Created by Basecamp, ShapeUp is the method they use to better define and prioritize projects before handing off to teams to build and ship. Some of the items described were basic, but they had a few cool concepts/phrases:

  • Scope Hammering (use it instead of "Cutting") —to reflect the power and force it takes to repeatedly bang the scope so it fits in the decided time box.
  • Breadboarding and fat-marker sketching — to keep the design at the right level of abstraction. Breadboarding is a concept from electrical engineering that has all the components and wiring of a real device but no industrial design. Similarly product folks can sketch and discuss the key components and connections of an idea without specifying a particular visual design. fat-marker sketching is a sketch made with such broad strokes that adding detail is difficult or impossible (so literally use Miro with the widest typo you can find in a constrained - custom - space).
  • Cap on Downside - Projects get a hard cut-off after the cycle has ended. If there's nothing to ship the project gets cancelled. That way the investment (or loss) is "capped" from the start. After it gets cancelled it will get prioritised once more against everything else that needs to be done.
  • And my favourite - the Work is like a hill concept. Basically all work has an Uphill and a Downhill phase - the phase of a task, scope or project where there are still unknowns or unsolved problems (uphill) versus where all unknowns are solved and only execution is left (downhill). Basically you mark the status of the current slice in the hill and you use it to facilitate conversations as to what's the status of the slice of work. The point is you move the dot along the lines the more you know about a piece of work, and should it be that there's no movement for a period of time, then you can clearly see that there's a problem that needs extra help without an individual saying "I don't know how to solve this". Now, i'm not saying to use this as oppose to Jira or any other tasks, but using it from time to time as an extra tool (specially with complex pieces of work) might help the team (not just the individual doing the work) understand the level of uncertainty we are in.

Anyhoo - it’s free for everyone - so if you’ve got nothing to read, give it a try (it’s super straightforward).