Book · 2019
Shape Up
Shape Up by Ryan Singer has been mentioned in 2 episodes across 1 podcast (2 episodes recommend it and 0 episodes discuss it), through . Most frequently brought up by Bob Moesta (1 episode), Lenny Rachitsky (1 episode) and Ryan Singer (1 episode) on Lenny's Podcast (2 episodes).
- episodes
- 2
- podcast
- 1
- people
- 3
- episodes recommend it
- 2
Shape Up by Ryan Singer, it's phenomenal.
Questions about Shape Up by Ryan Singer
Who recommends Shape Up by Ryan Singer on podcasts?
Bob Moesta (1 episode) and Lenny Rachitsky (1 episode) have recommended Shape Up by Ryan Singer on podcasts. In all, 3 people brought it up across 1 podcast (2 people recommended it).
Which podcasts mention Shape Up the most?
Lenny's Podcast (2 episodes).
Is Shape Up recommended, or only discussed?
Shape Up by Ryan Singer was recommended in 2 episodes and discussed without a recommendation in 0 episodes, as of 2025-03-30.
What do people say about Shape Up?
Bob Moesta on Lenny's Podcast (2023-08-24): "Shape Up by Ryan Singer, it's phenomenal."
When was Shape Up last mentioned on a podcast?
Shape Up by Ryan Singer was last discussed on Lenny's Podcast by Ryan Singer on 2025-03-30.
What they say about it
- Discussing book impact“hearing more and more”2
The best things said about it
If they want to actually implement it they can get the book and dive in.
You know I mean the book came out in 2019 and uh it's just I've been hearing more and more like oh we we know somebody who's trying it or we're hearing it when we go talk to other companies.
I know you have a whole book about like how to actually do this.
In the Shape Up world you have a single idea that was shaped.
Why people recommend it
Shape Up by Ryan Singer is a product management book that outlines Basecamp's alternative methodology for planning, building, and shipping software within fixed time frames. On Lenny's Podcast, the book was discussed across multiple episodes, including a dedicated appearance by creator Ryan Singer in March 2025 and an earlier recommendation by Bob Moesta in August 2023. Bob named Shape Up as one of the books he recommends most often, calling it phenomenal. Lenny Rachitsky similarly advised listeners to grab the book or work with Ryan if they wanted to implement the method. During the conversation, Ryan discussed the growing word-of-mouth interest since the book's 2019 release and addressed the questions and gaps readers encounter when trying to apply its principles outside of Basecamp. He explained core concepts like shaping work to fit a fixed time budget by varying scope, and warned against the dangers of merely cutting scope when projects go off track. Lenny also asked Ryan to summarize how the approach differs from conventional product development methods.
Every mention
Bob Moesta what are two or three books that you've recommended most to other people Shape Up by Ryan Singer it's pheno… 1
“what are two or three books that you've recommended most to other people Shape Up by Ryan Singer it's phenomenal the other book”
Lenny Rachitsky and obviously if they want to actually implement it they can get the book and dive in or work with you whic… 1
“but can you just give like a very short over overarching summary of how Shape Up is different from how other product approaches are”
“because clearly that is so core to this working and I know you have a whole book about like how to actually do this so we're not going to answer all the questions”
“and obviously if they want to actually implement it they can get the book and dive in or work with you which will Point people to say someone's like this is awesome I want to do this”
“uh one question I wanted to ask is Jason was tweeting that there's he's working on a a follow-up shape of book what's happening there are you involved in that what's the story so I also saw the tweet and uh I have to admit I was a little surprised”
Ryan Singer you know we can't just like cut the scope and say oh well now we manage to ship inside of six weeks that's… 1
“you know I mean the book came out in 2019 and uh it's just I've been hearing more and more like oh we we know somebody who's trying it or we're hearing it when we go talk to other companies”
“there are a lot of questions that are coming in my way because honestly there are so few teams that are structured just like base camp that there are a lot of gaps in the book of like well what about this and what about that”
“that was really kind of the seedling I mean actually that continued over years and years and years those sessions and that's the seedling of of this word in the book shaping”
“so this is kind of this uh this second piece is is this work that we call shaping and the shaping work is how do we actually take this fixed amount of time that we've given ourselves and Vary the scope how do we come up with a idea”
“you know we can't just like cut the scope and say oh well now we manage to ship inside of six weeks that's going to kill everybody's morale everyone’s going to feel disappointed and we're going to feel like this wasn't really worthwhile”
“by the way it's so seductive because we can imagine you know oh you know Parkinson's law right if you give me six weeks to do the landing page I'll find a way to use it but if you give me two weeks you know then I'll stop after two weeks”
“and and that's a that's a it's a different kind of work we in in shaping in real life we call it you know we actually teach it is doing live shaping sessions and uh this was how I did it for years with Jason”
“the output of the shaping session is so and by the way about shaping session you know let's maybe we can talk a little bit about what shaping is not you know because um we need the contrast sometimes so very often when people try shape up”
“I'll use the example of the calendar from the book so what is a calendar you know so first of all there was this work that we had to do before we could even shape it which is like can we actually narrow down this problem”
“and you know one other thing that I would mention is that um we can't be drawing figma files it by the way I'm I'm I'm I'm being very mean to to to figma you know so far in this conversation there is a time right when when it's the right time for the figma file”
“so the key difference uh is two things so in scrum you have you have a person who's not the builders um making tickets and this is what in you know in the in the cruel picture is the paper shredder in in the Shape Up world you have a single idea that was shaped”
“maybe a sec collaborating on the second edition could make sense but what I understood was that what he wanted to do was to kind of make an updated version of how of how they work because that's always been kind of a big thing”
“this is this is what base camp is doing so hopefully it'll be kind of a cool thing to look at as like here's a model of what they're doing and then the question is what can I take from that”
Other mentions (5: passing, ad reads, own books)
“Ryan was one of the first few hires at 37 signals and and through his experience of building Base Cam and a 17 years of building products at 37 signals he wrote a book called shape up which shares a very different approach to building software”
“well I mean that came as a surprise to me you know uh I mean when I wrote the book I had been in base camp at that time I think 15 years and uh uh I actually didn't even know the outside world”
“and then so for example like on the book you know on the it's it says Shape Up and there's a base camp logo on the bottom not a 37 signals logo you know but then they since uh went back uh uh so it's 37 signals again”
“where can folks find the book find you if they want to work with you anything else that you want to share and how can listeners be useful to you”
“and if you go to basecamp.com shapeup you can read the book it's free you can also get a print version if you want shapeup is our methodology for for actually building products”