July 2020 Summaries

PostHog's latest update introduces several new features and improvements, including the ability to share dashboards publicly, global annotations for tracking significant events, enhanced aggregate functions for data analysis, and refined retention tables that now allow for custom events. Users can now apply regex filtering on properties and measure the average time taken for users to complete funnel steps. Bug fixes have been implemented across various areas, such as improving line chart precision, fixing timestamp and session loading issues, and enhancing password validation. The update also includes performance improvements like faster loading of live actions and easier navigation features. Additionally, PostHog has revamped its website with a retro design and announced open roles for full stack or growth engineers, with a new technical writer already onboard improving documentation.

PostHog follows a flexible bi-weekly release schedule, emphasizing frequent iteration to quickly deliver features to users, even if they are basic or buggy, to gauge real user needs through actual usage rather than feedback. This approach allows the team to learn what is truly essential without spending excessive time on unnecessary refinements. The company balances the frequency of updates, considering user convenience and the value of new features, while acknowledging the challenges of frequent software updates in the SaaS model. Flexibility is prioritized, especially for significant features that may require more development time, ensuring that updates do not overwhelm the team or users. The team maintains a practice of submitting at least one pull request per developer per day, fostering continuous progress and visibility. PostHog has deliberately avoided targeting enterprise customers early on to strengthen its product and engineering culture, offering less frequent updates or paid maintenance services to accommodate larger enterprises.

PostHog has become available as a destination on Segment, a customer data platform that streamlines the integration of various data sources into one continuous flow to deliver data to product analytics tools. Segment simplifies the data integration process across different platforms by acting as a centralized pipeline, benefiting teams that utilize disparate tools and data for decision-making. The integration of PostHog allows users to seamlessly incorporate it into existing data workflows without disrupting current processes. Additionally, users can transition to PostHog for more private, customizable, and transparent analytics. Comprehensive documentation is available for those interested in integrating PostHog with Segment.

PostHog's latest update introduces several new features and improvements, including annotation capabilities to help users track changes easily, cohort filtering across all filter functions, and enhanced retention table filtering, thanks to contributions from new team members. The update also includes many bug fixes and performance enhancements, such as resolving TemplateDoesNotExist errors, adding comprehensive Cypress tests for dashboards, and incorporating TypeScript into the frontend codebase. Additionally, there are new developments like a beta-access toolbar for website heatmaps and stats, and support for LZ-String compression, with plans for further improvements in upcoming releases. The PostHog team is actively seeking feedback and engagement from users, offering merchandise as a thank-you, and announcing open roles for full-stack or growth engineers, as well as an operations-focused individual to support their remote-first growth. In team news, PostHog celebrates the birth of co-founder James's daughter, Ruby, and welcomes new team members Michael and Max.