Podcast · 90 min

A Better Way to Plan, Build, and Ship Products (Shape Up)

Ryan Singer · Lenny's Podcast Free Intermediate

The creator of Shape Up talks through fixing the time and cutting the scope, which is exactly the discipline that keeps an MVP to weeks. It is a conversational version of the appetite idea if you would rather listen than read. Good on a commute when you are wrestling with a timeline that keeps growing.

  • Set a time budget first, then shape the work to fit it
  • Unfinished work should stop, not automatically get an extension
  • Scope is the variable you control, the deadline is not
Open on lennysnewsletter.com ↗

It answers 2 questions

  1. How long should building an MVP take?
  2. How do I write a spec for a developer when I'm not technical?

Read with it

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  4. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  5. Video · ~13 min How to Plan an MVP Michael Seibel (YC)
  6. The deepest no-code stack, database, workflows, and custom UI, for building genuinely complex web apps and marketplaces without... bubble.io Tool · platform Bubble, No-Code Full-Stack App Builder Bubble
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