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.

[patrec]

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.

[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.

[nanaadommills-robertson]

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"!

[canadianwebcreations]

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!

[afiq]

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!

[ContentScientist]

Great Video! I have a request - can you get someone on your team, preferably a Project lead, and walk us through what a PROJECT looks like.

[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?

[ianrobinson]

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

[RoyPetterTorgersen]

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

[shivanadarajah]

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 ?

[Xxlthor]

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

[jollygoodaps]

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

[michaellins]

Very insightful, Jason, thanks for sharing.

[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?

[jaykishandobariya]

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

[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.

[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?

[jankorecky]

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.

[Crawford]

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?