Book · free online book

Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters

Ryan Singer · Basecamp / 37signals Free Intermediate

Basecamp's battle-tested, opinionated system for shipping meaningful work in fixed cycles without endless backlogs, a primary source, free in full. The antidote to over-planning your roadmap.

  • Work in short cycles with a cool-down between them.
  • Fix time, vary scope, use 'appetites,' not estimates.
  • Make bets, not plans; no runaway backlog.
Open on basecamp.com ↗

It answers 27 questions

  1. How do I decide what to build next?
  2. When is my product 'ready' to launch?
  3. How do I decide which features to cut from v1?
  4. How often should an early-stage startup ship?
  5. How do I build a roadmap without over-planning?
  6. How do product teams keep a consistent shipping rhythm as they grow?
  7. How often should I be launching, is once a quarter too much?
  8. How do I know when to stop researching an idea and just start building?
  9. How do I write a spec for a developer when I'm not technical?
  10. What does a 'soft launch' actually look like, and is it just a cop-out for being scared to ship?
  11. I keep tweaking the landing page instead of launching. How do I tell polishing from procrastinating?
  12. What's a fair way to structure a milestone-based contract with a dev agency?

And 15 more across the hub.

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