3 ms·

The teaming system seems interesting. But, I just finished going through their book 'Getting Real' and a lot of what they're aiming for in the blog post seems t

by kyro 17y ago

The teaming system seems interesting. But, I just finished going through their book 'Getting Real' and a lot of what they're aiming for in the blog post seems to go somewhat against the principles they outline in the book. In the book, they encourage you to be conservative with feature releases and to be moderately stiff when it comes to changing the product, yet here they're hoping to release at least one feature every two weeks, for one team. Also, this new system seems to depend too much on time constraints, deadlines, and logistics, to where I can see a lot of energy being put to making sure everything runs according to schedule, which could take away from the creative process, let alone ensuring the product is heading in the right direction. Of course, this is all speculation and I'm sure they have guidelines set in place to prevent such things from happening. It all seems interesting anyway, and I'm all for experimenting, so I wish them good luck.

run4yourlives 17y ago
They're growing. This is the part I've been waiting for. :-) A good number of small companies work the "getting real" way, if not overtly, at least by default. As companies grow however, they start to change. One of the most significant part of this change is the formalization of aspects of business. 37Signals is the first company I've seen to adamantly adhere to small company principles, not only embracing them, but expanding them into mantras and guiding principles. Now that they're growing it's going to be interesting to see how well they can stick to their original ideas and how much they adapt into methods that are more similar to what other companies do. The one thing they have going for them is that they're not afraid to try new things. I suppose we'll all just have to watch from a far to see how it all turns out.
oscardelben 17y ago
They are just experimenting. What they wrote in the book is what they used to build the products they currently have. If they are going to discover a better way of working, I think that's awesome, even if they are doing the opposite of what they were preaching before.
jasonfried 17y ago
Every two weeks we'll have something new, but that doesn't always mean new features (in the traditional sense). It might mean polishing up an existing feature. Redesigning how something works. Making this or that easier than it was before. There's endless room for improvement in our products. We hope to produce a steady stream of those improvements this year.

by kyro 17y ago

run4yourlives 17y ago

They're growing. This is the part I've been waiting for. :-) A good number of small companies work the "getting real" way, if not overtly, at least by default. As companies grow however, they start to change. One of the most significant part of this change is the formalization of aspects of business. 37Signals is the first company I've seen to adamantly adhere to small company principles, not only embracing them, but expanding them into mantras and guiding principles. Now that they're growing it's going to be interesting to see how well they can stick to their original ideas and how much they adapt into methods that are more similar to what other companies do. The one thing they have going for them is that they're not afraid to try new things. I suppose we'll all just have to watch from a far to see how it all turns out.

oscardelben 17y ago

They are just experimenting. What they wrote in the book is what they used to build the products they currently have. If they are going to discover a better way of working, I think that's awesome, even if they are doing the opposite of what they were preaching before.

jasonfried 17y ago

Every two weeks we'll have something new, but that doesn't always mean new features (in the traditional sense). It might mean polishing up an existing feature. Redesigning how something works. Making this or that easier than it was before. There's endless room for improvement in our products. We hope to produce a steady stream of those improvements this year.