Summary of Shaping in a Nutshell
The video discusses the importance of product development and the reasons why people become interested in changing their work processes.
- Three main cases are presented: when a company is growing and needs to make progress on multiple fronts, when a company is struggling to ship products and there is a disconnect between product and engineering teams, and when an individual contributor is looking for a better way of working.
- The video introduces the concept of "shape up," a new way of working developed by the core team at Basecamp over 17 years.
- "shape up" involves planning projects in time boxes of around six weeks to allow for flexibility and meaningful progress.
- The video emphasizes the importance of defining an appetite instead of estimates for project planning, allowing for strategic decision-making based on value and urgency.
- Shaping involves making trade-offs and finding different possibilities for what can be built within a set time frame.
- The shaping phase includes defining scope (what is in and out) and determining the level of detail needed upfront for the team to work effectively.
- The video highlights the importance of team autonomy, assigning projects as a whole, and having dedicated capacity for planned strategic work versus unplanned reactive work.
- The video concludes by discussing how to adapt the "shape up" methodology for different company structures and provides information about a course called "Shaping in Real Life" for more in-depth guidance.
Researchers/Sources
- Basecamp team
- "shape up" book published in 2019
Notable Quotes
— 02:57 — « You know in order for a group of people to work together they need to be able to understand each other even though they all play different roles and everybody can understand a house. Software is like building a house. »
— 03:52 — « If we plan the big thing up front six months a year long, then it takes a really long time to find out that we didnt build the right thing. »
— 04:33 — « A good rule of thumb is to think about planning projects in a time box of around six weeks. »
— 05:09 — « Most companies deal with the question of planning time by making estimates, and estimates are a famously difficult subject because they always turn out to be wrong. »
— 09:02 — « So which tenth to answer this question we took a close look at the customers who were asking. »
Category
Science and Nature