The early success of call rail was really based around that user experience, simplicity, small and medium businesses.

And typically those are the things that you cut, right? You cut the refinement in the beginning.

Oh, like this can be a little clunky, but it works.

And that's a tough thing where the company's DNA is really built around user experience. And so we really did not

try to cut that. I think it really came down to like what features do they need to be successful

for this version of it. If we say success looks like this, okay, that's a win. What do we need to do

to make that happen? And I think that's how we made decisions.

I'm Ryan Johnson, the SVP of product at Call Rail.

This is Code Story, the podcast bringing you interviews with tech visionaries who share in the critical moments of what it takes to change in industry

and build and lead, a team that has your back.

I'm your host, Noel Labhart, and today, how Ryan Johnson is leading the product charge

to perfect the tool around call tracking and analytics.

All this and more on-code story.

Ryan Johnson is originally from Saginaw, Michigan, and now lives in Atlanta.

He never imagined he would get into tech. In fact,

when he was growing up, he wanted to be an orthodontist. He got into school and immediately saw

how difficult the classes were going to be. So he switched to business. And that part of school

stuck and came naturally to him. As a college elective, he took computer science. Who does that? He brags that his computer

science professor still has his mortgage calculator program on hand, and it still works. Post-college,

he worked as a broker for equitable, as a financial advisor, and then supported law firms with their

SEO. Eventually, he got into product and is still leading the charge there.

He's married and has two young daughters, both in grade school, and he loves to travel and hopes

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