August 2024 Summaries

We got to learn from behavioral science expert, Matt Wallaert - an incredible opportunity we’re excited to share with you all! We discuss how behavioral science applies to building products and create a product that helps people make good changes. Matt shares his favorite behavioral statement from Uber and steps to create one, as well as recommendations for partnerships based on Jam’s behavioral statement. He also highlights the sufficiency test and the #1 mistake companies see when implementing behavioral science. Additionally, we learn about the 5 behavioral archetypes for bug reporting and why people buy M&M's in this week’s episode of Building Jam.

WorkOS is featured in Season 2 of Building Jam, a podcast where the hosts learn from builders they admire. CEO Michael Grinich joins them to share insights into building their product. The conversation covers how WorkOS determines its quality bar, the importance of the "second 80%" of any project, internal operating principles like "Earn the wow", and writing great product experience descriptions. It also touches on the quality vs speed dilemma for startups and how WorkOS documents their work.

In this episode of Building Jam, two Jam engineers share their internal development of AI features for Chrome's built-in AI, discussing tradeoffs between local and external Large Language Models, the implications for developers building in the browser, and how progress with AI will raise the bar for all software development.

Jam has launched a collection of open-source and ad-free data conversion tools, which were initially created by the company's engineers to solve their own problems. The tools are now available online, allowing developers to use them without ads or website clutter. The set includes various converters and utilities such as CSV to JSON, YAML to JSON, base64 encode/decode, URL encode/decode, timestamp to date, HEX to RGB, and more. Jam's DevUtils are built using NEXT.js, tailwind, and the open source UI library shadcn/ui, running on Cloudflare pages, with a total website size under 2MB. The company is committed to regularly adding new tools and invites developers to contribute their own, with pizza rewards for contributors.

The talk discusses Carlota Perez's framework of technological revolutions, which predicts that every major technological breakthrough will lead to a fundamental transformation of society. The framework is based on the observation that technological revolutions follow a predictable pattern, with four stages: installation, deployment, standardization and regulation, and maturity. This pattern has been observed in past revolutions such as the Industrial Revolution, the rise of the internet, and the current AI revolution. Perez's framework suggests that the next technological revolution will be driven by advancements in artificial intelligence, which are already underway. The talk concludes by noting that the bubble surrounding modern machine learning will eventually crash, leading to a new era of widespread adoption and deployment of AI technologies.

Meet Max & Aidan, two of Jam's newest engineers who share their experiences with joining the eng team and discuss various aspects of software development such as onboarding, codebase organization, local environments, internal documentation, and feature development. They also delve into topics like alignment as the codebase grows, DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principles, and even share some behind-the-scenes stories from Jam's UI evolution. The conversation is engaging and informative, offering a glimpse into life as an engineer at Jam and providing insights for those interested in software development.

Building Jam | Ep. 15 Community Led Growth w/ Jason Levin (Product Hunt)` is a conversation about community-led growth, where the creators of the startup Jam are learning from Jason Levin, Head of Growth at Product Hunt. They discuss how to build a strong community without scaling too much, and Jason shares his experience on why some startups don't have a community Slack channel. The conversation also touches on brand marketing vs. performance marketing, embracing "cringe" moments, the third Product Hunt launch, Jam Genies, and Jason's feedback on Jam's approach to community-led growth.