REWORK

"Everyone should manage themselves" has been a core principle at 37signals from day one and has continued to be key as the company has expanded.  Today, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson sit down to discuss why it’s essential to the success of your company to bring on board self-sufficient employees who require minimal supervision in what they refer to as "Managers of One&quo...

37signals has undergone some name changes since its inception over 20 years ago: starting as 37signals in 1999, then changing to Basecamp in 2014, before switching back to 37signals in 2022.  Today, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson sit down to uncover the story behind the name 37signals, the reasoning behind the name changes, and the impact a name has on a business as we discuss what'...

Are you working over 40 hours a week while putting your personal life on hold? That's a common trap entrepreneurs, and executives often fall into while striving for success in their careers.  It's also the fast track to sabotage your performance and drive yourself into burnout.  It's time to re-evaluate your priorities and find a healthier balance. Today, Jason Fried and David Heine...

If you follow Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founders of 37signals, anywhere online, you know they aren’t afraid to speak their minds and stand up for what they believe in.    Today, Jason and David sit down to discuss how embracing their viewpoint has led them to go toe-to-toe with some of the industry's biggest behemoths. They’ll walk us through some of their biggest battl...

“When dealing with customers, especially those that are angry, there are always two tokens on the table. One is the token for it just doesn't matter. It's not a big deal. And the other token is it's the end of the world. We pick one, and the customer picks the other.”—Chase Clemons Today, Chase Clemons is here. Chase is the Head of Customer Support and is on the front lines every da...

What is your method of connecting with your customers? Does your product or service make sense to them, and do you understand how they see it?    Our perception of what is easy and straightforward and what the customer perceives as easy and straightforward can sometimes differ, making it vital for everyone on the team to hear directly from the customers without the ‘muffler.‘    Today, the cofound...

With the year ending, it's a good time to reflect on how far you've come in the past year as a company.    Today, the cofounders of 37signals, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, discuss the growth of the company in 2022 and some of the significant changes they made this year.    They'll walk us through some of the new positions they’ve added, the challenges they faced along t...

A small business has many benefits, like being able to move quickly, stay flexible and pivot when needed, something big businesses can't do as easily.    But, with the lure of getting bigger, sometimes small businesses fall into the trap of getting caught up in stiff language and legalese and ending up not sounding like themselves.    Today, the cofounders of 37signals, Jason Fried and David...

Customer relationships don't have to last forever. Keeping your hands wrapped around every customer will only lead to trying to evolve into something you're not is the death knell for your business.    Today, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson discuss the idea that you should let your customers outgrow you from their book, Rework .    Show Notes:    [00:32] - Why evolving as your c...

"Getting out of estimates and getting into appetites and budgets is the single most important thing that we have instituted," - David Heinemeier Hansson    Today, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founders of 37signals, discuss their chapter in Rework on why estimating is not the road to completing projects and what has helped them get things done in their business for ove...

There's a lot of talk in the tech world about getting bigger, growing as fast as you can, and getting investor money so you can scale quickly.    But that's not the only path. And recently, we've seen that being bigger only sometimes works well for companies.    Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the Co-founders of 37signals, discuss the bigger is better culture in tech and w...

Throughout its tenure, 37signals has consistently grown without spending much on marketing.   How'd the company do this? By out-teaching their competition.    Recently, they've begun sharing their thoughts on company decisions and even doing product walkthroughs on their YouTube channel.    Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the Co-founders of 37signals, discuss the true value of...

Meetups offer remote companies an opportunity to gather away from the day-to-day for more in-depth conversations that foster deeper relationships for the team and bigger leaps for the company.    At the beginning of October, sixty 37signals employees met up in Amsterdam for the first company-wide meetup outside the U.S.   Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the Co-founders of 37signals, disc...

Co-founders of 37signals, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson discuss decision making within an organization. Small businesses have the advantage of being nimble and able to change course quickly, so there's no reason to get caught up in the "what ifs."  Show Notes: 0:47 – Avoiding overthinking and overcomplicating issues 1:47 – Getting rid of the "what ifs" 4:30 – Ma...

David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founder of 37signals, and Eron Nicholson, Director of Operations, discuss why 37signals is making the move away from the cloud. Show Notes: David's piece, Why We're Leaving the Cloud 0:59 - 37signals history with on-premise and cloud storage 8:26 - How cloud solutions don't necessary reduce operations teams costs 10:58 - What types of companies are the b...

You've been working on a thing for days, weeks, maybe months and you're still nowhere near finishing. Our natural instinct is to say, "I've already put this much time and energy into it, might as well finish." Well, most of the time this is wrong. You're not getting that time back either way and usually the better option is just to quit!

Building and maintaining momentum is one of the most underrated things you can do when building products. Keep moving forward by shipping work early and often. The longer something takes, the less likely it is you'll finish it. At 37signals, we work in six-week cycles, but even six weeks is a long time, so pepper in some easy, quick wins to keep that momentum going. Show Notes 01:23 - The Six...

At 37signals, we tend to solve problems by finding a "judo solution." The simplest, easiest, cheapest solution that gets you 90% of the way there. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be great. It just has to be good enough. Part of this is reframing and simplifying the problem itself. And, remember, you can always turn "good enough" into "great&quot...

Meetings are the worst type of interruption. A one-hour meeting with five people is actually five hours of productivity lost. They're also horrible at conveying information. So, why do so many companies jump to meetings as the first option. Next time try writing something up, jumping on a a one-on-one call, or just skip the whole thing altogether! Show Notes 00:37 - Why work doesn't happ...

A close look at how we develop features at 37signals. Designer Michelle Harjani walks Shaun through the entire process of making the Bubble Up Feature in HEY. Show Notes 00:42 - Michelle Harjani (Twitter) 00:59 - Bubble Up 01:28 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up) 01:38 - Set Aside 02:56 - Team and project sizes (Shape Up) 03:26 - Cool-down (Shape Up) 05:04 - Fat marker sketches (Shape Up) 05:32 - The Be...

Having a calendar peppered with meetings or other commitments is horrible for productivity. Most people need at least a few hours or even days of completely uninterrupted alone time in order to do their best work. On this episode Jason and David give some strategies for creating the empty space you need to be productive. Show Notes 14:56 - Slack 16:25 - Automatic Check-ins: Keep everyone in the kn...

Are you doing work that matters or are you just doing what you think you should be doing? Sinking too much time into something that you should have quit working on weeks ago is an easy trap to fall into. Avoid it by asking yourself some simple questions: Why are you doing this? What problem are you solving? Is this actually useful? Are you adding value? Will this change behavior? Is there an easie...

Simply describing your pitch can cause the illusion of agreement. Everyone may have a completely different idea of what you're talking about. Try sketching it out, hum the melody you want to create, or, better yet, start building the thing. Removing these levels of abstraction ensures everyone is on the same page. Show Notes 00:34 - Getting Real 02:31 - Agile software development (Wikipedia)...

If you had to launch your thing in just two weeks what would you cut out? Put off anything you don't absolutely need for launch. You can always build that stuff later when you have more information. It's best to just get it out there! Show Notes 05:06 - The Screener 07:22 - HEY World

Henry Ford turned wood scraps from Model T production into charcoal. That company is now called Kingsford and it's the leading manufacturer of charcoal in America. 37signals was a small web design firm before it started selling the project management tool it made to communicate with clients. That's now called Basecamp. No matter what you make, you're always making something else as...