Forget estimates, start with appetite
June 13, 2025 • #On Shape Up's concept of setting the appetite for a project.
Topic / product
53 posts✦
Conversational Interfaces
May 12, 2025 • #Why conversational interfaces still aren't the right approach for human-computer interaction.
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February 4, 2024 • #
Jason Fried:
A better path is to reflect forward, not backwards. Develop a loose theory while working on what’s next. Appreciate there’s no certainty to be found, and put all your energy into doing better on an upcoming project. But how will you do better next time if you don’t know what went wrong last time? Nothing is guaranteed other than experience. You’ll simply have more time under the curve, and more moments under tension, to perform better moving forward. Internalize as you go, not as you went.
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January 27, 2024 • #
Captain Kirk making the case for “muddling through.”
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January 23, 2024 • #
Ryan Singer calls out the different flavors of “impact”, and the need to be able to articulate the purpose for doing something:
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Noise Factors vs. Control Factors
May 9, 2023 • #Differentiating between factors you can't control and those you can't≥
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Process vs. Practice
May 2, 2023 • #Contrasting methods of building, and when to use divergent or convergent team workflows.
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Simplicity on the Other Side of Complexity
April 21, 2023 • #Make sure your 'simple' solution has first worked through the complex details.
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37signals Live Design Review
March 22, 2023 • #Behind the scenes of a design review process.
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On Validating Product Ideas
January 19, 2023 • #Validating ideas is hard. Some thoughts on trusting your instincts and reducing abstraction for better feedback.
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Chris Spiek and Ryan Singer on Shape Up
September 28, 2022 • #Chris Spiek and Ryan Singer talk about the Shape Up product team process at fintech_devcon.
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Notes on Operating Well
June 27, 2022 • #Thoughts on what it means to be an effective operator, team leader, and product builder
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Framing and Shape Up
May 6, 2022 • #Using 'framing' to define problems and convey why they're worth solving.
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Hard Edges, Soft Middle
January 2, 2022 • #Defining hard objectives with permissive experimentation is the best way to build products.
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Product-led Growth Isn't Incompatible with Sales
September 1, 2021 • #Product-led and sales-driven growth strategies form a positive-sum combo.
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Small Tools for Shaping
July 29, 2021 • #Ryan Singer walks through a recent shaping process.
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On Effectiveness vs. Efficiency
July 26, 2021 • #Should you be focused on being more effective or more efficient? What's the difference?
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The Low-Code IKEA Effect
March 22, 2021 • #How customer participation creates personalization, and increases perceived value.
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Jobs Clubhouse Does
February 23, 2021 • #Looking at Clubhouse through a Jobs-to-Be-Done lens.
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Enterprises Don't Self Serve
December 11, 2020 • #On product-led growth, its benefits, its limitations, and when to transition to sales-led tactics.
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Ben Thompson Interview with John Collison
December 4, 2020 • #An interview with Stripe President John Collison on their launch of Stripe Capital and Stripe Treasury.
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Fulcrum Field Day
November 9, 2020 • #Getting on the ground to see product through the eyes of the end user.
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Notes on Inspired
October 16, 2020 • #Notes from Marty Cagan's Inspired.
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Weekend Reading: Options Over Roadmaps, Ghost, and Spaced Repetition
September 12, 2020 • #Options over roadmaps, Anduril's Ghost, and Roam spaced repetition.
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Go-to-Market Fit
August 10, 2020 • #Measuring for the next stage after you achieve product-market fit.
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Weekend Reading: Quarantine Talks
July 11, 2020 • #A few recent talks I've bookmarked on YouTube.
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Synthetic A Priori
July 9, 2020 • #A new podcast on design and systems thinking from Ryan Singer.
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A Nomenclature for Low-Code Users
July 7, 2020 • #Developing a nomenclature for users of low-code software.
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Fulcrum's Report Builder
July 5, 2020 • #Launching Fulcrum's Report Builder.
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Roam I and Roam E
April 24, 2020 • #A prototype for enhancements to Roam Research.
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The Idea Maze
March 8, 2020 • #A framework for analyzing product ideas by simulating your path through the maze.
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The No-Code Misnomer
March 3, 2020 • #The no-code movement isn't just about the 'code', but also process design and abstraction.
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Continuous Discovery
December 3, 2019 • #Discovery on product isn't something limited to time between sprints, we should do it continuously.
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Balancing Power and Usability
November 18, 2019 • #An essay from the past on the tensions between usability and complexity for power users.
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Don’t Let the Backlog Drive Your Product
November 7, 2019 • #On the danger of backlogs.
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Kevin Kwok on Social Acquisition Loops
October 23, 2019 • #Kevin Kwok's observations on how Superhuman is creating a feedback loop for user acquisition.
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Introducing Fulcrum Views
October 17, 2019 • #✦
What is a Product?
September 29, 2019 • #Marty Cagan's simple definition of what constitutes a thriving product team.
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Weekend Reading: Intellectual Humility, Scoping, and Gboard
August 31, 2019 • #Scoping in product development, intellectual humility in discourse, and Google's team on Gboard predictive typing.
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Writing Shape Up
August 25, 2019 • #✦
Why Complexity Sells
August 20, 2019 • #✦
Weekend Reading: Terrain Mesh, Designing on a Deadline, and Bookshelves
August 17, 2019 • #Real-time terrain mesh with MARTINI, designing Notion using Figma, and @patrickc's bookshelf.
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Shipping the Right Product
August 14, 2019 • #A post from the archives on how we ship product on the Fulcrum team.
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On Retention
July 12, 2019 • #Thoughts on the importance of customer retention and net negative churn in the SaaS business.
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Shape Up
July 11, 2019 • #The new ebook from the Basecamp team on product development.
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Running in Circles
June 27, 2019 • #Basecamp's Ryan Singer on the concept of hill charts.
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Wireframing with Moqups
May 16, 2019 • #Using Moqups to do wireframes.
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Entering Product Development: Geodexy
March 27, 2019 • #A retrospective on the first product I worked on as (de facto) product manager: Geodexy, a predecessor to Fulcrum.
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The VP Product Role
March 26, 2019 • #✦
Launching Annotations
December 13, 2018 • #Shipping photo annotation support in Fulcrum.
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Weekend Reading: Geocomputation, Customers, and Linear Growth
October 13, 2018 • #“Geocomputation with R, listening to customers, and the value of linear growth.”
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A Product Origin Story
September 11, 2018 • #We started building Fulcrum in 2011. 7 years in I look back at how we started and what's changed.
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The Power of the SaaS Business Model
February 1, 2018 • #Some thoughts on SaaS business model advantages, aligning incentives, and predictable revenue.
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