Episode 63
Software Consulting With Chad Pytel
June 5th, 2019
41 mins 40 secs
Your Host
Special Guest
About this Episode
Software Consulting With Chad Pytel
Guest
Chad Pytel: CEO, Co-Founder, and Developer of thoughtbot.
Summary
Our guest this week is Chad Pytel. Chad is the CEO of thoughtbot, which is a design and development firm known in the world for its support of open source projects like paperclip and shoulda. Chad and I talk about how to make short consulting projects work, the importance of hiring, why thoughtbot makes their internal guides public, and how they continue to be able to support open source. It's a great conversation about how thoughtbot approaches the world.
Notes
02:09 - How thoughtbot Works as an Integrated Design and Development Team
06:50 - Handling Discovery Phases and Product Design Sprints
11:40 - When Clients Aren’t a Good Fit and Setting Expectations
14:12 - Hiring for Values
21:05 - The thoughtbot Playbook
26:43 - Client Communication During Projects
30:48 - Investment Days and Supporting Open Source Projects
36:49 - Using Rails and Not Using Rails