PRODUCTHEAD: Shape Up

i might be wrong #

every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to

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tl;dr

Shape Up is a collection of product development techniques that happen to work for Basecamp

Just because they work in Basecamp’s context doesn’t mean they’ll work for yours

OMG so problematic

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hello

I’ve been working on a draft section for the new book about navigating working relationships.

My current thinking is that there’s more to be learned from screwing up than from everything going swimmingly, so I want to provide as many real-life case studies as possible. It’s possibly unreasonable of me to expect many people to let me publish how they’ve screwed up, so at the moment, I’m drawing from the plentiful examples of my own interpersonal failings. If you’ve met me, you’ll understand.

Context is crucial, so any case studies I give will be mercifully short and only there to hang the analysis on. Each section needs to provide useful prompts, not to tell the reader what to do should they encounter a similar situation, but rather how they can think about it before deciding for themselves what to do — just as I try to do in my coaching sessions. The specific situation may be different, but hopefully the prompts will either help directly or nudge the reader into a different perspective on the problem. That’s my intention anyway. Whether it works is going to be a matter for my beta readers to dissect.

I’ve also started reading Quiet by Susan Cain. Helen Holmes gave me her copy to read about a millennium ago, so it’s only right that I finally get round to reading it.

For you this week #

I am conflicted about sharing the Shape Up toolbox of techniques with you this week. I’ll explain why in a second.

As with any other methodology, some of you may find value in it, others not so much. Just because Shape Up happens to have worked well for people at Basecamp working on Basecamp products does not necessarily mean it’s going to work for teams at your organisation working on your products.

I never recommend you apply any particular framework dogmatically to everything, but I like having many different tools available to remix and match as the situation demands. Your mileage may vary, as they say.

For balance, I’ve also included some helpful critique from John Cutler. It’s useful in itself if you’re also interested in Shape Up, and it also serves as an example of how to think about the context in which the technique is being used, and to what extent it’s going to be transferable outside of that very specific context.

Here’s the tricky part. Shape Up was published in 2019 by Ryan Singer, who is an extremely problematic individual. His right-wing inflammatory remarks regarding white supremacy during a company all-hands video call in April 2021 led to his suspension and investigation, and in short order to his resignation from the company.

Co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson’s response to the incident (forbidding further “societal and political discussions” on the company’s internal chat forums) then led to a third of the company quitting in protest against “the suppression of dissenting views”. I wrote about this briefly at the time.

To be absolutely clear, I do not endorse the views of Singer, Fried or Hansson nor condone their actions. I believe there is some value in reading content from problematic authors if only that you or I can then take a more informed decision on what to do with it. Reading something does not mean one agrees with it.

Nevertheless I would recommend that you read The Verge’s article first for the reporting of the whole episode, then make up your own mind whether you wish to continue reading here about Shape Up.

Speak to you soon,

Jock

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what to think about this week

Inside the all-hands meeting that led to a third of Basecamp employees quitting

The company’s senior leadership wanted to quell employees’ concerns, and only made things much, much worse

What went wrong

[Casey Newton / The Verge]

Shape Up

As software teams start to grow, some common struggles appear:

• Team members feel like projects go on and on, with no end in sight.
• Product managers can’t find time to think strategically about the product.
• Founders ask themselves: “Why can’t we get features out the door like we used to in the early days?”

We saw these challenges first-hand at Basecamp as we grew from four people to over fifty.

Ship work that matters

[Ryan Singer / Basecamp]

Review Notes: Shape Up

I wrote this [in 2019] after having a number of people ask me about Shape Up. It is in bullet and notes form. Basecamp is doing something right, because this has come up in conversation multiple times.

What works for them won’t necessarily work for you

[John Cutler / Medium]

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PRODUCTHEAD is a newsletter for product people of all varieties, and is lovingly crafted from hacked up bushes in the garden.