{"id":4172,"date":"2015-11-29T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usersnap.com\/?p=4172"},"modified":"2025-07-30T18:36:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T16:36:35","slug":"lessons-learned-growth-saas-startup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usersnap.com\/blog\/lessons-learned-growth-saas-startup\/","title":{"rendered":"What I\u2019ve learned about growth after 1 year in a SaaS business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My journey with Usersnap started about a year ago, on November 3rd 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point, I’ve already gained some experience as a project manager in a digital agency and a media company. So I was already working on fast-moving projects beforehand. However, the last 12 months have been an incredible journey with a lot of new learnings and insights into the world of SaaS startups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the best lessons I\u2019ve learned as a non-developer in a super fast-growing SaaS-startup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Try Usersnap for SaaS Product Development<\/h2>Try Usersnap Now<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Me, a web developer?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before we get started, I have to tell you something. I\u2019m not a developer, nor would I ever call myself a programmer. This is definitely not what I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I do at Usersnap? I help Usersnap grow. This means putting a lot of effort and resources into content, helping customers get on board, and keeping our community of web developers & designers happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here are my biggest lessons learned after one year in web development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Web development is not about programming.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Okay. At least it\u2019s not 100% about programming. In the last 6 months, I have interviewed about 30 developers and CTOs for our interview site bugtrackers.io<\/a>. And I can say that about half of them have admitted that being a great developer mostly means being a great communicator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having great frontend or backend skills is one thing. But being able to communicate and work together as a team really pushes a company forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although there\u2019s always room for improvement, I\u2019m proud to say that we, as a company, have found an efficient way of building products and doing things that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visual bug tracking is a thing.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As someone who\u2019s been working on web projects for a couple of years now, I\u2019ve always considered bug tracking<\/a> as the least fun part of every web project. And I’m guessing I am not alone in that opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, there are companies like Usersnap around which are re-thinking the way we communicate within project teams when it comes to collecting feedback<\/a> & tracking bugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visual elements (such as screenshots<\/a> or emojis<\/a>) help us make bug tracking fun again. Or at least way more efficient. I could not imagine going back to the old way of bug tracking, ever again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s more than HTML & CSS.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As frontend developers, you all live for HTML & CSS. Web development for scalable SaaS products requires you to have a more holistic approach to doing things in web development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together with Josef and Robert, I worked on how to build a scalable, cloud-based SaaS business<\/a> for example. And this has allowed me to see the bigger picture when it comes to building great SaaS products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DevOps FTW<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are a lot of ongoing trends in web development. And I think the role of DevOps is one of those that is becoming more and more relevant in SaaS businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a modern SaaS business, it\u2019s all about staying flexible and secure and having a lean architecture. There is no need to operate a whole bunch of servers. It\u2019s all about selecting and building blocks in the cloud<\/a> that match your requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growth is all about doing things.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes people ask me how I am able to produce all those web development content although I\u2019m not a developer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, true that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not a web developer, as mentioned before. But I\u2019m eager to learn and I\u2019m a deep diver. So if there\u2019s a new topic around, I\u2019m always eager to dive deep and learn all I need to know about new frameworks, technologies or libraries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The easiest way to learn about new frontend or backend technologies is to play around with them, for example, with certain side projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn how to code.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Admittedly, I haven\u2019t started yet. But I\u2019ll try. The last year gave me an immense boost in self-confidence to start learning how to code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as Thomas Schranz, CEO of Blossom would state it<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I would recommend to anyone, literally anyone, in any age to group to at least just start programming.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Since there are so many great resources out there on how to get started with programming, it has never been easier learning how to code<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And where\u2019s the fun part?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Okay, okay Thomas, but where\u2019s the fun part? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From my point of view, all the mentioned learnings have been a joy to experience. It\u2019s crazy to see how we’ve moved forward and grown into a company that successfully re-thinks the way teams communicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yes, of course there\u2019s been some crazy things that have happened as well. Here\u2019s my very own best of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n