Things I learned when working on a small startup

Lightning talk presented in the Ruby User Group in November 2015.
Some lessons I learned while working on a small startup.

Transcript

1. THINGS I LEARNED
   WHEN WORKING ON A SMALL STARTUP
   by @eljojo
   

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2. PRAGMATISM
   first learning
   

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3. YOU WANT TO DO MORE,
   WITH LESS
   

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4. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
   

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5. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
   ➤ Jojo: How do we proceed?
   

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6. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
   ➤ Jojo: How do we proceed?
   ➤ Arik: Why don't you just go and upgrade it?
   

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7. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
   ➤ Jojo: How do we proceed?
   ➤ Arik: Why don't you just go and upgrade it?
   ➤ Jojo: WHAT? Are you NUTS?!! You cannot
   just go and upgrade your database without
   testing it first.
   

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8. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
   ➤ Jojo: How do we proceed?
   ➤ Arik: Why don't you just go and upgrade it?
   ➤ Jojo: WHAT? Are you NUTS?!! You cannot
   just go and upgrade your database without
   testing it first.
   ➤ Arik: Why not?
   

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9. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
   ➤ Jojo: How do we proceed?
   ➤ Arik: Why don't you just go and upgrade it?
   ➤ Jojo: WHAT? Are you NUTS?!! You cannot
   just go and upgrade your database without
   testing it first.
   ➤ Arik: Why not?
   ➤ Jojo: You just don't do that!
   

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10. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
    ➤ Jojo: How do we proceed?
    ➤ Arik: Why don't you just go and upgrade it?
    ➤ Jojo: WHAT? Are you NUTS?!! You cannot
    just go and upgrade your database without
    testing it first.
    ➤ Arik: Why not?
    ➤ Jojo: You just don't do that!
    ➤ Arik: Why is that?
    

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11. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
    ➤ Jojo: How do we proceed?
    ➤ Arik: Why don't you just go and upgrade it?
    ➤ Jojo: WHAT? Are you NUTS?!! You cannot
    just go and upgrade your database without
    testing it first.
    ➤ Arik: Why not?
    ➤ Jojo: You just don't do that!
    ➤ Arik: Why is that?
    ➤ Jojo: We could have DOWNTIME.
    

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12. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
    ➤ Jojo: How do we proceed?
    ➤ Arik: Why don't you just go and upgrade it?
    ➤ Jojo: WHAT? Are you NUTS?!! You cannot
    just go and upgrade your database without
    testing it first.
    ➤ Arik: Why not?
    ➤ Jojo: You just don't do that!
    ➤ Arik: Why is that?
    ➤ Jojo: We could have DOWNTIME.
    ➤ Arik: So what's the problem with that?
    

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13. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
    ➤ Jojo: We could have DOWNTIME.
    ➤ Arik: So what's the problem with that?
    

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14. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
    ➤ Jojo: We could have DOWNTIME.
    ➤ Arik: So what's the problem with that?
    ➤ Jojo: Well, our users wouldn't be able to
    visit our website for about half an hour,
    maybe an hour at most.
    

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15. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
    ➤ Jojo: We could have DOWNTIME.
    ➤ Arik: So what's the problem with that?
    ➤ Jojo: Well, our users wouldn't be able to
    visit our website for about half an hour,
    maybe an hour at most.
    ➤ Arik: How would we proceed if we wanted
    to ensure that there's no downtime?
    

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16. POSTGRES UPGRADE CONVERSATION
    ➤ Jojo: We could have DOWNTIME.
    ➤ Arik: So what's the problem with that?
    ➤ Jojo: Well, our users wouldn't be able to
    visit our website for about half an hour,
    maybe an hour at most.
    ➤ Arik: How would we proceed if we wanted
    to ensure that there's no downtime?
    ➤ Jojo: I'd probably spend a day preparing an
    upgrade strategy, testing it and ensuring
    everything's goes fine.
    

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17. PRAGMATISM: WEIGHTING-IN PROS AND CONS
    

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18. PRAGMATISM: WEIGHTING-IN PROS AND CONS
    ➤Your fears might have horrible consequences 

    in other contexts.
    

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19. PRAGMATISM: WEIGHTING-IN PROS AND CONS
    ➤Your fears might have horrible consequences 

    in other contexts.
    ➤If you're Amazon and have one minute of downtime,
    you loose thousands of dollars.
    

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20. PRAGMATISM: WEIGHTING-IN PROS AND CONS
    ➤Your fears might have horrible consequences 

    in other contexts.
    ➤If you're Amazon and have one minute of downtime,
    you loose thousands of dollars.
    ➤If we have one hour downtime at non-peak hours,

    we might only loose a couple customers,

    but gain one or more days of work.
    

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21. NO DOGMAS IN THE HOUSE
    

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22. SURVIVE CHANGE
    second learning
    

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23. THE PROBLEM
    Because we discover how users use our product every day, it's not
    uncommon that features take 180 degrees turns.
    

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24. DEFENSIVE PROGRAMMING
    

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25. DEFENSIVE PROGRAMMING
    ➤How will this feature evolve?
    

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26. DEFENSIVE PROGRAMMING
    ➤How will this feature evolve?
    ➤What's the craziest turn this could take?
    

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27. DEFENSIVE PROGRAMMING
    ➤How will this feature evolve?
    ➤What's the craziest turn this could take?
    ➤Will my architecture stand such
    changes?
    

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28. “
    I don't want programming to be the thing that
    slows us down as a company.
    - jojo
    

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29. REAL PEOPLE USE
    YOUR SOFTWARE
    third learning
    

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31. go.switchup.de/developer
    we're hiring!
    

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32. images from http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/
    http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2012/20/image/f/warn/
    http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2014/18/image/a/
    http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/12/image/c/warn/
    http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/12/image/d/warn/
    http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/12/image/e/warn/
    http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/12/image/f/warn/
    

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