steveofmcleod.com - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

For 8 years, we've politely declined "I'm interested in Feature Upvote, can I schedule a call?" requests. But today, that's changed. We've now added a "schedule a 20-minute call with us" email to our welcome email sequence.

submitted 22 hours ago • 0 comments

I sat down with James Croucher, Senior Community Manager at @tinybuildgames.bsky.social, to chat about community management. Check out my full interview here! featureupvote.com/thecommunity...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

This is soooo telling. Software companies, get your damned basic support processes fixed before promising the future. And sort out the basic UX stuff too.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

"People who've been in the industry for 10 plus years still feel like a newbie." Listen to my full interview with @soundoftrance.bsky.social, Community Manager at Paradox Interactive, on The Community Lounge: featureupvote.com/thecommunity...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

My friend @andybrice.bsky.social has been working on the same software product for 20 years! And making a decent living from it. He was a major influence on me deciding to run my own tiny software company. Self-recommending. successfulsoftware.net/2025/02/21/2...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

1/ Excited to share my interview with @jeremybearson.bsky.social, Community Manager at Stunlock Studios, creators of the popular game V Rising! featureupvote.com/thecommunity... Here are some highlights of the interview 🧵👇

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

I just applied to give an Attendee Lightning Talk at Business of Software Europe in Cambridge next month. The topic: "How bootstrapped teams really choose what to build next"

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Community management is way more important than it’s often given credit for. Do you agree? Listen to my interview with @coshy.bsky.social, Lead International Community Manager at CD PROJEKT RED: featureupvote.com/thecommunity...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

I had the pleasure of interviewing James Croucher, Senior Community Manager at @tinybuildgames.bsky.social. Tune in to learn about how to engage players, hire the right talent, and balance personal bias while managing vibrant gaming communities: featureupvote.com/thecommunity...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

“I believe in talking to customers, I believe in knowing who you are serving, but I feel like some people have gone so far in this direction, they leave no role for intuition anymore.” That’s from my recent interview with @tylerking.app, CEO of Less Annoying CRM. Full story coming soon!

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

So painfully accurate. youtu.be/IBZtTW0pXLE?...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

“Doing something unnatural, that you despise, will fail.” Some Jason Cohen wisdom. Strongly worth reading if you are thinking of starting your own product soon.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

When making decisions, I like constraints, whether real or artificial.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

I’m home alone with my 5-and-a-half-year-old daughter (can’t drop the “and-a-half”) for 3 days and nights. I’ll confess to giving her way more screen time than usual. But it’s not all screen time - we had a very nice meal out tonight in the local pizzeria.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

Definitely worth reading if you think you are the “it’s time to hire a team” stage of your bootstrapped SaaS.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Good online communities - particularly small ones - have one or two people who are EVERYWHERE. They join in every conversation, they answer every question, and they are able to connect seemingly disparate threads with helpful links and comments. These people are saints and should be nurtured.

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

As a SaaS operator, I find it interesting where other SaaS products add protection against bots, etc. On SavvyCal's "invite a team member" screen, there is a Captcha. You just know there's some annoying attacks that led to this.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

I have tons of empathy for the person who discovers our product, really likes it, and wants to introduce it to their workplace… …only to encounter for the first time their org’s procurement process - with legal, security, and privacy hurdles.

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

I just finished interviewing @anthonyeden.bsky.social, founder of DNSimple, for a chapter in Kill the Hippo, the book I'm working on. While discussing how to choose what features to build next, we chatted about the need to keep not just your customers happy, but also your team.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

More wisdom from Jason for us operators of tiny SaaS products.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

watching my toddler sort and organize things In my head: "Yay, she's just like me!" Also, in my head: "Oh no, she's... just like me..."

submitted 19 days ago • 11 comments

For 20+ years, JetBrains has seemed to always make their products better, and never mess up. Until now. They’ve introduced upsells for AI tools within their IntelliJ. Upsells that I encounter midway through trying to code. It’s jarring. And not something I’d ever have expected from JetBrains.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Smart Bear would have failed had I not listened to what customers were really saying. And almost always they were saying it via tech support, not via interviews, not via reviews, not via feature-submission forms. Support == product development

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

Me, to my co-writer: "Have you seen Kit? It's really good!" My co-writer: "I have. In fact, I help maintain Kit's knowledge base." I inadvertently found that I have expert help!

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

For my book-in-progress, I've created a new website: killthehippo.com Read why I'm writing this, get access to the early beta, and be notified when new chapters are ready. I used Kit to create this. I'm very impressed with Kit - in that I wasn't having to fight with it to achieve what I wanted.

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

Annnd she replied that she would love to be on the podcast. Awesome! It's always nice with these creative endeavours when you aim high - and it works.

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment