A few things we’ve learned from building our app and our company.
Basecampers give talks about a wide variety of things that go into making a successful software product. Check ‘em all out below, or filter to see talks on a certain topic.
“Why work doesn’t happen at work,” Jason Fried at TEDx Midwest
Jason, founder of Basecamp, has a radical theory of working: that the office isn’t a good place to do it. He shares three suggestions to make work work.
“Writing Software,” David Heinemeier Hansson Keynote at RailsConf
David delivers the keynote presentation at RailsConf, sharing how he learned programming and what it means to “write” software.
Q&A with Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson at Jellyvision
Jellyvision invited Basecamp founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson for a Q&A session. Hear their thoughts on open source, productivity, feature requests, and taking care of your customers.
“Backwards,” Mig Reyes at CreativeMornings
Mig Reyes, a graphic designer at Basecamp, shares backwards and seemingly unusual advice on the spirit of creativity, craft, and making things.
“Helping the Help Pages,” Ann Goliak at Write the Docs
When Basecamp first launched, our help pages weren’t very helpful. That all changed when we decided to buckle down and start over. Learn how the new help pages were developed, written, and the positive effect they’ve had on our support case load.
“Demystifying Contributing to Rails,” Eileen Uchitelle at RailsConf
At RailsConf 2015 Eileen led a lab that taught attendees the ins and outs of contributing to Ruby on Rails.
“How to Performance,” Eileen Uchitelle at GORUCO
Eileen talks about how to utilize Ruby performance tools to their full potential. In this talk she uses shows how she used different tools to speed up integration tests in Rails.
“Trying New Things,” Chase Clemons at UserConf
Chase, from our awesome Support team, talks about trying new things in customer support. He also shares what has worked and failed for him and our team.
“Progress,” David Heinemeier Hansson Keynote at RailsConf
David delivers a keynote presentation at RailsConf, showing the journey our web framework Ruby on Rails has taken.
Jason Fried at Entrepreneurs Unpluggd
Jason, founder of Basecamp, talks a bit about our ideal company size and what we learned in scaling bigger. This quick talk is then followed by great question in the Q&A portion.
“The Secret to Making Money Online,” David Heinemeier Hansson at Startup School
Spoiler alert: charge for your products.
“UI Fundamentals for Programmers,” Ryan Singer at Windy City Rails
Ryan explains the key concepts you should understand to design and implement UI for your apps. He covers screen-level details like language and visual techniques as well as deeper topics like modeling and best practices for coding templates and helpers.
Jason Fried at CreativeMornings Chicago
Jason does a live Q&A with designer Mig Reyes (before he worked at Basecamp!) covering workplace culture and what it means to make something for yourself.
Ryan Singer at Future of Web Apps
Ryan walks through the steps of creating a web app including modeling, sketching, HTML, Photoshop explorations, and moving from static mockups to live running code. Each step is illustrated with a real example, including some live sketching and live HTML. He gives a sense of how the team at 37signals thinks about apps, as a stack of different levels that we can iterate on individually.
“Better JavaScript with CoffeeScript,” Sam Stephenson at Future of Web Apps
Sam Stephenson, programmer at Basecamp, runs through how to write cleaner and faster JavaScript with CoffeeScript and where this is leading in the future.
“10 Things I’ve Learned,” Jason Fried at BIG Omaha
Jason, founder of Basecamp, shares 10 things he’s learned in building a company committed to making the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary.
“Rebuilding the way we work,” David Heinemeier Hansson at Rebuild 21
In this Q&A David Heinemeier Hansson will share his insight on how to create a radically more agile, open and customer oriented organization. Sharing thoughts from his provocative book Rework, David will touch upon how to unlearn your MBA, avoid “toxic meeting” and get rid of an destructive ASAP culture.
“Weaving Design and Development,” Ryan Singer at Windy City Rails
Ryan walks through the steps of creating a web app including modeling, sketching, HTML, Photoshop explorations, and moving from static mockups to live running code. Each step is illustrated with a real example, including some live sketching and live HTML. He gives a sense of how the team at 37signals thinks about apps, as a stack of different levels that we can iterate on individually.
“Business in ‘The Real World’,” David Heinemeier Hansson at Future of Web Apps
David, partner at Basecamp, discusses the prospects of starting a business in “The Real World”. David explains that “The Real World” is filled with naysayers that say your idea won’t work. The first thing that an entrepreneur should do is ignore “The Real World”. David takes down the many myths of “The Real World” while sharing his successes in the face of all the naysayers.
“Designing from Start to Finish,” Ryan Singer at Web Expo
UI design involves more than wireframes, Photoshop and HTML. Ryan will demonstrate how UI design runs through an entire project from initial concept and modeling to sketches, HTML mockups, and final running code.
Javan Makhmali and Mig Reyes at DES + DEV
Javan and Mig, a programmer and designer at Basecamp respectively, were invited to lead a workshop and give a lecture on the back and forth collaborative relationships we have when working on the Basecamp app.