Building High Trust: The Artisan of the Day Is John Drexler
If your biggest problems at work aren't technical, you're not alone. The good news is that John Drexler has the solutions.
John is a product manager and Laravel developer who co-founded Thunk, a development agency, alongside his longtime friend Daniel Coulbourne. A Covenant College graduate based in New York, John describes himself as someone who builds "world class products fast" at Thunk, where they've built a reputation for doing great Laravel development work and product consulting.
Their client roster includes recognizable names, most notably Laravel itself, where John has been product managing Laravel Forge. The Thunk team is also known for their creative marketing approach: they built a game for Laracon that gave away $1,500 and generated hundreds of leads, proving they understand both technical execution and business strategy.
John originally learned Laravel not for typical web development, but to build games. He continues to publish games separately from Thunk, showcasing the versatility of Laravel beyond traditional applications.
He believes that every developer can level up by thinking like a product manager. His philosophy centers on the idea that "product is not a profession" but rather "a set of responsibilities that no company can opt out of," and that fullstack developers should embrace product management thinking. In his talks and blog, he covers everything from communication skills that "make people love you" to developing processes organically through retrospectives rather than rigid Agile frameworks.
He's part of the Laravel community that believes in practical solutions over one-size-fits-all approaches, encouraging teams to "make it up as you go" when building processes that actually work.
High Trust Environments: Beyond Code
At Laracon US 2025, John delivered a talk that resonated deeply with developers who've felt the frustration of communication breakdowns, micromanagement, and being misunderstood by non-technical colleagues.
His premise was that your biggest problems at work aren't technical, they're about trust and communication.
What John identified:
- The default is low trust: You start every new job or client relationship in a "low trust environment" where you're seen as a "spooky, weird wizard" who speaks a different language.
- Misalignment is inevitable: Without shared goals, teams paddle in completely different directions, leading to spontaneous "roadmap wars."
- Going dark backfires: While developers love disappearing into their code caves, this actually exacerbates trust issues when stakeholders can't see the value of your work.
- Communication is a skill: Like any other skill, it requires practice and feedback—but most developers never treat it that way.
John's framework for building high trust:
- Point to shared goals: Print them in 72-point font and reference them relentlessly to avoid adversarial negotiations.
- Speak their language: Use business terms like ROI and metaphors ("tech debt is like investing in a better factory floor") instead of technical jargon.
- Show work early and often: Build vertically, not horizontally—deliver full-stack features weekly rather than disappearing for months.
- Sit on the same side of the table: Instead of saying "no" to requests, say "that's interesting—here are the trade-offs, help me think through them."
John closed with four immediately actionable communication tips:
- Consider your audience
- Write better messages
- Repeat things back in your own words
- Ask for feedback
Your Story Belongs Here
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