Hello, Basecamp!
This is Ali. I am the guy who created Work in Progress Show website for Jason and Nate. I hear you are looking for interns for 2016… I am excited to tell you that I am ready for this opportunity.
Through this page I will show you how much I care about Basecamp and why should you pick me. At the end I hope you will make the right decision.
But first things first — since we barely know each other, please take 38 seconds to watch the video below in which I introduce myself.
Talk to My Customers
Let me walk you through the process I used to prototype the product mentioned in the video. Please check out the website while reading this and then read on about my process.
Where the idea came from
As I am an avid follower of the Work in Progress Show, when Jason mentioned that he was surprised how hard it was to talk to Basecamp customers, I listened… almost obsessively. It appeared to be a real problem waiting to be solved, so decided to took my chances.
More on this point, Jason recently experimented with a tweet to Basecamp customers, asking them a simple question. He could've use Talk to My Customers instead!
Product decisions
After I sat down a while and think thoroughly about what a possible solution would look like, I came to realize there were at least three main questions needed to be answered:
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Who are the users of Talk to My Customers?
I believe much like in Know Your Company; business owners, CEOs, product managers and people alike are the users. Talk to My Customers should be positioned as a premium product for non-techie people with a specific goal in mind.
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How the integration feels like with business owners' existing customer base (in order to enable them to talk to their customers)?
Business owners don't want (or don't have time or skills) to mess around with REST APIs, SQL queries, CSV files, etc. We must offer an exceptional experience to enable them reaching their customers. Whatever type of storage they use, our team must make sure their customers are always one click away from their finger tips. We will email, chat, meet, fly, talk and code in order to make Talk to My Customers work for them every-single-time.
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What would be the primary means of communication?
I think Talk to My Customers should embrace email as the primary communication tool. Virtually everyone has an email address and plain text messages are the real deal. No fancy HTML templates or new account creation should be necessary to read or reply. Talk to My Customers should send a daily summary email to business owners with all the customer replies in a clean and highly actionable format.
Design process
As Jason did (no, not this Jason, nor this Jason, and certainly not this Jason 
) I too thought it might be interesting to show you a glimpse of how I arrived to the solution above. You can click images below to view them in full-size.
You should pick me because…
- I am a dangerous enough web and iOS developer with 7 years of experience. I know what Ruby on Rails is, who created it, where, when and why.
- I was born in Istanbul/Turkey and I live in Cesena/Italy since 2004 on my own. I am fluent with Turkish, Italian and English; both written and spoken.
- I love cooking home-made food with fresh ingredients and I like taking long walks in a beautiful sunny day (thanks to beautiful town that I live in). You should definitely come to visit me.
- I am passionate about creating things and making products. I think writing code is just one piece of a bigger whole. As much as I like to write code, I am just as excited about sketching, discussing ideas, solving problems, talking to users and changing my mind about wrong decisions.
- I am not a yes man, nor do I think you need one.
- I know how to say "sorry". I will come back to you to correct my mistake as soon as I realize I was wrong all along.
- In case I wasn't clear enough explaining myself, I should mention that working with you would be a dream come true!
I must work with you because…
- I work for a local software company of nicest twenty-or-so people. For sometime now, I feel like I took in all there was to learn and gave out all there was to teach. I think now it's time to step up my game… I think there's no better place than Basecamp to do that.
- I must have read, listened or watched every single content available on the internet about Basecamp and I find my self in perfect agreement with company's culture and focus about the way you work and treat your employees. I want to be a part of it.
- I am currently in the process of becoming an EU citizen, so remote working is a great opportunity for me since I should stay resident in Italy at least another year.
- I want to surround myself with people who are better than me in many ways and with people who are open to new experiences which I will bring to them. I believe people at Basecamp are those awesome people.
What others think of me?
Below are some of the pros and cons that people think of me. How do I know? Well... I asked dear friends, family and colleagues what do they think about me in life and work, and I asked all of them to be as direct, objective and honest as they can be — no filters applied. I truly value and trust in the opinions of others while forming mine. This applies also to my personality. If you rather want to talk to them directly, that's totally fine; I will gladly put you in touch with any of them.
Reliable, honest and trustworthy person.
You enjoy it when things get rough. You like to solve those puzzling issues when times are difficult.
You think too much. Sometimes it takes too much time for you to start your engines and go. However whatever is it that you're supposed to do, in the end often ends up to be beautiful and flawless.
Way too much patient. It would make a great teacher out of you. You can explain the most difficult stuff to anybody with one baby step at a time with great patience.
You are able to fine-balance emotional stuff and rational explanation.
I think because you spent most of your adult ages abroad with people from different cultures, you learned how to accept everyone for whom they're, without judgements.
You're very methodical, but slow. When you have to work on something what really important to you is quality and precision, rather than how much time is spent.
You're a good team player.
When solving a given problem, I think, sometimes you spend more time than what's necessary.
You prefer to understand any given problem as good as you can, instead of putting together a quick or hacky solution.