Historical writing by Rob Sobers. New essays are published separately at sobers.substack.com.https://robsobers.com/https://robsobers.com/year-in-review-2017/https://robsobers.com/year-in-review-2017/A look back at 2017: leading the Varonis digital marketing team, working on side projects, mentoring, family life, and plans for the year ahead.Sun, 31 Dec 2017 13:37:27 GMThttps://robsobers.com/marketing-okr-framework/https://robsobers.com/marketing-okr-framework/How I used objectives and key results to help our marketing team choose the right work, with practical examples, planning documents, and check-ins.Fri, 08 Sep 2017 12:19:17 GMThttps://robsobers.com/magic-formula-marketing/https://robsobers.com/magic-formula-marketing/Why marketing playbooks need context, and what moving from low-priced software to enterprise security taught me about promises of a repeatable formula.Thu, 27 Apr 2017 14:44:24 GMThttps://robsobers.com/dad/https://robsobers.com/dad/The eulogy I gave for my father, Robert A. Sobers, Sr., remembering his kindness, police service, and unwavering love for his family.Mon, 20 Mar 2017 02:44:10 GMThttps://robsobers.com/advice-for-young-makers/https://robsobers.com/advice-for-young-makers/Lessons from learning to code, writing a book, and building products: show your work, ship useful things, and protect the life outside your projects.Fri, 14 Oct 2016 15:36:13 GMThttps://robsobers.com/hubspot-sources-report-video-cheat-sheet/https://robsobers.com/hubspot-sources-report-video-cheat-sheet/A 2016 video lesson and cheat sheet explaining how HubSpot’s Sources Report classified traffic using referring domains and campaign parameters.Sun, 09 Oct 2016 20:36:12 GMThttps://robsobers.com/fuzzy-advice/https://robsobers.com/fuzzy-advice/Why motivational business advice often feels good without helping, and why even a simple idea needs specificity, originality, and substance.Sat, 03 Sep 2016 18:48:33 GMThttps://robsobers.com/easy-mode/https://robsobers.com/easy-mode/Advice for first-time software founders: choose familiar markets, reliable technology, and an existing problem you can solve with a distinctive product.Mon, 20 Jun 2016 19:01:27 GMThttps://robsobers.com/munchkin-report-september-2015/https://robsobers.com/munchkin-report-september-2015/A September 2015 update on Munchkin Report: an iOS app specification, logging API, developer selection, school demos, and launch preparations.Fri, 25 Sep 2015 15:40:28 GMThttps://robsobers.com/tracking-form-submission-events/https://robsobers.com/tracking-form-submission-events/A 2015 investigation of inflated signup counts, form validation, event timing, and the challenge of tracking successful submissions with third-party forms.Tue, 18 Aug 2015 01:23:38 GMThttps://robsobers.com/9-dollar-marketing-stack-step-by-step-setup-guide/https://robsobers.com/9-dollar-marketing-stack-step-by-step-setup-guide/A 2015–2016 walkthrough of the analytics and email automation stack I built for Munchkin Report, using Segment, Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Drip.Wed, 28 Jan 2015 14:25:57 GMThttps://robsobers.com/marketing-stacks/https://robsobers.com/marketing-stacks/Why marketers need opinionated tool stacks, inspired by Rails, and a look at the low-cost analytics and automation tools I used in 2015.Tue, 06 Jan 2015 17:57:18 GMThttps://robsobers.com/summary-of-nathan-barrys-authority/https://robsobers.com/summary-of-nathan-barrys-authority/My 2014 notes on Nathan Barry’s Authority, covering writing habits, building an audience, pricing, packaging, and launching a self-published book.Tue, 30 Dec 2014 17:16:50 GMThttps://robsobers.com/endofyear-update-munchkin-report/https://robsobers.com/endofyear-update-munchkin-report/A December 2014 update on Munchkin Report: product features, onboarding, an email course, customer outreach, and plans for mobile development.Mon, 29 Dec 2014 17:14:38 GMThttps://robsobers.com/stacking-bricks-2015/https://robsobers.com/stacking-bricks-2015/Plans for shipping software and a book in 2015 by replacing bursts of motivation with deliberate work, useful habits, and small, consistent wins.Sun, 28 Dec 2014 03:42:17 GMThttps://robsobers.com/8-simple-rules-to-avoid-email-hell/https://robsobers.com/8-simple-rules-to-avoid-email-hell/Eight rules for using email without losing focus: clear ownership, shorter messages, fewer unnecessary replies, and shared knowledge outside the inbox.Thu, 30 Oct 2014 18:00:41 GMThttps://robsobers.com/5-design-resources-nondesigners/https://robsobers.com/5-design-resources-nondesigners/Five resources from my 2014 reading list for engineers and beginners learning web and software design, from practical talks to books on