- What's the right level of detail when shaping?I get this question all the time. Look at whatever doc you're making in the shaping phase (eg a "pitch" per the book or something else) and ask yourself: What am I trying to do with this doc? Am trying to get approval w…
Ryan Singer
Author of Shape Up; formerly head of strategy at Basecamp, where he worked on product design for seventeen years; now runs Felt Presence.
Ryan Singer did not write this page. What is this?
It collects the places they publish and what they have said there, each linked to the source. They have no account here. Is this you? Claim it, correct it, or ask us to remove it from ppll.
Where they publish
Blog ryansinger.co Posts on shaping, product design and how teams decide what to build.
Recent
- What's the right level of detail when shaping? 6 Feb 2026 I get this question all the time. Look at whatever doc you're making in the shaping phase (eg a "pitch" per the book or something else) and ask yourself: What am I trying to do with this doc? Am trying to get approval w…
- End-To-End with Shape Up: A Real-World Case Study 18 Nov 2025 Here's a new case study, showing a project end-to-end. It's about 30 minutes, and you'll see every step from choosing the initial idea through framing, shaping, and building. Pay special attention to how different roles…
- Common Pitfalls When Adopting Shape Up (and How to Avoid Them) 28 Oct 2025 I see some common pitfalls when people try to do Shape Up "by the book." There are things in the book that are Basecamp-specific or often misunderstood, and teams who successfully adopt Shape Up route around them.
Show 12 more
- When engineers say "that'll take months!" 17 Apr 2025 Igor writes: "Our product is 15 years old, with a lot of legacy code and outdated technologies. Our engineers say that the minimum time they need to ship anything of real value (not just small things) is about three mon…
- Not everyone needs to be talking to customers 18 Nov 2024 On relying on each others' expertise instead of trying to pull everyone into the same work.
- We did all this discovery... now how do we decide? 12 Nov 2024 On how to weigh the impact when we've gathered too many inputs to choose from.
- Bootstrap the Conversation Presentation 7 Sept 2024 Here's the PDF file of the presentation to download. PDF of the "Bootstrap the Conversation" Presentation bootstrap presentation model.pdf 454 KB download-circle
- Shaping in Real Life, Cohort 6 16 Jul 2024 We're excited to announce the sixth (wow!) cohort of Shaping in Real Life, coming in October. I like to keep in touch with our alumni. Last week I talked to a senior PM from our previous cohort who just got promoted to…
- What's the unit of impact? 7 Jan 2024 Different moments in the company call for green-lighting different projects. What counts as "impactful" depends on what we're trying to do.
- The cost of not shaping 11 Dec 2023 A founder came to me with questions about his team's results adopting Shape Up. Some projects were knockouts. They got exactly what they wanted done, when they wanted it done. But other projects dragged on, stuck at the…
- Shaping isn't writing 25 Aug 2023 It's not filling out a template or creating a document. It's getting to that "a-ha" moment together where the parts crystalize and we have something that will work. (Plus an example of how messy a real shaping session l…
- Three "what about...?" questions when considering Shape Up 16 Aug 2023 Questions about roadmaps, betting at the last minute, iterations, and how shipping what we intended is like driving a car.
- Step change 14 Jul 2023 The recent wave of layoffs reveals something tricky about the notion of "empowered" product teams. There's a missing ingredient that seems to separate the teams who get cut from the teams who survive.
- Room Mapping Template 5 Jul 2023 Here is the Excalidraw template for mapping time spent in different rooms. Time mapping template Time mapping template.excalidraw 446 KB download-circle
- La Product Conf, Paris 5 Jul 2023 La Product Conf shared the video from my recent talk in Paris: "Scaling Shape Up Beyond Bootstrapped Companies."
Link verified 6 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 5 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Over-specifying a design makes it harder to estimate, not easier: the more specific the work, the more hidden complexity a mockup commits the team to.
Over-specifying the design also leads to estimation errors. Counterintuitive as it may seem, the more specific the work is, the harder it can be to estimate.
Shape Up, chapter 2: Principles of Shaping by 10 Jul 2019
Work that is too fine too early commits everyone to the wrong details; shaped work is rough on purpose so designers and programmers can apply their own judgement.
Work that’s too fine, too early commits everyone to the wrong details. Designers and programmers need room to apply their own judgement and expertise when they roll up their sleeves and discover all the real trade-offs that emerge.
Shape Up, chapter 2: Principles of Shaping by 10 Jul 2019
Shaping is primarily design work: the shaped concept is an interaction design seen from the user's perspective, and it takes technical literacy, not programming.
