Yesterday we posted about how we prompt for an upgrade when someone hits the 5 page limit on their free Backpack account.

Old vs. New

The old version of Backpack always had the upgrade notice. We felt that was a little too in your face. The new version of Backpack only prompted when you hit the page limit. We felt that was more polite.

New too abrupt?

However, some of the feedback suggested that only prompting when someone hits the page limit was a bit startling and abrupt. There’s no warning, it just hits ya. No more pages for you!

New new

We agree that the abruptness can be a little harsh. But we also don’t like the way we used to do it where the upgrade notice was there all the time. So what we’ve done is implement a “you’re close” notice.

This shows up once you’ve created your third page. “You’re close” lets you know a limit is near, but you’re not there yet.

Funny story… When I asked the guys if they could hook this up we realized that we already had it hooked up but we never turned it on! So we tweaked the language a bit and flipped the switch. And now we’re live.

It’s cool how Apple’s design language keeps evolving. One product design follows another. There’s a continuity this way, yet things continue to feel new. And it’s interesting how their small designs influence their large designs.

Take a look at the back of the iPhone. It’s silver on top, black on the bottom. Then take a look at the new iMac. It’s is black on top, silver on the bottom. The top of the iMac looks like an iPhone rotated to horizontal orientation.

The iPhone design has influenced the new iMac design just as the widescreen iPod influenced the previous iMac design:

The old iMac basically looked like a huge iPod and the new iMac looks like an iPhone. I love watching them iterate and evolve. Each product playing off the next. Each new material finding its way into new products. Even the iPhone onscreen keyboard, the MacBook, and new slim keyboard keys have related shapes. This is design at its best.

Just one more thing…

Absolutely stunning.

A big chunk of our paid customers start out on the free plan and then upgrade to paying plans. It’s a bit of an art to figure out when, where, and how to suggest an upgrade. Too often and it’s irritating. Not enough and your customers may never see it. Too big and it’s annoying. Too small and people may miss it.

Before

Here’s how Backpack used to let people know they could upgrade to get more pages, etc:

This message was always displayed right under the “Make a new page” button. It worked pretty well, but it was always there. It was too in your face.

The first time you go to click the “Make a new page” button you’re hit with a sales message right below the button. That’s not an impression we wanted to make.

After

A big part of the new Backpack upgrade was a focus on the experience. We wanted to make things smoother, more elegant, and more streamlined. This included the upgrade pitch. We think it’s more polite now.

Here’s the new free account sidebar with a few pages:

You’ll see there isn’t an upgrade pitch under the “Make a new page” button. The free account includes 5 pages. This example account has 3 pages. We don’t need to tell people about upgrading to get more pages until they need more pages.

Now here’s the new free account sidebar after they’ve hit their 5 page limit:

Since they’ve hit their limit we replace the “Make a new page” button with a yellow “sticky” notice. We delicately explain they’ll need to upgrade (or delete pages) if they want to add more pages. We give them a link to upgrade or find out more.

Manners

Before it felt like you were walking into a store and a salesperson immediately came up to you and told you about today’s sale. That’s an unpleasant experience.

Now it feels like a helpful suggestion when the time is right. We think that demonstrates better manners. It’s how we’d want to be treated while evaluating something new. A quick sales pitch feels rotten. A natural pitch when it makes sense feels right.

Nick Gonzalez from TechCrunch posted about a “great iPhone chat application” by a company called Mundu.

Then he slings this at his 500,000+ readers (many of which are calling bullshit in the comments):

“So why in the world will they eventually charge $11 for it? There are way better ways to monetize software. Offer a free version and drop an advertisement into the conversation every once in a while, for example. But if Mundu wants to get a lot of users fast before Apple adds their own apps, they can’t be screwing around with charging customers. The marginal production cost of software is zero. That’s what the price should be.”

This is typical of the sensational tech/media/business press: an obsession with all things free, all things inflated, and all things unsustainable. Sustainability doesn’t mean going back to your investors for another round because you don’t have enough to pay your employees because you don’t have any income because you don’t charge for your products.

They forget that not everyone has Google’s search subsidies, Yahoo’s traffic, or Apple’s hardware revenues making up for their “free” bundled software. The rest of the companies in the world have to put a price tag on their wares and sell them on the public markets. And surprise!... The public is happy to pay for great products. Advertising-subsidized product revenue is just a teeny tiny sliver of the overall economy. Most of the rest is buying and selling of goods.

“The can’t be screwing around with charging customers” and “Why in the world will they eventually charge $11 for it?” and “Offer a free version and drop an advertisement into the conversation every once in a while” are toxic suggestions. That is unless you want to go broke. And to suggest that software should be free because the marginal production cost is zero is about the most bizarre proclamation I’ve heard in a while.

With a few obvious bigco exceptions, I’d like to see a count of successful and sustainable software companies that are surviving and thriving giving everything away for free. I can point to hundreds of examples of small software companies running in the black by selling their products to their customers. The shareware industry, for example, puts much food on many tables for many families because the software builders price their products and put them on the market. People try it and people buy it. People are happy to pay for things they find valuable.

So don’t think for a second that you’re “screwing around” if you charge customers. What you’re doing is saying “This is our product, we believe it’s valuable, and we think you will too.”