design.Wed, 01 Oct 2014 01:20:36 GMThttps://robsobers.com/paul-graham-growth-hacking/https://robsobers.com/paul-graham-growth-hacking/A response to Paul Graham’s criticism of growth hacks, distinguishing silver-bullet tactics from systematic marketing experimentation.Wed, 01 Oct 2014 18:49:37 GMThttps://robsobers.com/growth-hacking-trello-template/https://robsobers.com/growth-hacking-trello-template/A 2014 Trello template for planning and tracking marketing experiments, based on Brian Balfour’s process and my People + Process essay.Thu, 18 Sep 2014 15:49:10 GMThttps://robsobers.com/growth-hacking-people-process/https://robsobers.com/growth-hacking-people-process/Growth comes from technically capable people and a repeatable process for experiments, not isolated tricks or a search for silver bullets.Tue, 09 Sep 2014 13:01:23 GMThttps://robsobers.com/still-kicking/https://robsobers.com/still-kicking/A March 2014 progress update on Munchkin Report, covering early signups, product development, and the less glamorous work required to launch a SaaS.Wed, 26 Mar 2014 02:36:30 GMThttps://robsobers.com/accelerating-boostrappers/https://robsobers.com/accelerating-boostrappers/A thought experiment about bootstrappers pooling their skills and effort to help one another build sustainable software businesses.Thu, 02 Jan 2014 04:57:04 GMThttps://robsobers.com/struggle-ruby-blocks/https://robsobers.com/struggle-ruby-blocks/A 2013 account of learning Ruby blocks, working through yield, explicit block arguments, Rails examples, and iterators to understand how they fit together.Mon, 23 Dec 2013 23:51:59 GMThttps://robsobers.com/entrepreneurial-add/https://robsobers.com/entrepreneurial-add/An August 2013 progress log on Munchkin Report and Mastering HubSpot, with lessons about focus, switching tasks, and making time for side projects.Wed, 28 Aug 2013 01:23:18 GMThttps://robsobers.com/building-traffic-from-scratch/https://robsobers.com/building-traffic-from-scratch/Early audience-building experiments for Munchkin Report: Hacker News traffic, paid discovery, content distribution, and the challenge of finding real leads.Sun, 18 Aug 2013 15:51:10 GMThttps://robsobers.com/building-software-public/https://robsobers.com/building-software-public/Why I decided to share the building of Munchkin Report in public, including the constraints, early marketing work, and plans behind my Rails side project.Tue, 13 Aug 2013 02:45:58 GMThttps://robsobers.com/status-boards-company-culture/https://robsobers.com/status-boards-company-culture/How the Fog Creek Big Board made support priorities visible and reinforced team habits, with contributions from Rich Armstrong and Will Thompson.Sun, 11 Aug 2013 20:14:01 GMThttps://robsobers.com/hubspot-gotcha-1-identity-deduplication/https://robsobers.com/hubspot-gotcha-1-identity-deduplication/A 2013 investigation of HubSpot’s cookie-based identity handling and how shared browsers could merge contacts and corrupt marketing data.Wed, 07 Aug 2013 15:52:18 GMThttps://robsobers.com/dangers-projection-never-bet-against-rob-walling/https://robsobers.com/dangers-projection-never-bet-against-rob-walling/How my skepticism about Rob Walling’s email marketing advice taught me to test ideas rather than mistake my own preferences for customer behavior.Tue, 30 Jul 2013 23:09:25 GMThttps://robsobers.com/rocking-gtd-with-trello/https://robsobers.com/rocking-gtd-with-trello/A 2012 note on organizing tasks with Trello and Getting Things Done, including the appeal of keeping both projects and next actions in one place.Thu, 13 Dec 2012 20:45:55 GMThttps://robsobers.com/9-easy-questions/https://robsobers.com/9-easy-questions/A short recommendation of Joel Spolsky’s career advice for young developers, designers, and product managers, informed by my time at Fog Creek.Mon, 05 Nov 2012 06:42:10 GMThttps://robsobers.com/learn-code/https://robsobers.com/learn-code/My 2012 argument about the limits of making programming accessible, reflecting on TryRuby, Codecademy, HyperCard, and the difference between tools and passion.Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:42:03 GMThttps://robsobers.com/mercurial-subrepositories/https://robsobers.com/mercurial-subrepositories/A 2011 tutorial on Mercurial subrepositories, using a shared JavaScript library to explain cloning, commits, and independently pinned dependencies.Mon, 21 Mar 2011 19:35:15 GMThttps://robsobers.com/sticky-notes-with-css/https://robsobers.com/sticky-notes-with-css/A 2010 CSS3 experiment for the Fog Creek status board: handwritten notes with rotated cards, shadows, translucent tape, and FogBugz and Kiln branding.Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:02:12 GMT