MageTalk Episode 167 – The Left Hand of Agreement / The Right Hand of Discord

What happens when Phillip forgets his headphones? Terrible audio quality, that’s what! Recorded 30 days before Imagine 2018 and never released, this episode held up production due to its neverending issues and basically almost never saw the light of day. Not for the faint of heart – this one is for the true fans that can’t get enough of MageTalk.

You’ve been warned!

Show Notes

2:12 Shoptalk Shenanigans

Phillip has insider knowledge that says (contrary to what Gary Benerofe (@garymediaspa) says) that the first twenty minutes are actually the most entertaining and not just filler.

Dissension amongst the ranks!

3:32 Distributed Contribution Day (say that five times fast)

Distributed-cd in GitHub if ya nasty.

419 tickets, over 40 pull requests, and over a dozen Magento agencies took part in Distributed Contribution Day. The boys break down the details of the repository.

Kalen gives a shoutout to Atwix for their great contributions.

Is this the new MageStackDay?

6:41 Some Magento Complaints

Shoutout to the echoing audio in this section.

Phillip gives a lot of exposition before complaining about Partner Points and the amount of contribution some developers give without getting any recognition.

Is this creating uncertainty in the Magento Partner community?

13:08 A complaint within a complaint

Kalen brings up the change in Magento certification naming.

Does this sound like a downgrade to you?

14:20 Another Distributed Contribution Day Shoutout

Kalen gives a shoutout to the elusive Peter O’Callaghan (@pete_cags) for a making rare appearance.

15:50 Shameless Commerce Hero Plug

Kalen gives us some updates on Commerce Hero’s recent successes and what he’s been working on.

Congrats, man.

17:42 The Search Workflow

Phillip asks Kalen what his search workflow looks like and how he handles this important step for Commerce Hero. Kalen breaks down what queries he uses as well as what’s important when matching potential applicants to positions.

“When you simplify, clean things up, and speed things up…something happens where some of the loss of functionality ends up being positive because speed is so important.” -Kalen Jordan

26:35 GraphQL is useful as Hell

Max Bucknell (@maxbucknell) did a presentation at NoMad Mage on GraphQL and Magento 2.3 that floored Phillip with the simplicity of getting data from multiple sources using one query.

Watch the video here.

Now that’s useful.

31:24 Component Driven Architecture

Phillip discusses how component driven architecture is making a comeback.

“Component Driven Architecture is going to change the way that we’re designing and the way that we’re building to where we will have almost functional mockups.” -Phillip Jackson

33:05 The Cost of Strict Deadlines

Kalen mentions a very transparent and telling tweet from Joshua Warren (@JoshuaSWarren) that shows the cost of some strict agency deadlines.

Mental health is important, folks. Take care of yourself.

35:08 Mental Health for the Self-Employed

Phillip asks Kalen what Mental Health looks like for those that are self-employed. Kalen breaks down the differences between what he faces today and what he has experienced in the past. Phillip then goes into the stresses he faces working remotely full time along with the multitude of side projects he takes on.

“Being able to turn it off and know where your limits are is really hard when you’re working at home or especially when you work for yourself.” -Phillip Jackson

40:31 Mentor/Mentee Matching

Kalen mentions a tweet by Sander Mangel (@sandermangel) regarding matching mentors and mentees and then goes into the details on how he matches the two.

44:28 Compensation for Mentorship

Phillip asks Kalen what he thinks about compensation for a mentorship position. Does it water the value of the relationship down when someone has to pay for it? He brings up how Alan Storm (@alanstorm) uses Patreon to distribute his mentorship.

Kalen is also looking for a mentee. Hint, hint.

48:05 Some Magento Community Love

Phillip gushes about how forthcoming and giving the Magento community is with its time and resources.

Y’all are a good bunch.

51:08 Shoutouts Upon Shoutouts

Kalen gives a shoutout to Brian Taylor (@BrianTaylorhere) at Forix for being a loyal follower of the show.

Another shoutout goes to Max Pronko (@max_pronko) for just hitting the 1,000 subscribers mark on his YouTube Channel. Congrats!

Video recordings are now available from Reacticon for only $10. That’s an unbelievable deal.

