Product Strategy Q&A with Jason Fried and Ryan Singer

REWORK

CEO Jason Fried and Head of Strategy Ryan Singer talk about the Shape Up approach to product development that we use at Basecamp. They discuss organizing work in six-week cycles, how to handle disagreement, and how so much of the process boils down to making trade-offs. You can also watch the full video of this Q&A session.

Show Notes

Going Remote Q&A videos on YouTube - 00:57

Basecamp's remote work resources - 1:00

Jason Fried | Ryan Singer on Twitter - 1:09

Hey, Basecamp's forthcoming email product - 1:23

Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters - 2:17

Q1: How do you go about planning something from scratch? What are the different milestones in the product-planning process? - 4:59

An explainer of six-week cycles - 6:10

An explainer of finding the epicenter from Getting Real, Basecamp's earlier book on product development - 11:50

Q2: How do you decide how far to break down projects? Can you be so granular that you reach a point of diminishing returns? - 13:31

Shape Up chapter on scopes - 16:10

Q3: How do you decide which pitches to execute, and how often do you disagree? - 19:32

Spikeball - 27:55

Q4: How is potential value creation assessed in the betting process? - 27:58

Q5: How do you alert someone about work that needs to be done by them? - 34:45

Q6: How do you do a 6-week cycle for a whole new project? - 37:10

Inverted pyramid - 38:36

Q7: How do you pitch the Shape Up process to someone who’s not technical? - 39:28

Q8: How do you train team members to learn the work process? - 42:28

Q9: How do conversations with customers fit into the shaping and strategy? - 46:22

Q10: What do you do about people who ignore the breadboarding and fat marker techniques? - 50:33

Q11: Is there a utility in using software? - 54:49

Q12: When approaching features like two-factor authentication or encryption, how do you balance what’s most secure with what’s most convenient for users? - 55:22

Q12: How did you decide to work on Hey? What’s the bet and how did you structure the team separate from Basecamp? - 1:03:10

Highrise - 1:03:26

"Highrise is back with Basecamp" (Signal v. Noise ) - 1:07:22

Chapters

1. Product Strategy Q&A with Jason Fried and Ryan Singer (00:00:00)

2. Q1: How do you go about planning something from scratch? What are the different milestones in this process? (00:04:59)

3. Q2: How do you decide how far to break down projects? Can you be so granular that you reach a point of diminishing returns? (00:13:31)

4. Q3: How do you decide which pitches to execute? How often do you disagree? (00:19:32)

5. Q4: How is potential value creation assessed in the betting process? (00:27:58)

6. Q5: How do you alert someone about work that they need to do? (00:34:45)

7. Q6: How do you do a 6-week cycle for a whole new project? (00:37:10)

8. Q7: How do you pitch the Shape Up process to someone who’s not technical? (00:39:28)

9. Q8: How do you train team members to learn the Shape Up process? (00:42:28)

10. Q9: How do conversations with customers fit into shaping and strategy? (00:46:22)

11. Q10: What do you do about people who ignore the breadboarding and fat marker techniques? (00:50:33)

12. Q11: Is there a utility in using software for the breadboarding and fat marker stage? (00:54:49)

13. Q12: When approaching features like two-factor authentication or encryption, how do you balance what’s most secure with what’s most convenient for users? (00:55:22)

14. Q13: How did you decide to work on Hey? What’s the bet and how did you structure the team separate from Basecamp? (01:03:10)