Shape Up

What It Is

Shape Up is a product development methodology built on one core insight: you cannot estimate your way to shipping—you must shape your way there.

Traditional approaches ask "How long will this take?" and then try to hit that estimate. Shape Up flips this: decide upfront how much time you're willing to spend (the appetite), then shape a version of the solution that fits within that constraint.

The methodology emerged from 17 years of building Basecamp, where the founding team faced an unusual constraint: their only engineer (DHH) worked just 10 hours per week. This forced extreme clarity about what to build and ruthless scoping to ensure every hour counted.

The key shift: Move from "What's the estimate for this?" to "What version of this can we confidently ship in the time we're willing to spend?"

When to Use It

Use Shape Up when you need to:

• Stop projects from dragging — work that should take weeks is taking months
• Escape the estimate trap — you're tired of estimates that are always wrong
• Give teams real autonomy — not just ticket execution
• Reduce meeting overhead — Scrum rituals are consuming your time
• Ship meaningful chunks — not just incremental tickets
• Align product and engineering — there's a wall between them today
• Maintain startup speed — as you scale past 30-50 people

When Not to Use It

• You're 3 people or fewer — just talk to each other
• There's no real complexity
• You can't get engineering into shaping
• Leadership isn't bought in
• You're doing pure maintenance

Resources

Books:

• Shape Up by Ryan Singer (free at basecamp.com/shapeup)
• Demand-Side Sales 101 by Bob Moesta