Rob Walling

We wanted to ship as fast as possible. But code quality was always extremely important. And we didn't see the need to generate external pressure, meaning go on social media or email the whole list and say, hey, next month... On March 21st, we are going to be launching this huge feature because we were intrinsically motivated.

We wanted to ship as fast as possible. But code quality was always extremely important. And we didn't see the need to generate external pressure, meaning go on social media or email the whole list and say, hey, next month... On March 21st, we are going to be launching this huge feature because we were intrinsically motivated.

We were two founders of this company, and we were a small enough team that the DNA was to just get stuff done fast but at high quality, right? So what I'm saying here probably doesn't apply if you have a 50-person engineering team. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I don't know if I could scale this to an org that big.

We were two founders of this company, and we were a small enough team that the DNA was to just get stuff done fast but at high quality, right? So what I'm saying here probably doesn't apply if you have a 50-person engineering team. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I don't know if I could scale this to an org that big.

But we really were a high-performing, high-functioning team and we all moved to ship quickly. And so putting deadlines, especially public, now we could put some internal deadlines where I'd say, hey, do we think we can get this done by next Wednesday? Do we think we can get this done in three weeks?

But we really were a high-performing, high-functioning team and we all moved to ship quickly. And so putting deadlines, especially public, now we could put some internal deadlines where I'd say, hey, do we think we can get this done by next Wednesday? Do we think we can get this done in three weeks?

realizing that the further out you think about, the cone of uncertainty gets more and more uncertain, right? It's like, if I say three weeks, do I really mean like three to four? Probably two to four. But if I say, can we get this done by tomorrow? It's probably tomorrow, right? I'm more certain about deadlines that are closer to me.

realizing that the further out you think about, the cone of uncertainty gets more and more uncertain, right? It's like, if I say three weeks, do I really mean like three to four? Probably two to four. But if I say, can we get this done by tomorrow? It's probably tomorrow, right? I'm more certain about deadlines that are closer to me.

So we would talk internally about when we thought we could chip it, but we never went public with those deadlines. And then in mid-2015, we embarked on the biggest and, frankly, the longest duration-wise feature that we ever built with Drip, at least pre-acquisition. And it was to build visual workflows. So we had all these automations, but it was...

So we would talk internally about when we thought we could chip it, but we never went public with those deadlines. And then in mid-2015, we embarked on the biggest and, frankly, the longest duration-wise feature that we ever built with Drip, at least pre-acquisition. And it was to build visual workflows. So we had all these automations, but it was...

If you think about Zapier where there's a drop-down list that says, hey, this is the trigger and then this is what it does. And we had automations in there and they were doing great and we were growing, we had product market fit, it was great. But the hardest part is you just had all these automations doing things independently and

If you think about Zapier where there's a drop-down list that says, hey, this is the trigger and then this is what it does. And we had automations in there and they were doing great and we were growing, we had product market fit, it was great. But the hardest part is you just had all these automations doing things independently and

instead of them being linked in a visual chain, like if you go to HubSpot or I'm trying to think of who else has this now, but back then, of course, it was Infusionsoft. Oh, it was ActiveCampaign. They had actually a really nice visual builder interface. So we set towards doing that. And I remember Derek and I talking about, I think it's two to three months. And it took five months.

instead of them being linked in a visual chain, like if you go to HubSpot or I'm trying to think of who else has this now, but back then, of course, it was Infusionsoft. Oh, it was ActiveCampaign. They had actually a really nice visual builder interface. So we set towards doing that. And I remember Derek and I talking about, I think it's two to three months. And it took five months.

And there were reasons. It was a complex task. We wanted to do it really, really well. And we wanted it to ship at the level of our taste, right, of our product taste. And so we got to the point where it was about two weeks prior to launching and we knew it was two weeks prior to launching because the code was checked in and we were testing and it was some final things we were implementing.

And there were reasons. It was a complex task. We wanted to do it really, really well. And we wanted it to ship at the level of our taste, right, of our product taste. And so we got to the point where it was about two weeks prior to launching and we knew it was two weeks prior to launching because the code was checked in and we were testing and it was some final things we were implementing.

And so I went on Twitter, did a blog post, emailed everybody and I put this blurry, we blurred part of the visual builder and said something incredible is coming on this date two weeks out. And we were like, this is so cool. We get to, people were conjecturing and wondering and And, you know, the internet was abuzz. We were so excited about it. And I'm pretty sure I did that in the morning.

And so I went on Twitter, did a blog post, emailed everybody and I put this blurry, we blurred part of the visual builder and said something incredible is coming on this date two weeks out. And we were like, this is so cool. We get to, people were conjecturing and wondering and And, you know, the internet was abuzz. We were so excited about it. And I'm pretty sure I did that in the morning.

And by the afternoon, one of us realized this changes our entire onboarding flow. Like onboarding took weeks to build. Our onboarding in Drip was really extensive and it worked really well. And we had never revamped it. And we knew that once we had workflows, visual workflows in there, like the onboarding didn't make sense anymore. So suddenly we were like, we don't really have time to redo this.

And by the afternoon, one of us realized this changes our entire onboarding flow. Like onboarding took weeks to build. Our onboarding in Drip was really extensive and it worked really well. And we had never revamped it. And we knew that once we had workflows, visual workflows in there, like the onboarding didn't make sense anymore. So suddenly we were like, we don't really have time to redo this.