Basecamp: How we run Product Strategy using Basecamp

How do we decide what to do? Organize all the ideas? Discuss, review, and choose? We do it all in Basecamp. Here's a tour of our Project Strategy project in Basecamp (with some cameos from other projects too). I hope this gives a nice glimpse of how it all goes down.
Have questions? Please post them in the comments below and I'll do my best to answer. And, if there are enough, maybe I'll do another video showing the answers rather than just typing them.

[@patrec7638]

Nothing adds credibility to a software company more than the fact they actually use their own product daily. I've worked for software companies, where I couldn't use the software itself for my daily activities and it become an exercise in frustration for both end user and the dev team, to understand what they should be working on next. Having never used the product before, this walkthrough helped me understand how I could actually use this tool to replace a load of sporadic platform solutions currently in use. Cheers.

[@37signals]

Amen to that. We build Basecamp for us - and you. We've been using it daily for 18 years to build our company, build our products (Basecamp ad HEY), etc. It's the center of everything we do. -JF

[@ReubenHochstetler]

Very cool. I love how you’re using card tables. Thanks for showing us how you’re using Basecamp. Your point about keeping conversations within context instead of spreading them out over different tools is spot on.

[@afiq980]

So insightful to see how basecamp uses basecamp 😊

[@jennyahansen_]

Thank you so much for sharing this and I am SO excited for the new tables!!!! Keep it up!

[@nanaadommills-robertson7464]

This is dope! Have learnt so much from these videos. One potential suggestion --> having the not now section or all other drop targets update their state to show the lined border as soon as you try and drag an idea. This will be more for newer users to basecamp's products. A visual tell letting them know "Hey you can drop me over here"!

[@canadianwebcreations2356]

This is the Basecamp I've been waiting for. The 'KANBAN' (sp) is something I always wanted in BC, now you've done it to a level that only 37S can do! THANKS!

[@michaellins3499]

Very insightful, Jason, thanks for sharing.

[@jollygoodaps]

Great walk-through! Super inspiring. I love how you are keeping everything in one place and in context.

[@37signals]

Thanks Lars! -JF

[@ianrobinson9802]

Excellent info. Thanks. Looking forward to getting Card Tables. And evangelising Basecamp to anyone who'll listen! ☺

[@37signals]

Thanks Ian! Very much appreciate that.

[@RoyPetterTorgersen]

Loving this! Looking forward to the Shaping tool, I know we'll be using it immediately.

[@37signals]

The tool itself is called Card Table and we're finishing it up for everyone now. Stay tuned! -JF

[@jesseandersen_]

Card Table 😍 Can you explain a bit about the journey of a card from the initial Shaping Ideas area to an actual pitch? Mostly interested in WHERE discussion happens to move that from “Hey, got an idea…” to “That’s interesting, keep fleshing it out” to “Let’s write this up in a pitch”. Where does that back-and-forth dialogue typically happen? In the card itself?

[@jaykishandobariya5428]

The major missing thing is automatic numbering for the cards. It' super helpful for git naming conventions.

[@mischasigtermans]

This looks stunning.

[@37signals]

Thanks Mischa! -JF

[@joshk2598]

Digging the new Card Table feature. I do something similar in Trello. Might be time for a switch!

[@deanwcphillips]

Thanks for this Jason! Really love seeing how you all handle this. What do you do if a cycle’s work finishes early (4 weeks but was in a 6 week cycle)? And do you put the quick-wins in the small batch group or are they just for cool down phase?

[@shivanadarajah7624]

Jason thank you for sharing. A few questions: - How does the team arrive at the appetite and why might that vary from the estimate to complete the work ? - How are the pitches shared across ‘spaces’ ? In your example a core group authors pitches initially within the product strategy board. It seems the lifecycle of a pitch is also then tracked in this space. Is it the same pitch instance that is shared and tracked in the product management board or is it duplicated ? - How did this process work when building a new product like Hey ? I assume there were a number of table stakes capabilities that needed to be in place before the product could go live. Do those go through the same pitch process and cycles or did the team follow a different approach ?

