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 Series
The book Shape Up describes how the team at Basecamp worked. They are different from other companies in many ways (eg. all designers who code, hands-on technical founders, etc). But the core principles remain true, and I've helped a wide variety of real-world teams to adopt Shape Up.
Doing this revealed many things that were unspoken at Basecamp or too often misunderstood. I started formalizing these discoveries into skills, terminology, and parameters to customize the framework. First I taught this as an online course. Now I'm starting to share it widely in the form of the Shaping in Real Life Series.
Watch for articles on these topics:
- Common Pitfalls when Adopting Shape Up (and How to Avoid Them)
- Framing: Defining the problem/outcome
- Technical shaping
- Working with designers
- Handling legacy and technical unknowns
- Framing and shaping large-scale projects
- And more...
To get notified when I share more, sign up here:
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 execution.
- 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.