15 Talks / 5 FAQs / The BoS Podcast
At every Business of Software Conference we record all the speakers’ presentations so that you can learn from the array of talks on offer to our attendees. We release new talks regularly right here on our blog for you to enjoy free – now and forever. We also welcome back the BoS Podcast – streaming the top BoS Talks straight to your device. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor.fm, and more – don’t forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts recommending us to the world!
Below is a round-up of the best SaaS content we’ve released over the past quarter. You’ll find:
- 15 talks from our expert speakers
- 5 BoSFAQs – Answers to some questions we get regularly asked
- Fresh episodes of the BoS Podcast
Below you’ll find great talks from April Dunford (Author, Obviously Awesome), Bob Moesta (Founder, The Re-Wired Group), Laura Roeder (Founder, MeetEdgar), and many many more.
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BoS Talks
We know that trying to take in over a dozen talks all at once isn’t easy, so we’ve broken them down into easy to digest groups:
1//Product
2//Culture & Teams
3//Leadership
4//Innovation
5//Marketing & Sales
6//Harry Potter
(That last one will make sense when you get to it!)
1 // Product
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck… but how do you sell that duck? Product positioning can play a huge part in the success of your product and simply by changing how you look at something, can completely change the way customers think and understand who you are and what you’re selling
April Dunford (author of Obviously Awesome: How to nail product positioning so customers get it, buy it, love it) uses examples from her career and, with the help of cat gifs, shows us what we can do better.
To make a Roadmap useful, you need an allocation model and a selling strategy that helps you: understand; manage the expectations of; deliver value to people across the organization who prioritize very different things. Rich explains some approaches to help you understand and manage a roadmap’s stakeholders
Watch What to do about your audience's Product Roadmap questions
Wouldn’t it be great if no one could argue with your decisions? Wouldn’t it be great to cut through all the politics and pinpoint exactly how you want to prioritize matters?
In this talk, Bruce McCarthy arms you with his battle-tested approach to prioritizing your most critical initiatives that will increase your organization’s focus by increasing confidence in your decisions.
Following on from his BoS2018 talk “What to do about your audience’s real roadmap questions“, Rich Mironov joined Mark to answer questions from all over the world about how to make roadmaps that work.
Watch the Product Roadmapping Q&A
2 // Culture & Teams
After speaking at BoS USA in 2013 with an extraordinary talk which has helped start a conversation for many about mental health in tech, Greg leads the Developer Community team at Twilio.
In this short talk, he shares with the BoS Community his story and some of the lessons he has learned that go beyond talk; with some thoughts and observations that will help you to support coworkers and others who we suspect might be struggling.
Watch Mental health: What you can do
Agile methodology is not an exact science. You might have to try different options to see which is best for you company and team size, skill level, project complexity and more. You may even need to try changing methodologies throughout a product’s roadmap.
Although the talk may be calorie-free, the numerous cake references may make you crave something sweet!
Watch The many flavours of Agile
3 // Leadership
Speaking at BoS Europe in 2018, Tim talks about some of the lessons learned he learned during some very trying days for his company DataSift.
How do you lead well when disaster strikes your business? How do you motivate and lead a team when the future is uncertain? Tim shares his experience of leading DataSift through rough waters, and the importance of uniting your company around shared values.
Watch 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times' - every CEO ever
Much like in David and Goliath, being small and bootstrapped can sometimes be your biggest advantage. In this talk from BoS Europe 2018, Laura explains some of the advantages with examples from MeetEdgar.
Bootstrappers, be encouraged – big-budget competitors doesn’t mean there’s no room for you too!
Watch Bootstrapping a business in the face of well-funded competition
4 // Innovation
With over 80 slides and only 60 minutes on the clock, this fast-paced and invigorating talk from Jobs-To-Be-Done innovator Bob Moesta shows just what can be done when you think outside the box.
Watch the 5 skills of an innovator
Rita & Alex – two of the smartest people we know – sat down together at the BoS USA 2019 conference to discuss the state of innovation as they see across Europe and the USA. This fascinating 10-minute discussion shines a light on the world from the top innovators’ point of view.
