Refactoring Spring Update 💐
73,000 friends, podcast season 2, digests, masterminds, and big library updates!
Hey everyone, welcome to our quarterly release edition! I create this special editions to give you meaningful updates on the newsletter, podcast, and community, once per quarter.
And boy we are packed with news today!
Here is the agenda:
📈 73,000 friends — last quarter’s growth.
🎙️ Podcast Season Two — announcing next quarter’s incredible lineup.
🏅 Podcast Digests — a new way to go through episodes.
🧠 Community Masterminds — doubling down on our successful events.
🏛️ Library updates — book reviews and podcast episodes coming to the library!
Let’s go!
📈 73,000 friends
This was a fantastic quarter. I had a lot of anxiety coming into it because of the launch of the podcast, but I am so grateful for how everything just turned out.
Newsletter growth is strong: we just surpassed 73,000 subscribers, up from 63,000 at the beginning of the year. So we added ~10,000 subscribers in just three months, which is awesome!
We also added ~1000 friends on the new-born Youtube channel (subscribe!), and about the same on the other podcast platforms combined (Spotify, Apple, …).
Overall views of Refactoring pieces skyrocketed to ~500K / month, which is 3x what we did last year.
So, that’s fantastic progress 🎉
As always, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for trusting me with your time and attention 🙏 I will never take them for granted and I will always do my best to create the very best content I am capable of.
🎙️ Podcast • Season Two
Season one was a big success, so we are doubling down on it. This quarter we are bringing you ten more interviews with world-class tech leaders.
The lineup is incredible, and includes many of the people I admire the most in our industry.
But it ain’t over! During the season we listened to your feedback, so we are making big changes, and introducing digests! 👇
🏅 Podcast Digests
I’ll tell you a secret: I am not much of a podcast guy myself.
I don’t listen to many, because I can’t always find time to go through hour-long interviews. I used to be very self-conscious about this, and thought I couldn’t possibly create a great podcast if I wasn’t 100% into podcasts myself.
Recently, instead, I asked myself: can I use this as a superpower? Can I create a podcast for non-podcast people?
Introducing digests.
Starting in season two, for each interview we are going to extract the 4-5 most important takeaways of the conversation, and put them in a ~1000-words digest that you can read instead of / in addition to listening to the whole thing.
Digests won’t be AI-generated. They will be high-quality, human-written pieces, 100% Refactoring-style. Check out a preview below 👇
Digests are a way to go through a full interview in ~5 minutes, and still retain the ability to laser-focus into the corresponding full video parts whenever you like.
Digests will be exclusive for paid subscribers, to thank them for their support 🙏
So, podcast episodes will always be free for everybody, but paid subscribers will also be able to:
💬 Join the interviews live through the community — and ask live questions to guests.
🏅 Get the digest of each interview — organized into neat, separate ideas.
🧠 Community Masterminds
We announced masterminds a few weeks ago and we are doubling down on them this quarter 👇
Masterminds are monthly sessions where you can meet other members of the Community and tap into their collective expertise and support, to help you work through the challenges that you are facing.
This is all facilitated by Joel Chippindale, who is a full-time CTO Coach and has 20+ years of experience in the industry.
The first one was a huge success, and we look forward to the next one on April 16th.
Check out the full announcement for more.
🏛️ Library updates — books & interviews!
As always, the Library evolves together with the Refactoring content, and today we are announcing two long-awaited additions: book reviews, and podcast interviews!
Both now have their dedicated track where you can find all the past editions, mark them as read, and save your favorites.
The Library is an ever-growing effort to make the Refactoring content (200+ articles and 350+ resources!) digestible and easy to browse. It is used by hundreds of tech leaders every week and we are extremely proud of it ❤️
Join the full plan! 🔒
And that’s it for today! Most of the announcements today — the library, the community events, and the podcast digests — are exclusive features for paid subscribers.
Paid subscribers allow me to do my best work in the quest to help engineers and managers with their professional growth.
I want Refactoring to be the easiest, highest-ROI money you will ever spend for your growth — and I truly believe it is today.
If you like what you see and want to support my work, consider subscribing 👇 you also get 30-days money-back guarantee, no questions asked!
Thank you, and have a good week!
Sincerely
Luca
Love the idea of the podcast digests! Sooo hype for that. Thank you for everything, Luca!
Congratulations, Luca! That's a lot of progress and a testament that how much value you're producing!
My online journey has just began, so hearing stories like these are truly inspirational, but I'm very close to the area you write about. Would love to collaborate some day.