad as an alternate second monitor connected by a USB cable. It takes an app to connect them, but is a perfect second monitor on the go. He also uses a 27” monitor on his work desk.

Look for Jean and James’ discussion of hardware to continue next week!

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Episode 16 – Offering Great Support

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Welcome to Episode 16 of Mastermind.fm! This week our masterminds Jean and James delve into the topic of hiring and support. Look for this week’s conversation to revolve mostly around support, and then turn to hiring next week. You’ll find a brief overview below as always, but be sure to tune in for the full scoop! You won’t want to miss it!

How Can We Offer Great Support for a WordPress Plugin or Business?

James kicks things off by laying out his philosophy on support: instead of looking at support as the inevitable thing we have to do because we have a product, look at it as an opportunity to engage with your customers. The goal of support shouldn’t be to close a ticket or end one conversation so you can move on to another one, but to build trust and relationships.

Jean addresses logistics. As a beginning business, how much of your small team’s time do you devote to support and development? You have to manage setting priorities and scaling as your company grows. What’s the factors to consider in managing this aspect of your growth? It’s a reality for almost everyone. The ‘passive income’ of a plugin that doesn’t need support is a reality to varying degrees, but it’s tantamount to chasing unicorns. You need to plan for support!

How Can You Plan for Support?

In a nutshell, target and address top issues for your customers proactively.

  • Look for gaps in your product: specific problem areas that users struggle with. Address these proactively.
  • Implement a series of steps/troubleshooting guide/faq inside the support form prior to submitting it. “Intelligent forms” so to speak.

Team Structure

Support can, in Jean’s words, “quickly take over your life”. How do you handle it within your team?

For James and Ninja Forms, a key quality in a support team is to act as customer advocates. People that can show empathy and relate to the customer. Someone who can solve a problem for the customer and, when warranted, come back to the development team and suggest changes. They’re not just ‘question answerers’, but team members that are actively engaged in shaping the direction of product growth. They are support-first hires rather than developers that handle support too.

For Jean, the nature of his team’s work require developers in the support role. That’s a common arrangement shared by other organizations like Delicious Brains and MailPoet. This brings a high degree of technical know-how to the support aspect of the business. Jean’s team uses a three-tiered system for support where tickets are delegated based on the nature of the individual ticket and which developers are best suited to address them.

Find a Help Desk Solution

Email or form support may work ok in the very early days, but both Jean and James strongly recommend adopting a help desk solution early. Even a homebrew support method is going to be overwhelmed quickly by your evolving needs. Don’t be afraid to research and experiment with different systems, but look into a professional solution early.

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Episode 15: What Makes a Successful WordPress Plugin?

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Welcome to Episode 15 of Mastermind.fm! Today our resident masterminds Jean and James tackle the topic of having a successful WordPress plugin: from zero to success. Join them today and take a tour through the major attributes that a plugin business needs to become successful, from a pair of entrepreneurs who know the drill firsthand. We’ll outline them below, but tune in for the full story!

Nobody wants to use your plugin. They use it to solve a problem!

Attributes of a successful plugin business:

  1. Solve a problem
  2. Ooze quality in the way your plugin is built and coded
  3. Timing
  4. Team
  5. Get the word out
  6. Reviews & Relationships
  7. Extensibility

Point 1 and 2: Solve a problem, but make it as pleasurable of an experience for the user as you can. Nobody wakes up in the morning excited to build a form for their website, but they shouldn’t dread having to do it either! Style your plugin so that it is tasteful and comfortable within WordPress. It doesn’t have to be a WordPress UI clone though- sometimes you have to think outside the box to solve your users’ problems.

Point 3: Is there a need to fill, and is there anyone filling the need in the way you are intending on doing it? A saturated market is a proven market with a clear need, so don’t be afraid to wade in with other large, successful competitors. The fact that the market is saturated indicates a clear need, just find your niche and fill it in an awesome and unique way.

Point 4: Don’t be afraid to strategically add people to your team to help you grow and mature.

