What questions do you have for 37signals? Fire away and we’ll do our best to answer in the comments.
Note: We can’t guarantee we’ll answer everything (sometimes we just don’t know and there’s some info we can’t share). Also, we’re a private company and we do not disclose revenues, profits, or investment details. Sorry.
FYI, here are some of the good questions we answered last time we did this:
Can you share some times when you bought items for the business or office that, looking back, were either silly or were purchased too soon?
How did you seek out the talent/team that is 37signals?
You guys are mostly known for your interfaces, but how much do you believe your copywriting skills have to do with your success?
What thoughts or difficulties have you had with Rails and serving situations to handle the amount of requests that you do?
What are some of the books that you find yourself re-reading, or books that helped shape your perspective?
Check out the comments on that post for the answers to these and more questions.
OT
on 11 Jul 07Is the recipe for becoming well known and respected “just” making good software/products? Or are there other important factors?
simplegeek
on 11 Jul 07Please publish your booklist—a recommended book list from each of the 37signal’s employee. Thanks.
Luke
on 11 Jul 07I will be transitioning into a teaching position (middle and high school) in a month, and I am curious as to what fundamental principles, or general knowledge, in the areas of web design and development/programming you think are either lacking or need emphasis in younger students’ computer educations?
ID
on 11 Jul 07Can you please name people, ideas, books, companies, magazines & etc that you admire?
Jim
on 11 Jul 07How long is your average work day?
ML
on 11 Jul 07Some previously published 37signals book recommendations:
“Notes on the Synthesis of Form” by Christopher Alexander, “The Nature of Order – Book 2” by Christopher Alexander, and “Cognitive Linguistics – An introduction” by David Lee (Ryan), Benjamin Franklin’s “The Way to Wealth” (Jason), “Designing Visual Interfaces” by Kevin Mullet and Darrell Sano and “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug (Jason), and “On Writing” by Stephen King (Matt).
Raymond Brigleb
on 11 Jul 07Before Basecamp, and all of your other web-based software, you were known for your interface design (and a fine printed book). In fact, you had quite a portfolio on the site for a while!
Two questions, technically. One, at one point you were working on an interface for a Basecamp-like system with another design firm (Coudal?). What ever happened to that? What did you learn from that experience.
Two, and more broadly: How much do you feel that Basecamp, and your subsequent products, benefitted from cutting your teeth on those client interface design experiences? In particular, you were for a time known for your one-page $2500 redesigns. Did such rapid-fire work on a wide variety of jobs help you to learn faster than others?
Raymond Brigleb
on 11 Jul 07SiteRope. That’s what it was called. A “Project management UI” at a “Private extranet site.” Anything ever happen with that?
jgwong
on 11 Jul 07If one were to create an ecosystem/environment to breed the members of a company like yours, what do you think are the key ingredients?
Joe Fritz
on 11 Jul 07I was curious about the initial stages you take in developing a project. It would be nice to see a post with sketches, flowcharts you’ve made, etc. that led up to the release of one of your products. I guess this really isn’t a question, but a request for a future blog post… Thanks!
JF
on 11 Jul 07Joe: We don’t do flowcharts, diagrams, or wireframes. Our sketches look like this.
djd
on 11 Jul 07How do you draw the line between doing it yourself vs. hiring it out? I’m thinking specifically about your marketing and PR. It seems like a lot of the efforts (copyrighting on the website, Basecamp videos, email marketing) you guys handle on your own, but have you worked with outside firms that specialize in this kind of thing as well?
I often struggle with the line between setting up our own Adwords / marketing campaigns, and focusing on making our products better.
Kandace
on 11 Jul 07At some point I believe you listed the tools you used to help publish Getting Real (for instance, the trick to getting the purchaser’s name on each PDF, and the technologies involved in that). We’re thinking of publishing a book in a similar fashion, using 37signals as our inspiration. Could you point us to that post?
djd
on 11 Jul 07Also… and perhaps easier to answer…
Who has an iPhone and what do you think and the industrial and UI design?
Szymon
on 11 Jul 07What other company needs to do if it wants their service to be listed on Basecamp Extras page besides using Basecamp integration? ;)
Joel Wilson
on 11 Jul 07What inspires you to build the products you do? Frustration? Boredom?
ML
on 11 Jul 07Is the recipe for becoming well known and respected “just” making good software/products? Or are there other important factors?
Being good is the first step. But it doesn’t stop there. You have to get the word out. If a tree falls in the forest and no one blogs about it…
Also, continued success comes from viewing a web app as a never ending process. You don’t just make something good and walk away. You have to constantly tweak and improve.
How much do you feel that Basecamp, and your subsequent products, benefitted from cutting your teeth on those client interface design experiences?
We learned a ton during this period, especially about UI and the importance of putting yourself in the customer’s shoes.
How do you draw the line between doing it yourself vs. hiring it out?
We almost always do it ourselves. Unless it’s something out of our scope, like the video editing/production for our Basecamp Customer Videos (done by Coudal).
Who has an iPhone and what do you think and the industrial and UI design?
An iPhone review is coming soon.