Mentions/Links

-Gary Benerofe (@garymediaspa)

-Peter O’Callaghan (@pete_cags)

-Max Bucknell (@maxbucknell)

-Joshua Warren (@JoshuaSWarren)

-Sander Mangel (@sandermangel)

-Alan Storm (@alanstorm)

-Brian Taylor (@BrianTaylorhere)

-Max Pronko (@max_pronko)

Atwix

GraphQL

NoMad Mage

Max Bucknell’s GraphQL Presentation at Nomad Mage

Forix

Max Pronko’s YouTube Channel

Reacticon Video recordings


MageTalk Episode 161 – “Cocaine and Caviar”

The guys get down and dirty on #magentohatmonday – which is truly the best of the Magento Community, Imagine MC Duties fall to Phillip, “Winkling” Conversion Rates, Healthcare Startups for Magento.

Show Notes

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Let’s leverage our synergies

And snag the low-hanging fruit

The boys start off the episode with some social lubrication tips and a few examples of deeply moving poetry.

2:56 – The new face of Imagine?

Phil’s face has been plastered all over the internet since the public announcement that Phil was asked to be the Master of Ceremonies for Imagine.

Phil clears up his most asked question whether Mark Lavelle is still in his shower.

6:36 – Warmr Up Your Network

Kalen and Tom Robertshaw have begun work on Warmr, an app that helps you follow up with people in your existing network. Hopefully the landing page is up by now…

“It’s a simple web app that pulls in your contacts from social and email and gives you an easy way to follow up with people you haven’t been in touch with.” -Kalen Jordan

Phil thinks it could be pretty cool. Don’t panic, it’s a CRM. Or is it?

10:26 – Throwing Back 

Check out some interviews with Yoav Kutner, a co-founder of Magento, on the New Around Here? page at Magetalk.com.

13:35 – Kalen In the Ring 

Kalen recorded an episode of eCommerceFuel back in December that just released February 9. Head over there to hear Kalen defend Magento as a viable strategy for eCommerce merchants to launch. It’s like the Hunger Games up in here.

18:13 – Magento Hat Monday: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

#MagentoHatMonday. Where’d it start? Who came up with it? What is it? Why has it gotten so much more engagement than anything else?

The boys assign awards to their favorite hat wearers. We find out how the episode got its title.

21:46 – Innovating the Future of Magento

Finally some content. The five “finalists” for the Magento Innovation Lab have been announced. The boys give their thoughts and impressions as they go through the list.

Special shoutout to the Alexa cameo at 24:46. Hey girl.

Some fancy ideas on this list, like the ability to virtually try on glasses using AR.

32:50 – Incentivizing User Generated Content  

Oscar Healthcare will give you $1 a day for every day you walk 10,000 steps. It integrates with Google Fit and Apple Health. A cool, simple integration that incentivizes a healthy lifestyle.

If Oscar is willing to pay to take that many steps, there is definitely something to it. How’s your 2018 resolution coming along?

What could we see in retail that would elicit a similar response?

37:43 – Turn that Frown Upside Down, Negatives into Positives 

Jack Rogers is in the midst of a customer loyalty campaign brainstorm. Phil gives some ideas on how to take negatives and turn them into positives using User Generated Content.

How can you spin negative business aspects or reviews into positive marketing?

42:00 – Office Envy

The Inchoo Office is 7,500 square feet of office porn. See what a thriving Magento business can get you.

44:13 – Get Interviewed As a Contributor 

If you have started to contribute to the Magento Core on Github for 2018, David Manners wants to interview you.

45:50 – Stack Exchange Critiques

Some fair criticism on where the Stack Exchange is in 2018.

The half-life of relevant contribution in Stack Exchange is so short that it’s creating a distrust of all answers and longevity of those answers. -Phil Jackson

It’s going to take a vigilant community to maintain the ever bifurcating stack exchange and the ever-changing cloud product. Vote for moderators. It’s important.

49:54 – February’s Featured Magento Extensions

Kalen has some featured extensions for February 2018.

Some cool stuff here. Gene Commerce (known for Bluefoot CMS and the Apple Pay Extension) has a payment module that replaces the existing Braintree module in the Magento core with a suite of other payment options that could prove to be very handy.

What’s happening with the Magento Core Team?

56:32 – Kalen’s Growth Hack of the Week

Links / Mentions