Point 5: People have to know you’re there. The WordPress repo is a great tool for this. Build relationships whenever possible also.

Point 6: The vote of confidence of other users and high profile community members is huge for growth. The role of Pippin Williamson in supporting Ninja Forms early on was enormous for the growth of Ninja Forms, for example. His vote of confidence added a lot of fuel to the business. You don’t necessarily want the biggest names (though Pippin is a pretty huge name in WordPress), but just well respected, honest members of the community

Point 7: Build for potential growth. Build better and bigger will follow. Make your plugin extensible and easy to add to for collaborating developers.

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Episode 14: Completely Rewriting Your WordPress Plugin

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Welcome to Episode 14 of the WordPress business podcast Mastermind.fm! Today Jean and James will be discussing total plugin rewrites. It’s an area they both have a degree of experience in, as both are either involved in or researching this strategy for their own plugins. Here’s a quick teaser of what they dig into on the topic. Tune in for more!

Total Plugin Rewrites!

Jean is currently discussing with his team whether they will be rewriting their plugin, WP RSS Aggregator. James and his team have been in the process of a complete rewrite of their plugin, Ninja Forms, for around a year now.

The first thing to ask yourself before you begin: When should a rewrite be undertaken? Some things to consider:

  • Can you still iterate on your current architecture?
  • Is there new technology or new developments coming in that changes the landscape of your market?
  • Recurring user problems
  • Want to open the plugin to 3rd party developers (if not initially built to be extensible)

Driving forces behind rewriting Ninja Forms:

  • Mechanism by which we built the plugin simply didn’t allow for any other way of doing things. It was inflexible and the UI was starting to get cluttered.
  • We wanted a new UI and new functionalities for our customers and users.

Ninja Forms has handled the transition from the old plugin (2.9.x) to the new plugin (3.0) using a slow transition phase-in to select groups of users. The most current version of the 2.9.x has the new 3.0 code base, but it only unlocks under certain conditions. Certain checks are in place to make sure that a user with non-compatible extensions isn’t able to roll forward before they’re ready. There are also multiple channels for user testing and reporting without actually having dedicated beta testers.

Reflections on the Ninja Forms Three process:

  • Work as much behind the scenes as you can until you are ready to market
  • Don’t put out timelines
  • Don’t make promises too early
  • Plan your marketing early but don’t start too early

Particular challenges in the process

  • Settings name changes and changing how they’re stored
  • Addons need the same changes that core does, multiplying the work and adding challenges to upgrade routines used in core
  • Handling customization in functions.php without breaking post-upgrade
  • Handling user analytics in the transition from old to new

Parting thoughts from James: Think about your user base, think about your code base, think about your team. What’s best for everyone involved? Consider all the different pieces, all the moving parts, everything involved. Don’t come to the decision lightly. Ultimately, do what is best for your users.

There’s much more in the audio from marketing to support, so sit back, grab your favorite frosty beverage, and lend us an ear! After you’re finished, check out the latest post on Pippin Williamson’s blog. He discusses monsters and databases: The monster that is a poor database schema. It’s very much related and we bet you’ll love it!

Episode 13: Listener Q & A (Health, Market Fit, Pricing & Billing, Business Models, Financial Management)

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Welcome to Episode 13 of Mastermind.fm! In this week’s podcast our resident masterminds Jean and James take questions from you about everything from heath and fitness to financial management. Listen in as they field a number of great audience questions and discuss them at length. Tune in now and you can check out the questions below!

Jean & James Mastermind Q&A Questions

~Health & Fitness: What do you do to stay fit at a job where you sit all day? What do you eat?

~Business: How you can choose the right market for your product and target a special niche within that market?

~Pricing and Billing: How do you handle pricing and billing for work done? Do you recommend an ad hoc, upfront, or payment plan with milestones approach? Something unique?

~Business models: How did you make the jump from an agency to a product business? What were your expectations prior to the change and how did your experiences differ? What was your motivation for the shift?

~Financial Management: In Episode 4 you mentioned looking at your numbers and business plans with an accountant. What plans do you have in place, ambitions, etc?

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