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TL;DR:
- The Shape Up Method, created by Basecamp, is a product development approach that emphasizes fixed time, variable scope to ensure timely delivery of new features.
- The golden rule of Shape Up is that there are no timeline extensions. When a cycle finishes whatever was implemented is shipped to production. It's crucial: no deadline extensions.
- Teams in Shape Up work in 3-6 week cycles and 1 week cool-down period. The cool-down period is discretional time for team members to learn new skills, fix bugs and get ready for the next cycle.
- The key benefits of Shape Up is having a predictable cadence, the removal of ego-driven decisions, and built-in time for learning and housekeeping during cool-down weeks.
- At Teamscope we implemented 3-week cycles with a 1-week cool-down, leading to a consistent release of 12 big features annually. Shape Up’s constraints help teams improve prioritization and make better use of time.
At Teamscope, we started implementing the Shape Up Method in 2020 with a direct improvement in productivity and speed.
In this article I share what the Shape Up Method is, why it's a brilliant product development methodology, and the results we obtained at Teamscope after two years of applying it.
What is the Shape Up Method?
The Shape Up Method is a product development method that helps teams prioritise and develop products.
Basecamp created Shape Up in 2019 and it's been since then implemented at scale by large organisations like Mixpanel, Fontawesome, and Maze.
The core principle of Shape Up is the concept of Fixed time, variable scope. Let's break that down.
- Fixed time: Teams define a cycle length, usually 3 to 6 weeks. The bell rings at the end of the cycle, and what the team got done gets shipped. Within Shape Up, there is no deadline extension, and when time is up, it's up.
- Variable scope: Shape Up does not rely on traditional linear planning. Unlike Scrum or Waterfall, there is flexibility in adjusting the scope of work during the cycle if needed. For example, the team can leave out certain features or make them simpler to ensure that once time is up, something solid gets shipped.
Key benefits of Shape Up Method
Forget the burden of never-ending backlogs
With Scrum, pending features go into a backlog list. This list is usually kept in Jira, Trello or Github issues. As time goes by, this list grows, becoming a never-ending burden.
Shape Up eliminates pending features, and any idea of improving a product goes into a pitch.
A pitch is not a pending feature, and its existence does not mean it will ever be built. A pitch may live as a pitch for eternity until the team feels there is consensus that the feature should be implemented.
Steady cadence and predictability
Cycles on Shape Up have a defined duration (between 3 to 6 weeks). After a cycle is done comes a cool-down period, often one week, and the process repeats perpetually.
This structure brings rhythm into product teams and, with it, the ability to learn their true bandwidth and capability within the constraints of a cycle.
Before the start of each cycle, the team will bet on what to work on in the next cycle. This means looking into the catalogue of pitches and betting or voting on which ones should get priority for the next cycle.
As the product team goes through more cycles, their intuition on what is capable within a few weeks improves. This sharper intuition leads to predictability and the ability to have a steady cadence.
A process that is, above all
Ego can play a significant role in the working environment. When not in balance, this can translate to team members that attribute themselves the right to change timelines or impose a favourable way of working on others.
Shape Up fixes this by establishing a way of working that is above all.
No one can request a deadline extension. A deadline is a deadline.
The time constraint that Shape Up imposes acts as a forcing function, requiring team members to work with the end in mind, address early on risks and leave any ego out of the door.
Allocated time for learning new skills and general housekeeping
Between every cycle is a cool-down period. In our case, this was a week long. The cool-down is time for fixing bugs, refactoring code, or brushing up on new skills. Each team member can work during cool-down on things they want.
This shift of gears gives teams a valuable pause and the ability to do things that may often get neglected.
How to get started with Shape Up
- Define cycle length: Start by defining how long you want your cycles to be. Cycles are usually between 3 and 6 weeks; after every cycle comes a cool-down, generally one week.
- Keep a catalogue of pitches: A pitch has four essential ingredients: Problem, Appetite, Solution, Rabbit holes and No-gos. As ideas for improving the product arise, write them down as a pitch; this can be on Google Docs or Notion. A pitch can start as a Notion page with one sentence and, over time, be given shape.
- Assemble a competent team: Teams in Shape Up are small. You will need a designer, a developer (or two) and someone who can do QA.
- Choose the features that will get worked on in the next cycle: During the cool-down, C-level team members come together and decide what gets worked on during the next cycle. This meeting is called the betting table.
- Repeat: Cycle after cycle, teams will better define appetite and keep the scope as small as possible.
Free checklist
If there is something that I love about Shape Up is it's simplicity. A team can easily get started with this methodology, try it out for a few months and compare the benefits over Scrum.
If you are keen on giving it a try here is a 7-step checklist: https://productalchemy.notion.site/Shape-Up-Method-Checklist-1391433731108033b907f37c163cd4ee
How we implemented Shape Up at Teamscope
We used 3-week cycles and a 1-week cool-down. Although many teams work with 6-week cycles for us, three weeks felt like the right amount. This cadence also meant that, per year, we would ship twelve new features.
Each pitch was a page in Notion, and the extent of the pitch ranged from a one-line description to a fleshed-out pitch, including problem, appetite, solution, faqs, and UX/UI.
Inside the pitch, we would also keep track of the names of the users that had requested this feature; this allowed us to inform them once the feature was ready for beta testing or let them know that it would go in the next 3-week cycle.
At the start of the cycle, the first task was to write the whole pitch in the same language as our help documentation. We would do this in Notion, which would help us by the end of the cycle have the help docs ready.
On the day we shipped, all I needed to do was copy/paste the pitch in Webflow, which was our CMS and viola. The help docs and the new feature were live.
We tried as hard as possible never to interrupt a cycle, but if there were bugs in production that needed to be fixed, we would put the cycle on hold for a few hours and then get back to the cycle's plan. Context switches are expensive for productivity, so we tried to delay bug fixes for the cool-down week.
Conclusion
Creativity thrives under limitations; this is what makes Shape Up amazing.
The strict time constraints of a cycle can feel uncomfortable at first. As teams learn to work within them, they get better at prioritising, honing in on their capabilities and deficiencies, and using our most valuable asset: time.
Creativity thrives under limitations.
I believe the teams that put Shape Up in place are on the right path towards a more zen working environment.
For us, it meant a steady cadence in our product development, the ability to ship twelve meaningful new features per year and the valuable knowledge of what is achievable within the cycle's constraints with the personal and technical resources we had.
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