REWORK

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...

Any photographer will tell you it doesn't really matter what camera you use if you know how to take a good picture. So often, businesses obsess over getting a fancy office, the best software or breakroom snacks, when they really should be focusing on getting customers and making money. It doesn't matter what gear you have as long as you know what you're doing. Show Notes 01:45 - Lei...

A lot of companies focus on chasing hot trends or new technology. That's all fine and good, but the core of your business should be built around the things that people will always want. In the case of Basecamp, that means speed, simplicity, and great customer service. For a company like Amazon, it means focusing on fast delivery and easy returns. Customers are going to want these things now ...

When things aren't working, it's human nature to throw more at the problem. More money, more people, more time. However, this usually ends up making the problem bigger. So, do less! Reframe the problem in such a way that it can be solved with fewer people, less money, and without endlessly pushing back deadlines. Show Notes 00:50 - The path to Basecamp 4 (HEY World - Jason Fried) 03:09 -...

Everyone has more ideas than they can realistically fit in a product. A good museum doesn't just throw everything in its collection up on the walls. There's a curation process. Someone says, "no." It's in making these edits that the real product comes out, so embrace it! Show Notes 02:32 - Shape Up 02:37 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up) 07:36 - Stick it to an email (HEY) 10:41...

Basecamp was in Miami last week. I sat down with Jason and David to talk about why we were there, the importance of meeting colleagues in person, and investing in culture.

It's so easy to punt on something; to say, "let's wait until we have enough information to make the perfect decision." Perfect decisions don't exist, putting things off makes them pile up, and you'll end up getting absolutely nowhere. Very few decisions are set in stone. So, make calls as quickly as possible. Don't wait around for the perfect answer. Show Notes 0...

It's incredibly easy to focus too much on the little details of what you're building. You can spend hours and hours on something that will rarely ship with the final product. And, details are important! But, early on is not the time to worry about them. Focus on the basics first and worry about the specifics later. Show Notes 02:14 - Hill Charts (Basecamp) 03:02 - Fat marker sketches (Sh...