In this episode we talk about our new process of hiring A players. As we got more applicants for certain roles, we added another interview to the process.

We talk about:

- Our current process of selecting and interviewing candidates
- The screening interview
- The case study interview
- The Who interview
- The reference interview
- Interview best practices

Resources mentioned: 

Geoff Smart - Who https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Geoff-Smart-ebook/dp/B001EL6RWY

Our previous episode on hiring: https://anchor.fm/app-life-podcast/episodes/36---How-Do-We-Hire-A-Players-esei1s

Today we talk about ways to analyze your app and web audience with Google Analytics 4.

We cover

- Ways to setup Google Analytics 4 on mobile and the web
- The difference between Google Analytics 4 and Google Analytics Universal
- What events to track inside an app
- How to plan your tracking
- Limitations of Google Analytics
- Alternatives to Google Analytics

In this episode, we talk about sponsored startup programs and our experience with it.

We talk about
- The programs we successfully applied for
- What are the benefits of sponsored programs?
- How to apply?
- Pitching best practices
- What to do when you're excepted?
- Examples of local government programs

This episode is all about in app purchases!

We talk about

- What types of in app purchases exist (one offs, subscriptions)
- How to implement in app purchases in your app
- Should you use your own server?
- Apple's and Google's payment system vs Stripe
- Consequences of the recent decision in Epic's lawsuit against Apple
- Frequent in app purchase problems and how to fix them

Resources mentioned: https://www.revenuecat.com/

Let's talk about our blog today, https://ling-app.com/blog . It's been a wild ride from starting the first few posts about learning Thai to creating a content machine that churns out over 20 articles per week (and counting).

We cover:

- Why we started our language learn blog in the first place
- Initial strategy and how we shift over time
- When should you start hiring content writers?
- Tips and best practices for SEO
- What kind of content should you focus on?

Note: We decided to switch to a bi-weekly release schedule from now on. Stay tuned!

- Resources mentioned: Auto video creator via AI https://lumen5.com/

This time we talk about our experience with working with clients. How does this compare to developing your own product?

We share

- The pros and cons of working with clients and making your own products
- What do to when you're just getting started
- Things we learned when working with clients

In this episode, we talk about our 3-monthly retrospective sessions and how they helped us building a great company culture.

We talk about

- The beginnings: How and why we started the retrospective with 3 team members
- How to organize a retrospective
- Best practices when running the sessions
- Examples of what we learned from the feedback

Today's episode is all about translating your app, or app localization.

We cover

- Why you should consider translating your app
- How to find out what languages to translate into first
- How to find good translators
- How to setup a process to ensure great translation quality
- Take it to the next level: Automate the process via OneSky app

Resources mentioned:

- Translation service: https://gengo.com/
- OneSky app: https://www.oneskyapp.com/

In this episode, we discuss the Getting Things Done (GTD) method invented by David Allen. Simon has been using this method for the better part of a year, and has had a great experience with it.

We talk about
- What Getting Things Done is and why you might wanna use it
- The method in detail: Collect, clarify, organize, review
- The value of cleaning your inbox daily and having a weekly review
- Tips and best practices
- Alternatives to GTD

While we focus on learning languages at Simya, this week we talk about an app we built for a completely different industry. Smart Court is an app that lets people book badminton courts easily. The idea of the app originated when Simon regularly took badminton training and realized the bookings were all done manually.

We cover

- How we validated the idea & decided to create Smart Court
- Requirement gathering and staff interviews
- Building the MVP
- Challenges along the way
- Where we stand now and future plans

Try the app here: https://simyasolutions.com/smart-court/ Only Chiang Mai is supported at this point in time ;)

Time for another installment of the "How We Built..." series! This time, we talk about our brand new app, Ling Live. It's a platform app to connect students and teachers, enabling everyone to book a language lesson in seconds.

We talk about:

- How we came up with the idea of Ling Live
- How we did market research
- How we validated the initial prototype
- Marketing and business development
- Challenges along the way
- What's next?

Check out the app here and book your free Thai trial lesson (trial lessons are limited): https://live.ling-app.com/

Today, we talk about team outings. At Simya we're doing them regularly and are amazed again and again how much fun they are.

We cover

- Why we do team outings
- When and how we got started
- 3 examples of our past team outings
- Best practices and benefits of outings

Enjoy!

This episode is Khwan's turn to talk about her experience before we started our app business. She shares how she grew up in a village in the North East of Thailand, how she came to Germany to study and eventually worked as management consultant before quitting her job. Learn about her challenges, lessons learned, and turning points in her life that lead her to where she is today.

How was our life like before we quit our jobs, went to Thailand and started an app business? This episode, Simon talks about his life story and some lessons learned along the way. Enjoy!

Inspired by the "20% project" famously once implemented by Google and other big names, we started to do hackathons at Simya. The idea is to devote some of our time to side projects and try to create something cool in the process. Last week, we did our first hackathon day (we call it "Awesome Time") and it was a great success.

In this episode, we cover

- How we came up with the idea of Awesome Time
- What to prepare if you want to implement it
- Our experience doing our first hackathon
- Was it worth it?
- Examples of what you can create during a hackathon

Resources:

20% project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20%25_Project

About 18 months ago, we bought an office building in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Our main motivation for this was to fulfill the capital requirements for our BOI company. It turned out to be a great decision in all respects. So today we talk about the process of buying a house in Thailand.

We cover

- Why we made the decision to buy an office building
- How to go about finding the perfect place
- Financing options
- Due diligence before singing a contract
- Should you hire a lawyer or do it yourself?
- Tips for transferring the property

This is episode is about our app Flow Yoga. It's a pretty cool app to learn Yoga. What's special about it is that you can configure your lessons in any way you want it.

We cover

- How we came up with the idea of Flow Yoga
- How we researched and validated the idea on the market
- UX planning, mockup and design
- How we used our network to create the app content
- Challenges we faced on the way
- How the app is doing now

Check out the app here and let us know your feedback: https://simyasolutions.com/flow-yoga-app/

A slightly off-topic but fun episode today: Our favorite board games! As LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman said though: Board games can teach a lot business, too.

We'll cover

- What we learned from board games about real life
- How Khwan discovered the world of board & computer games
- Khwan's favorite board game: Terraforming Mars
- Parallels of strategy in gaming and business
- Simon's favorite board game: Chess
- Great cooperative game: Spirit Island

Automation is the key for small business to succeed nowadays. We spend a lot of time and energy in finding new ways how to automate things to make our life easier.

Trello Bots via a Trello power up called "Trello Butler" is a great example of this.

We talk about

- How and why we use Trello in our projects
- How Trello Butler works
- Simple automations via rules
- Integration with Gitlab and Slack
- Custom Trello buttons on boards and cards
- Best practices to use it in your daily processes

Resources mentioned:

- Trello: https://trello.com/
- Trello Butler: https://help.trello.com/article/1198-an-intro-to-butler
- Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira
- Gitlab: https://gitlab.com/

At Simya, we do a informal meeting called "Coffee Break" every 6 weeks with every team member. It's been a great way for us to give and get feedback, improve teamwork and make the team overall happier.

We cover

- Why and how we started regular coffee breaks
- Benefits of regular feedback
- How to give open feedback in the Asian culture
- Creating a good meeting atmosphere
- How to prepare the meetings
- Can you delegate coffee breaks?