Colleen Johnson, co-founder of ScatterSpoke, reflects on how treating their agile retrospective software as a side project led to poor product development discipline.
“I think in some ways being kind of a maker project hurt us early on. We, you know, John was excited to try out new technology and I was so close to the teams using it that every time we heard feedback about the simplest thing, we tried to go implement that or change something pretty dramatic in the tool. So we were almost being in some ways, maybe too, too reactive or too close to what we were building.”
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More from Colleen Johnson
Disclosure
Johnson: ScatterSpoke refused enterprise demands to compromise user anonymity
“I think the only thing we've ever really said no to from a, you know, a large enterprise request is our tool is completely anonymous. And we did that by design, right? To create safety and, you know, safety in your answers and being able to be really honest wi…”
Colleen JohnsonOct 6, 2020▶ 15:48Episode 517 | Married Co-founders Who Turned a Free Tool Into a Fast-Growing SaaS Product
Insight
Johnson: Mid-tier SaaS pricing serves as an enterprise entry point
“I think the other thing though is in some ways that middle tier, like you described as a little bit of a gateway drug for some of these other organizations, right, where they want to test it out, maybe in a pocket of an organization that's a huge, you know, hu…”
Colleen JohnsonOct 6, 2020▶ 12:46Episode 517 | Married Co-founders Who Turned a Free Tool Into a Fast-Growing SaaS Product
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Johnson: ScatterSpoke gained early traction with zero marketing spend
“We were able to run retros after conferences or public speaking events, and so we were starting to get a lot of traction really organically without ever spending any money on marketing, and then also getting lots of feedback organically.”
Colleen JohnsonOct 6, 2020▶ 3:53Episode 517 | Married Co-founders Who Turned a Free Tool Into a Fast-Growing SaaS Product
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