This BoS USA talk by Rick Nucci, CEO and co-founder of Guru, shows us we have nothing to fear about AI and robots rising up and taking all our jobs. We have faced innovation before and we have adapted and assimilated to include these into our everyday lives.
Don’t go installing that robot-proof panic room just yet!
Watch AI, Hype, & the future of humanity
5 // Marketing & Sales
After this talk, you’ll understand how the ‘jobs-to-be-done’ theory helps SaaS companies create effective positioning — and a proven, step-by-step process for uncovering your best customers’ ‘job-to-be-done’.
Watch Get out of the Echo Chamber
How does a bootstrapped software company effectively market itself when its founders despise sales and marketing? The answer for PDQ.com finally came, in part, from Charles Bukowski: Don’t Try.
In this talk from BoS USA, Shawn and Shane share their experiences of ideas that were a success and some that were less successful.
There are three main aspects to sales: Planning, Selling, and Tools. This talk by Stephen Allott at BoS Europe takes you through the journey of planning for success what you can do to help, or in some cases hinder, your business.
Watch Rules & tools for scaling software sales
6 // Harry Potter
After speaking at BoS USA 2019, we got into a conversation about how people can take the same data to come to derive completely different meanings. After thinking about this, Andy explained how you can take the Harry Potter stories and come to some very disturbing conclusions.
Caution: Star Wars fans may also start to question their protagonists motivations.
Watch Nobody is a villain in their own story
BoS FAQs
Q | How do I scale my hiring efforts during rapid company growth?
I’m building out HR software for companies in the growth stage – 20/1,500 people. I’m the first employee in the UK. We’re big in Germany, but my role is to help us expand into other European markets – France, UK, Spain. I’m looking to hire 25 people in the next 3 months. Help!
A | Hiring is exhausting, so you need to get it right.
Q | How do companies adapt for growth and find their next breakout product?
I have spent a number of years helping software companies as they grow launch new products. As businesses start out, they typically have one product that, if successful, is the foundation for their growth. Everything about this company is built around that flagship product- how they sell, service, etc. This growth then allows companies to develop adjacent products. Some of these products have different needs – buyers might be slightly different, the services model might need to change and so on.
Do you have any material on how companies make this shift?
A | Here are a few talks that consider different approaches to growth and building the next breakout product.
Q| How do we ‘Cold Hire’ and find out more about Remote Hiring?
We have dipped our toes in the water hiring contractors and 1 FTE, but our biggest challenge is that this has all been done through personal networks – we have never hired “cold”, so we are looking at how we do that well.
Additionally we want to run the company as remote-first, but we’re keen to learn from others about what challenges that might present with regards to hiring, developing and retaining staff.
A | With regards to ‘growing up’ as a company, hiring and remote working, here are a few talks you might like to start you off.
Q | Where do I start with jobs-to-be-done?
I’ve read Bob Moesta and April Dunford books, but am digging deeper into the topic of ‘Jobs-to-be-done’ as it seems like such an interesting and new concept and I want to know more, but where do I start?
A | We have had a number of talks on the topic, stretching back to 2011! Here’s the ultimate BoS ‘jobs-to-be-done’ cheat sheet.
Q | How to move from being a consulting to product business.
I am expecting to move into the role of CTO of a small start-up. I am interested in topics around handling general chaos in a fast paced company that is trying to move from being funded by consultancy to one funded by software license sales.
A | A big question, I thought these would be some good places to start.
Business of Software Podcast
The BoSPodcast is back for 2020 with a lineup of great talks to share with you re with new episodes being added every week! First up is April Dunford’s BoS USA talk about Product positioning.
Episode 2 of the relaunched Podcast looks at Natalie Nagele’s 2017 BoS USA talk “Keeping the Fun in your Business”.
Learn how great SaaS & software companies are run
We produce exceptional conferences & content that will help you build better products & companies.
Join our friendly list for event updates, ideas & inspiration.