Book · Free online, ~4 hr

Getting Real (free to read online)

Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson (37signals) · Basecamp / 37signals Free Beginner

Free to read online, with chapters like "Build Less" and "Half, Not Half-Assed" that name your exact trap. It argues that cutting scope is a feature, and that the version with fewer things done well beats the bloated one. A fast, opinionated read you can skim straight to the chapters that sting.

  • Build half a product, not a half-built product.
  • Every feature you add is one more thing to maintain and explain.
  • Deliberately underdo the competition on scope.
Open on basecamp.com ↗

It answers 20 questions

  1. When is my product 'ready' to launch?
  2. My launch flopped and nobody cared, did I mess it up?
  3. Should I hire an agency or a freelancer to build my MVP?
  4. How do I know if my product is confusing to users?
  5. Why does good design actually matter for an early-stage startup?
  6. What does a 'soft launch' actually look like, and is it just a cop-out for being scared to ship?
  7. I keep tweaking the landing page instead of launching. How do I tell polishing from procrastinating?
  8. How do I run a weekly ship cadence when I am non-technical and depend on a dev agency or freelancers?
  9. My first launch went okay but the second felt embarrassing, like 'why are they back again already?' Is relaunch fatigue real?
  10. Should we ship an ugly, half-working version now or wait until it feels good enough to be proud of?
  11. I keep polishing the design and refactoring instead of shipping. How do I know I'm gold-plating my MVP versus doing necessary work?
  12. How much should an MVP realistically cost to build in India?

And 8 more across the hub.

Read with it

  1. 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
  2. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  3. Basecamp's battle-tested, opinionated system for shipping meaningful work in fixed cycles without endless backlogs, a primary... Basecamp / 37signals Book · free online book Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters Ryan Singer
  4. This is the canonical source of the ship-ugly-first idea, the LinkedIn co-founder's own essay behind the line about being... LinkedIn Essay · About a 6 minute read If There Aren't Any Typos In This Essay, We Launched Too Late Reid Hoffman
  5. The definitive talk that reframes launching from a one-shot event into a repeatable tactic, exactly this category's thesis. YC... YC Startup Library Video · ~25 min How to Launch (Again and Again) Kat Manalac (Y Combinator)
  6. Video · ~13 min How to Plan an MVP Michael Seibel (YC)
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