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 - 10x Developer (Techopedia)
• 06:52 - Tesla
• 11:02 - Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim and Renée a. Mauborgne (Bookshop.org)
• 13:49 - Setting the appetite (Shape Up)

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 - Big Design Up Front (Wikipedia)
• 11:27 - Ruby on Rails
• 14:48 - Gantt chart (Wikipedia)
• 17:17 - Highrise
• 17:52 - Know Your Team
• 20:03 - We Work Remotely
• 20:32 - Sortfolio

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

• 06:33 - Disagree and commit (Wikipedia)
• 07:37 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up)
• 15:13 - HEY World
• 18:19 - Performance indicator (Wikipedia)
• 18:29 - The Tyranny of Metrics - Jerry Z. Muller
• 19:14 - Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky
• 20:41 - Gary Vaynerchuk
• 20:51 - What's the ROI of your mother (garyvaynerchuk.com)

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 (Shape Up)
• 07:17 - On the Origin of the iPhone (Daring Fireball)
• 10:21 - "Getting Real" design tip: Just say no to Lorem Ipsum (Signal vs Noise)
• 12:15 - Why are we likely to continue with an investment even if it would be rational to give it up? (The Decision Lab)
• 12:16 - Why do we value items more if they belong to us? (The Decision Lab)
• 13:12 - Test-driven development (Wikipedia)
• 18:31 - basecamp.com/customers

When starting something new, you can work on the stuff you could do, the stuff you want to do, and the stuff you have to do. It's the stuff you have to do is where you should begin. To find that epicenter ask yourself, "if I took this one thing away, would what I'm selling still exist."

Show Notes

• 06:07 - Highrise
• 08:23 - Salesforce
• 15:32 - Is Your Product a 'Vitamin' or 'Painkiller?' - Entrepreneur
• 16:12 - The Screener

You can't do everything you want to do and do it well. You just don't have the time, resources, people, etc., so you're going to have to cut some things. But, this isn't a bad thing at all! As with any other early constraints, embrace the editing process. Your product will be better off for it!

Show Notes

• 02:08 - tilted
• 05:56 - Jonas Downey
• 06:31 - Ryan Singer
• 06:33 - Matthew Linderman (Matt Ruby)
• 08:49 - The HEY Cover Art Gallery
• 10:50 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up)
• 15:28 - A Review Of The Minimum Viable Product Approach (Forbes)
• 17:09 - HEY Features
• 17:23 - The Screener
• 19:04 - Getting Real (YouTube)
• 21:13 - The "Building of Basecamp" Workshop (37signals)

When you're just starting off you're going to be surrounded by constraints. You probably won't have enough time to do everything you want to do. You probably don't have enough people or money either. Don't worry! These are good things! It's when you're boxed in that you're forced to make tough decisions on what to do and what not to do. This results in a clearer, more streamlined product. Embrace those constraints!

Show Notes

• 04:06 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up)
• 08:23 - Ruby on Rails
• 11:09 - SharePoint
• 11:12 - Microsoft Project
• 12:55 - Backpack
• 12:57 - Campfire
• 13:00 - Highrise
• 16:31 - Duke Nukem Forever (Wikipedia)
• 17:00 - Doom (Wikipedia)
• 18:24 - Shape Up

Businesses can get weighed down by things like excess staff, countless meetings, long-term contracts, etc. The more mass they take on the harder it is change direction. Being able to change direction, to change your mind, is essential to building a successful company.

Show Notes

• 07:20 - Newton's laws of motion (Wikipedia)
• 20:34 - Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders - L. David Marquet (Bookshop.org)
• 21:35 - Hire managers of one (Signal v. Noise)

A lot of people start businesses with the hope that they'll be able to sell it quickly for a huge pile of money. While this might happen sometimes, it's extremely rare and even worse, the businesses created with this goal sacrifice so much just for the chance to sell. They sacrifice their customers, their employees, their product quality... You get the idea. It's like building a house that only looks good in pictures, but you certainly wouldn't want to live in it.

Show Notes

• 03:10  - The Imbox: It's not a typo
• 17:38 - Basecamp 3 Uptime
• 22:04 - Mojito island is a mirage (Signal v. Noise)
• 23:21 - Why 37signals Refocused on a Single Product: Basecamp (Inc.)
• 23:49 - Groundhog Day (IMDb)
• 25:52 - Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Bookshop.org)