Shaping is primarily design work. The shaped concept is an interaction design viewed from the user’s perspective. It defines what the feature does, how it works, and where it fits into existing flows.
Shape Up, chapter 2: Principles of Shaping by 10 Jul 2019
Show 2 more
Any specific mockup from someone senior biases everyone after them, so early design should be breadboards and fat-marker sketches that leave room for designers.
Regardless of what you say, any specific mockups are going to bias what other people do after you—especially if you’re in a higher position than them. They’ll take every detail in the initial mockups as direction even though you didn’t intend it.
Shape Up, chapter 4: Find the Elements by 10 Jul 2019
Interface copy is an affordance: reading it is an act that gives the user information for what to do next.
We consider interface copy to be an affordance, too. Reading it is an act that gives the user information for subsequent actions.
Shape Up, chapter 4: Find the Elements by 10 Jul 2019
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
6 February
18 November 2025
- End-To-End with Shape Up: A Real-World Case StudyHere's a new case study, showing a project end-to-end. It's about 30 minutes, and you'll see every step from choosing the initial idea through framing, shaping, and building. Pay special attention to how different roles…
28 October 2025
- Common Pitfalls When Adopting Shape Up (and How to Avoid Them)I see some common pitfalls when people try to do Shape Up "by the book." There are things in the book that are Basecamp-specific or often misunderstood, and teams who successfully adopt Shape Up route around them.
17 April 2025
- When engineers say "that'll take months!"Igor writes: "Our product is 15 years old, with a lot of legacy code and outdated technologies. Our engineers say that the minimum time they need to ship anything of real value (not just small things) is about three mon…
18 November 2024
- Not everyone needs to be talking to customersOn relying on each others' expertise instead of trying to pull everyone into the same work.
12 November 2024
- We did all this discovery... now how do we decide?On how to weigh the impact when we've gathered too many inputs to choose from.
7 September 2024
- Bootstrap the Conversation PresentationHere's the PDF file of the presentation to download. PDF of the "Bootstrap the Conversation" Presentation bootstrap presentation model.pdf 454 KB download-circle
16 July 2024
- Shaping in Real Life, Cohort 6We're excited to announce the sixth (wow!) cohort of Shaping in Real Life, coming in October. I like to keep in touch with our alumni. Last week I talked to a senior PM from our previous cohort who just got promoted to…
7 January 2024
- What's the unit of impact?Different moments in the company call for green-lighting different projects. What counts as "impactful" depends on what we're trying to do.
11 December 2023
- The cost of not shapingA founder came to me with questions about his team's results adopting Shape Up. Some projects were knockouts. They got exactly what they wanted done, when they wanted it done. But other projects dragged on, stuck at the…
25 August 2023
- Shaping isn't writingIt's not filling out a template or creating a document. It's getting to that "a-ha" moment together where the parts crystalize and we have something that will work. (Plus an example of how messy a real shaping session l…
16 August 2023
- Three "what about...?" questions when considering Shape UpQuestions about roadmaps, betting at the last minute, iterations, and how shipping what we intended is like driving a car.
14 July 2023
- Step changeThe recent wave of layoffs reveals something tricky about the notion of "empowered" product teams. There's a missing ingredient that seems to separate the teams who get cut from the teams who survive.
5 July 2023
- Room Mapping TemplateHere is the Excalidraw template for mapping time spent in different rooms. Time mapping template Time mapping template.excalidraw 446 KB download-circle
- La Product Conf, ParisLa Product Conf shared the video from my recent talk in Paris: "Scaling Shape Up Beyond Bootstrapped Companies."
10 July 2019
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We consider interface copy to be an affordance, too. Reading it is an act that gives the user information for subsequent actions.
-
Regardless of what you say, any specific mockups are going to bias what other people do after you—especially if you’re in a higher position than them. They’ll take every detail in the initial mockups as direction even though you didn’t intend it.
-
Shaping is primarily design work. The shaped concept is an interaction design viewed from the user’s perspective. It defines what the feature does, how it works, and where it fits into existing flows.
+ 2 more
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Work that’s too fine, too early commits everyone to the wrong details. Designers and programmers need room to apply their own judgement and expertise when they roll up their sleeves and discover all the real trade-offs that emerge.
-
Over-specifying the design also leads to estimation errors. Counterintuitive as it may seem, the more specific the work is, the harder it can be to estimate.
Nothing matches.