December 2009
5 posts
My $129 peak traffic insurance policy
I’m betting there are at least a few readers who can relate to this story: You run a growing web site with just a couple other people and the holiday season (whether right before Christmas, such as if you’re an ecommerce site, or right after Christmas, if you’re more like us) is probably going to be your highest traffic time of the year. Still, you’d like to travel and...
Using Vanity for Rails A/B Testing
A few weeks ago I saw a thread on HN announcing the release of a new A/B testing tool for Ruby on Rails called Vanity. Since we at AppStoreHQ had been experimenting with A/B testing tools like Google Website Optimizer but didn’t really like them all that much, I thought I’d check out Vanity. Here’s my quick, 2-minute summary of my reactions since that time:
A/B testing is...
My one key to launching products on schedule
Over the last few years I’ve noticed that the single best predictor of whether or not my product will be shipped on schedule is very simple: how small and concrete are the remaining tasks. I’ll almost certainly slip if the project is defined by daily or larger, coarse-grained, tasks. However, if the project is broken down to the smallest possible tasks (typically estimated between 1hr...
2010: iseff Year Ahead
Two years ago I made my first real New Years Resolution ever: to more or less stop drinking. Last year I made my second: to be more vegetarian. Both were really successful and I’ve been able to continue them throughout the years. This year I haven’t able to think of one compelling resolution, but I have been able to think of many different ideas I’d like to try. I’ll...
2009: iseff Year in Review
2009 is about to end and the past week or so I’ve been thinking about the things I’ve accomplished this year and what I want to achieve in the coming year.
With that in mind, here are some of the highlights of my 2009 (in no particular order):
Left Amazon.
Started AppStoreHQ.
Moved to Los Angeles with Colleen. Watched her crush it in so many ways (school, jobs, blogging, etc).
...