Ryan Singer
- Fractional CPO
- Author of Shape Up
- 20+ Years in Design, Code, Strategy
- Former Head of Strategy at 37signals
Shape Up
Shape Up is a way of working for leaders, developers, and designers that creates clarity and autonomy with fewer meetings and rituals. It's a widely-adopted alternative to scrum for growing startups who need structure but don't want to slow down. I wrote the book in 2019 to formalize how we did product development during my time at 37signals.
- Get the book
- Listen to the episode on Lenny's Podcast
- Shaping in a Nutshell — An introductory video
Shaping in Real Life
The book Shape Up describes how the team at 37signals works — and 37signals is quite a unique animal. They are different from other companies in many ways. Nevertheless, the core principles are true, and I've been able to help a wide variety of real-world teams to adopt Shape Up.
Doing this revealed many things that were unspoken because we did them instinctively at 37signals. I started unpacking these discoveries into skills, missing terminology, and dials to turn that customize the framework for each team.
I gathered this material under the title Shaping in Real Life and first taught it as an online course. Since then I've shifted my focus from teaching the concepts to working hands-on. People learn the most by doing, so Shaping Sessions on real projects have proven very effective. When it comes to the core concepts and examples, I'd like to share those more widely now.
Watch for articles on these topics:
- Framing: Defining the problem before shaping
- Working with designers
- Technical breadboarding
- What well-shaped looks like
- Framing and shaping bigger projects
- Vertical slicing at kickoff
- QA per slice instead of all at the end
- Roles and skills in framing and shaping
- Reaching agreement when shaping
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Work With Me
- Fractional CPO — I like working with founders who want to continue to own strategy but need help with the gap between idea and execution. I guide and own projects through framing, shaping, and building, so founders retain decision-making power while team members take over more responsibility for the details. (Booked through 2025)
- 3-HOUR Shaping Sessions — The fastest way to learn is to dive into real work together. A Shaping Session exposes your team to what "good" looks like while making a jump in clarity on a specific project.
- Reach out — Need some advice? Drop me a note with some background and we can set up a call to talk through what's going on and I'll suggest some ways to make progress.