A better way to plan, build, and ship products | Ryan Singer (creator of “Shape Up,” early employee at 37signals)

1. See End From Beginning

Do not start a project unless you can clearly envision its completion from the outset, to avoid open-ended work and ensure a defined outcome.

2. Set Project Appetites

Instead of estimating project deadlines, define the maximum amount of time you are willing to spend on a project before it’s finished. This forces trade-offs and prevents projects from dragging on indefinitely.

3. Cross-Functional Shaping Collaboration

Bring design, engineering, and product together in a room to collaboratively shape the plan for a project. This approach is more effective than writing long PRDs or trying to finalize designs before building, as it integrates diverse perspectives early.

4. Shape Ideas to Timebox

Develop ideas and solutions that are specifically designed to fit within a fixed time budget or ‘appetite.’ This ensures that projects are feasible and can be completed within the business’s desired investment of time.

5. Empower Teams with Shaped Ideas

Provide build teams with a single, well-shaped idea that they fully understand, rather than splitting it into numerous small tickets. This allows them to take responsibility for defining their own tasks and implementation details, fostering greater engagement and ownership.

6. Use Project Circuit Breaker

If a project is not on track to finish within its committed timebox, do not extend the deadline or cut essential value; instead, stop building and move it back to shaping mode. This allows for clarification of unknowns and prevents continued investment in an unclear direction.

7. Conduct Live Shaping Sessions

Hold short, intense, collaborative sessions with a senior engineer (who knows the codebase), a product person (who understands the problem), and a designer. These sessions involve whiteboarding and ‘wrestling’ with ideas to define a real, achievable solution within the timebox.

8. Protect Team Focus

Once a build team is committed to a timebox, protect them from external distractions and other work. This dedicated focus maximizes their productivity and increases the likelihood of completing the project on time.

9. Narrow Problem Framing

Before shaping a solution, clearly ‘frame’ the problem by narrowing it down to a specific, solvable core. This prevents scope creep and ensures that efforts are focused on delivering targeted value.

10. Address Risks Early

During shaping, proactively identify and deeply understand the biggest risks and unknowns (e.g., technical complexities or ‘rabbit holes’) before committing to a project. This prevents costly mid-project surprises and delays.

11. Untangle System Dependencies

Engineering leadership should actively work to untangle system dependencies in the architecture. This enables different teams to work independently on specific systems without constant coordination overhead.

12. PMs Focus Upstream

Product Managers should shift their focus ‘upstream’ to deeply understand the business context, narrow down problems, and negotiate the core value of potential projects. This elevates their strategic contribution rather than having them primarily manage the build phase or process rituals.

13. Actively Break Ideas

In shaping sessions, actively challenge and try to ‘break’ ideas from technical, product, and design perspectives. This process helps identify flaws early and strengthens the proposed solutions.

14. Use Low-Fidelity Sketching

Employ tools like ‘breadboarding’ and ‘fat marker sketching’ in shaping sessions to express ideas clearly and quickly. This allows for rapid collaboration and prevents getting bogged down by the premature detail of high-fidelity design tools.

15. Limit Implementation Chunks

At project kickoff, have the build team break down the shaped idea into nine or fewer major implementation chunks. This aligns with cognitive science principles, ensuring the team can hold the entire project’s scope in their heads.

16. Adjust Detail by Team

Tailor the level of detail provided in shaping based on the experience level of the build team. More junior teams benefit from additional guidance and suggestions, while senior teams may require less.

17. Start with Pilot Project

When adopting Shape Up, begin with a pilot project that is meaningful, timely, and of a manageable size (e.g., 3-4 weeks, not necessarily 6). This provides a safe environment to learn the new approach and demonstrate its value.

18. Cultivate Urgency to Finish

Foster a cultural energy within the team and leadership that prioritizes getting to ‘done’ and shipping products. This drives continuous movement and prevents projects from lingering.

19. Deliver Consistently for Autonomy

Consistently delivering meaningful, finished products without excuses builds trust with executive leadership. This demonstrated success can earn teams greater autonomy and reduce external interference.

20. Discuss Shipping Struggles

Acknowledge that teams often hide their struggles with shipping products due to discomfort. Create safe spaces or ‘failure corners’ to openly discuss these challenges and learn from them.

21. Leverage Constraints for Process

Use extreme constraints, such as limited engineering time, to design highly efficient ways of working. These limitations can force creativity and prioritization, leading to more effective processes.

22. Read Demand-Side Sales 101

To deepen understanding of customer struggles and problems for effective product framing, read ‘Demand-Side Sales 101’ by Bob Moesta.

23. Read Competing Against Luck

For a general introduction to the ‘Jobs to be Done’ framework and its spirit, read ‘Competing Against Luck’ by Clayton Christensen.

24. Seek Expert Guidance

If your projects are consistently dragging, lacking clarity, or failing to meet quality standards, consider reaching out to experts who specialize in these problems for guidance and support.