Thoughts about Shape Up

 Shape up is the new Basecamp book(former 37 signals). It's about product discovery. A book is a form or flavor of Dual Track agile. Is pretty interesting because it also blends with some Lean Startup ideas. 37signals/Basecamp was always an interesting company since they did not fit on the classical enterprise-like company neither typical silicon valley company. The books are often culture-heavy and show how they do business. This book is about product development, Discovery, Dual-Track agile, and a different way to manage scope. Basecamp explores the flexibility of Scope which to give them credit not often is explored. The book also shows obvious XP reference by tracking progress with Big visible charts and using lots of visuals to avoid heavy unrealistic planning. ShapeUp is cool but we also need to keep in mind they have executive buy-in since they literally run the company and do not rely on VC/Seed money, so this gives them the ultimate flexibility. Today I made a slide cast to share my perspectives about ShapeUp. I will cover the book in the summary and also give my thoughts. So Let's get started!

The Video

The Slides

Cheers,

Diego Pacheco

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