[@Crawford0710]

Really great to see your thoughts and processes here in a real environment. This is really connecting the dots for me from the Shape Up book principles to application. I want more raw videos like this of 37signals using Basecamp to work. Good stuff 👍 What tool are you using for your fat-marker sketches?

[@37signals]

Wonderful, great to hear. I either use paper and scan it (I still prefer the feel of marker on paper to stylus on glass), or use GoodNotes. But it really doesn't matter. Could use a kid's drawing tool - which is exactly the point. Details do not matter at this stage. -JF

[@Crawford0710]

@@37signals Ever thought about introducing 'freestyle drawing' feature directly within the Basecamp Doc?

[@jonatasdp]

It's fantastic to see that you use the product to build itself ☺ I struggled a bit with the vertical writings on the first panels in the dashboard. I guess the brain starts reading a color at some point. As the widgets are almost squared any reason to not keep them stacked horizontally?

[@37signals]

The vertical panes on the dashboard exactly mimic the layout inside the Card Table. Once you're using the tool it all makes sense, and it's nice to see things there same way at the macro and micro level. -JF

[@falmanna]

This is great stuff, but from what I saw, I feel like the context is still separated between many places. Kanban, global chat, and docs. Not sure if there is a way to link these separate things for easier backtracing.

[@jankorecky151]

I would love to see this walkthrough before you had the kanban boards. We are running our own shape up in Basecamp but it is much noisier. Looking forward to the new tool.

[@37signals]

We'd just use to-dos or purely use documents and move them between folders. Ran it like that forever, but with Card Tables it's a whole lot easier. -JF

[@TakiMoore]

Legend! Super useful. ¿ do your other teams (like marketing) do this too?

[@37signals]

Similar, but not quite the same. I'll see if I can have someone else give a tour of those. -JF

[@Crawford0710]

@@37signals 👆this.

[@TakiMoore]

@@37signals thank you!

[@JasperMeurs]

Would be nice!

[@Fearnlea]

Very interesting, thanks for putting this together. Does Basecamp ship with templates to build something like this out of the box, or is it more of a blank canvas? How straightforward is it to put something like this together starting from scratch? I’d certainly be interested in a walkthrough of different examples use cases if you have the time and think it’s worthwhile.

[@37signals]

Great question. This takes just minutes to set up. I'll record another video showing just how quickly you can build out a project like this. And yes, you can create templates for recurring projects. -JF

[@37signals]

Just made another video showing you how to make this project. Super fast, super easy, super powerful in just a minute or so. kzbin.info/www/bejne/maqaYnyfpdOnebs

[@amarillocafe9930]

Can you share with us how your customer support team uses basecamp?

[@patrec7638]

Question or maybe more of a suggestion - would it be possible to perhaps provide a walk through how a company, who is addicted to the rubbish Microsoft products, might possibly use Basecamp (and other tools) to slowly ween themselves off of their reliance of Billy Gates?

[@tigreytigrey8537]

Could you possibly add a PULSATING/GLOWING feature for projects IN ACTION or IN PROGRESS?? I still cannot understand why NONE of these boards have a feature like that to EASILY see what's "in progress" to give it a feeling of LIFE. like a heart beat. That would 100% SELL ME!!

[@jakekushner4927]

Curious how flexible Card Tables are for non-software-dev teams. This is the first feature I've seen in Basecamp that feels not so universal. I can understand having different views for todos, e.g. kanban and timelines which I'm sure I'm not the first user to request, but it feels like this feature may be so opinionated it may not be adaptable for those not following the Shape Up method. I realize the point of the video is about product strategy at Basecamp not this particular feature, but since the cat is out of the bag...

[@37signals]

Wildly. It's workflow - every kind of business has those. Has zero to do with Shape Up - it has everything to do with work that comes in, is considered, and then enters a workflow (or not), and then is completed (or not). -JF