There are few things more satisfying than having people find enough value in your ideas and products to trade their earned money for what you’ve produced. It’s primal and wonderful and every vendor should experience it. It’s great business and it makes your business great.

I’ve seen printer stylesheets designed a variety of different ways. But any way you slice it, the most common element in a print stylesheet is usually the display: none; rule. Printer sheets are usually about printing less rather than printing more.

What I do is gang up all the things we don’t want to print in a single block at the top of the sheet. I always know where the “don’t print” stuff is, and removing another thing from the printout is as easy as adding the class or ID selector to the common display: none; rule.

Here’s the “don’t print” block from the Backpack printer stylesheet.

And here’s what it all means:

Screen version

Print version

No header, no sidebar, no utility links, etc. Just the content in the page. Clean and clear.

“The hole and the patch should be commensurate.”
-Thomas Jefferson

What are you working on and why isn’t it done yet? You may have great reason, but it’s still a great question to ask from time to time. What’s holding things up?

Last night a few friends and I went to see the last night of the free “Music Without Borders” international music series at the Pritzker Pavilion. Hooray Chicago for inviting such wonderful musicians to play at the pleasure of the public.

I’d never really heard of any of the musicians, but I left the concert in awe.

The Gerardo Nunez Flamenco Ensemble, featuring Simon Shaheen and Nishat Khan were the players. They were all stellar, but Simon Shaheen just floored me. His mastery over the violin and the ‘oud was just remarkable. What craft!

Everyone in the crowd was lucky to be in the presence of greatness last night. We’re all better off for it.

It reminded me about the benefits of being in the presence of greatness. Whether it’s listening to a lecture from a great professor or speaker or reading a great book or watching a great athlete or sitting on a great chair having a great dinner on a great table with great friends, you always leave just a little greater yourself. Where else can just being there be so good for you?

At the end of every interview someone inevitably asks “Where do you see 37signals in five years? Ten years? 20 years?” My answer remains the same: “Still in business. Beyond that I have no idea.”

Five years ago I had no idea we’d release Basecamp. Four years ago I had no idea we’d release Ta-da List. Three years ago I had no idea we’d release Backpack or Campfire. Two years ago I had no idea we’d release Highrise. Did I ever think we’d write another book? Not until we started it. And what about next year? I’m not entirely sure what we’re going to be working on.

You know more later than you do now

Just as we don’t believe in functional specs for software, we don’t believe in functional specs for companies. Planning it all out beforehand puts too much faith in the unknown. You know more about something while you’re doing it than before you’ve started. Just as we don’t much about the product we’re going to build before we build it, we don’t know much about the business opportunities before they happen. Books, plans, and documents may tell you how things should be, but only real experience tells you how things really are.

But??!!

“But if you don’t know where you’re going how are you going to get there.” We don’t know where we’re going. We know where we are. For us, what’s next is what’s now and what’s now is probably what’s next. Today’s weather is the best indicator of tomorrow’s weather. Things change, but not as much or as fast as most think. Focusing too much on the stuff that changes is why many companies lose their way. They’re always tripping over themselves as they try to keep pace with what’s new. People want what works, not what’s new.

Focus on what won’t change

The best business advice I’ve ever heard was this: “Focus on the things that won’t change.” Today and ten years from now people will still want simple things that work. Today and ten years from now people will still want fast software. Today and ten years from now people will still want fair prices. I don’t believe we’ll have a “I want complex, slow, and expensive products” revolution in 2017.

You can still evolve, improve, and innovate

Focusing on the things that won’t change doesn’t mean you’re stale, slow, or unwilling to adapt. It means that in ten years time your products will be more refined, more perfected, more efficient. Japanese cars sucked when they first came on to the market, but today they’re seriously refined and seriously good. This is because Japanese auto makers focused on principals that don’t change: Reliability, affordability, practicality. People wanted those things 30 years ago, they want them today, and they’ll want them 30 years from now. Constant refinement of those principals yields wonderful products.

Real opportunity comes from being opportunistic

Opportunities are spontaneous, but when you’re sticking to your five year plan you don’t deviate. You’re putting the blinders on. “This is where we’re going because that’s what we said!” When you don’t have a plan you can pick up on an opportunity that comes along. You’re taking the blinders off. “This is where we’re going because it makes sense today.” I’d rather stroll into the future with my blinders off.

Your mileage may vary

Of course it all depends on what you’re doing. Boeing probably needs a pretty stiff plan when building a new airplane. NASA needs to plan rocket launches many years in advance. If you want to be a doctor you’ll need a longer-term educational plan. But most businesses most of the time could benefit by just keeping their eyes open, being aware of what’s going on now, focusing on the basics that will be important to their customers today and tomorrow, and not looking too far ahead.

It’s been a long time coming, but today we’re proud to officially announce the launch of the new Backpack.

Find out what’s new and give it a try. If you already have a Backpack account, just log in and you’re golden. If you don’t have an account, sign up for a free account and give it a shot.

This was a full team effort. Everyone was involved. We tore out the insides and rebuilt it from scratch. The UI is finally a modern 37signals interface. We’re very happy with the final product.

Thanks again for everyone’s patience and support during the development process. It took longer than anyone would have liked, but it was worth it.