Streamlining Product Development with the Shape Up Framework

Welcome to our guide on a powerful framework that helps you run multiple product teams seamlessly. In this post, we'll look at a toolset used by top product managers to execute work over a six-week period—with a built-in cooldown—and drive innovation without burning out your team.

Introduction

If you are a product manager, designer, or engineer, you know that managing work across teams can be a challenge. This guide is not about how to select tasks using methods like RICE or ICE. Instead, we focus on what happens after you’ve picked the work to do. We’ll explain how to execute on tasks during a six-week cycle.

My name is Parker Rex, VP of Product at Delivery Dudes—a restaurant delivery service that brings food from top restaurants. Over my seven-year career in product management, I have tried many methodologies. Today, I share a framework I prefer for building products in a more relaxed yet effective way.

A Brief History of Development Methodologies

The world of software development has seen a number of approaches:

• Waterfall: This old method involved heavy up-front planning and long cycles. You had to commit to a plan and stick with it, even if priorities changed.
• Agile: Agile brought quicker cycles. Teams sprint to build, ship, and iterate. Although popular, it can feel like you’re always running on a treadmill, which sometimes leads to burnout and stifles creativity.

These challenges led me to explore a different approach—one that balances continuous delivery with time to breathe.

The Shape Up Framework: A Better Way to Build

Shape Up is a framework developed by Basecamp that combines the best parts of agile with a more relaxed pace. Here are its key features:

1. The Work Cycle

With Shape Up, you work in six-week cycles with two weeks built in for cooling down, reworking, and refactoring. This cycle gives teams time to settle, think, and adjust.

2. Shaping and Pitching

Before diving into development, you need to shape the problem. This means gathering ideas and clearly defining the problem you want to solve. The next step is putting together a pitch—a one-page memo that outlines the problem, the requirements, and your proposed solution. This ensures that any work you start has a solid purpose behind it.

The pitch is not about just building something for the sake of it. It must target a real customer need or business problem.

Implementing Shape Up with Notion

I use Notion as my tool to manage pitches and track work over the six-week cycle. Here’s how you can set it up:

1. Create a New Page or Table:

   Start a new page for each cycle. Create a table with headings such as Name of the Pitch, Tech Lead, Product Lead, Status, Appetite (Time Box), Build Date, and Launch Date.

2. Link Supporting Documents:

   Attach documents and notes that detail the pitch. This serves as your source of truth for what you set out to build.

3. Manage with Weekly Kickoffs:

   On a weekly basis, review the progress of each pitch. Update statuses and tag team members to keep everyone aligned.

This simple setup keeps priorities clear and lets you track progress at a glance.

Giving Your Team Room to Be Creative

One of the best parts of Shape Up is that it allows engineers and designers to be creative. Instead of a strict spec that leaves no room for innovation, the pitch lays out the problem and lets the team explore different solutions.

• Real-World Example 1:

  At Delivery Dudes, one engineer, given the freedom in a hackathon setting, reworked our dispatch tool. In just 15 days, he replaced a major part of our system with a better solution.

• Real-World Example 2:

  At a company known for its social games, an engineer built a simple walking cow during a hackathon. The idea sparked a larger concept that eventually grew into a multi-million-dollar game.

These stories show that when you allow room for creativity and remove strict constraints, amazing innovations can happen.

Why Shape Up Works Better

Compared to traditional agile, Shape Up offers a balanced approach:

• Less Burnout: The built-in cooldown period helps prevent continuous stress.
• Clear Purpose: The pitch process ensures every project solves a real problem.
• Flexibility: Teams have the freedom to innovate while staying within a clear framework.

It’s a method that not only drives productivity but also honors the creative process.

Conclusion

The Shape Up framework is a powerful tool for product managers who oversee multiple teams. By breaking work into six-week cycles with dedicated cooldown periods, it helps your team maintain focus and creativity. Using tools like Notion to manage pitches and track progress makes the process transparent and efficient.

Whether you are a product manager, designer, or engineer, adopting a framework like Shape Up can change the game for your team. For more details, check out the Basecamp documentation linked below and explore additional resources on product management.

If you found this guide helpful, please give the video a like and subscribe for more insights. Happy shaping and building!