The “Shape Up” framework

`0:35:32`

They create the work that needs to get done to fulfill the idea that we've written up and designed essentially, and they figure out how to do it. Then we trade. So they might get into something that we've said, we have about six weeks. Well, we're only give it six weeks and two weeks in they go, we actually stumbled into something we didn't realize. This is probably not going to be able to be done the way we thought. So can we do it this way? And then we have a discussion and there's a conversation. There's a lot of molding and changing that happens along that period of time. We call it trading concessions. There's all the trade-offs we're always thinking about. So all these things that come to bear. And then people often ask, well, what if you don't get it done in the six weeks you gave it? Well, so it depends. So in most cases it should die, meaning it just doesn't happen.

`0:36:19`

Because if we say we're going to give it six weeks and we give it seven or eight or nine or 10, then we're not really giving it six weeks, we're giving it 10, then we don't really have a system. There are times though, when there's a couple days left when we're on what we're calling the downslope. So we have these things in Basecamp called hill charts. And things that are on, that's actually work... A project's more like a hill. It's not like a linear line. If you're on the left side of the hill, it means you're still pushing this thing up the hill. You're still trying to figure out how to do this. But once work gets to the top, it's downhill from there. It's just pure execution and we know how to nail it. So if we're almost at the bottom of the hill on something and it needs two more days, fine. If there's any work that's left over that's still on the left side of the hill, meaning we're still pushing it up, we don't know how we're going to do it and we're at our time limit, it almost certainly dies.

`0:37:04`

So there are some contextual decisions to make at that point, but fundamentally that's how we approach work. And this prevents long running projects that never end, which by the way are the most demoralizing kinds of projects. Things that you're stuck on that you don't want to do that never end, sucks. And if people get stuck on a couple of those, they want to leave their job. So the implications here are significant. And so we want to keep people out of that zone of like, I hate this work and it goes on forever. Because sometimes you're going to hate the work. Not all projects are that exciting. Sometimes it's maintenance stuff, sometimes it's updating an internal billing system that's boring and no customers are going to see but needs to be done. But you'll know that, hey, at maximum we've got four weeks on this. I can already see the end from the beginning, no big deal.

`0:37:51`

But if it's like this is going to take nine months and you're on week four and you're like, I hate this, bad. So we want to stay away from that sort of thing. You have these quotes along these lines about planning, long-term business planning is a fantasy. I don't plan long-term because I want to do what I think, not what I thought. Yes. I love these. This whole idea of appetites, it's very appealing. It makes so much sense. It's like the ultimate impact to effort calculation. The effort we'll put into this is fixed and we'll not go beyond this because the impact we expect from this is pretty clear. And if the effort goes up and up and up, well why did we even do this? But obviously the downside is you can't promise things really to sales marketing, which I think makes sense in your type of business.