JF
on 11 Jul 07Kandace: We wrote the book in Writeboard, designed the layout in InDesign, and wrote our own store to sell the book.
aw
on 11 Jul 07What apps/tools do you guys use (outside of the beautiful 37Signals suite)?
aw
on 11 Jul 07What blogs do you guys read?
mo
on 11 Jul 07How come there no women @ 37 Signals?
timmy
on 11 Jul 07What’s playing on your ipod?
Jeff
on 11 Jul 07How many hours do you guys normally put into a normal work week?
JF
on 11 Jul 07How come there no women @ 37signals?
We don’t consider gender/race/religion when hiring. We hire the most qualified person we can find. If that’s a women, we’ll hire her. If that’s a man, we’re hire him. Barely any women have ever applied for a position at 37signals.
Walter Davis
on 11 Jul 07How do you manage the system announcements in Basecamp? The ones where you can hide them, and they go away forever… I can tell it’s a per-user thing, not a cookie, but I would like to do something similar and I wondered what your logical model was like for that feature.
Craig
on 11 Jul 07When are the new awesomeness coming to backpack?
Anson
on 11 Jul 07Blogging questions…
When you started this blog I’m sure there was some genuine excitement in getting your thoughts out there regardless of the commercial benefit. Do you still feel this way? To what extent is maintaining this blog a chore? For example, you’re really in the zone on product design yet you need to take time out to make sure the blog stays fresh. Is this a hassle? Do you think companies these days (or more specifically internet startups) should put more thought into the decision to have a blog? That is, blogs obviously have a downside if they’re not kept up to date or well written.
BTW, you don’t need to answer each point. A general answer is fine…
JF
on 11 Jul 07What other company needs to do if it wants their service to be listed on Basecamp Extras page besides using Basecamp integration?
Just let us know about it. We’ll take a look and likely post it to the Extras page.
Andrew Kasper
on 11 Jul 07What web buzzwords do you hate the most?
JF
on 11 Jul 07Simplegeek: One of my favorite business books is Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace. Truly fascinating and shows that agile principals and new ideas can work in even big slow old companies. It shatters the “That wouldn’t work in our company” myth.
J Bishop
on 11 Jul 07How do you keep track of your billing? Do you use a desktop application like QuickBooks and then enter each customer individually or do you just enter a mass amount for each day/week/month.
perry
on 11 Jul 07How do you guys go about setting up your sys admin UI? How do you decide what you need? How do you integrate new functions later?
Any other admin UI side tips would be great insight!
Thanks!
stirman
on 11 Jul 07What process/apps do you guys use for bug tracking? How does “Getting Real” relate?
Dave Rau
on 11 Jul 07What are the long-term goals of the company right now?
What ever became of the Design Not Found web site? Will it ever be resurrected? It was awesome; bring it back!
At SXSXi this year there was a panel about how products don’t sell themselves and something like 50% of your efforts should be spent on promotion; how do you guys balance promotion?
Other than the Deck; what other advertising paths have you guys traversed and had good luck with?
Aaron
on 11 Jul 071) Since you have created Gig-a-board, what kind of advise could you share how you have (or recommend) gone about finding the right freelance designer, developer, or writer?
2) Other than the continued commintment to SIMPLICITY. What other keys have led to your sucess? For example: Sharing office space with other successful companies like CP?
3) What advise can you give for running a successful design company?
mm
on 11 Jul 07Any chance of integrating a (shared) calendar into basecamp or highrise.
Chris
on 11 Jul 07Many have noticed all the headway with Basecamp and Highrise, yet precious little has been done to improve Backpack in the last year or so. Does this mean that Backpack is on its way out? There are old posts of new stuff coming down the pipe, but they are quite old and nothing has been released since. For us devoted Backpack users, what is the “state of the app”?
Glenn
on 11 Jul 07Can I have your iPhone?
JF
on 11 Jul 07Chris, Backpack is very very alive. You’ll be able to experience the liveliness shortly ;)
We got in trouble for pre-announcing Backpack updates that we couldn’t deliver in the time frame we estimated. So we learned our lesson on pre-announcements. No more pre-announcements until true launch is imminent. That’s why you haven’t heard anything yet.
JF
on 11 Jul 07What are the long-term goals of the company right now?
To build one of the great companies of the next 20 years.
Sean Tierney
on 11 Jul 07Jason Fried: will you please run for President and apply the “Get Real” principles to running this country? I’ll give you JasonFried2008.com if you do.
sean
B
on 11 Jul 07You’ve obviously developed a great company, but I’m curious to know what mistakes you feel you’ve made along the way.
Also, do you guys turn down free beer? I’m fresh out of college, new to Chicago and would love to pick your brains.
Evan
on 11 Jul 07Where do you find the biggest road blocks generally lie in design. For instance, let’s say the design process is as follows: find a problem, idea for solution, sketch, build, test, refine, etc.
If you’re going to scrap a project, or hit an unexpected slowdown, when does it generally happen?
JF
on 11 Jul 07Jason Fried: will you please run for President and apply the “Get Real” principles to running this country?
Ha! I’m not 35.
MI
on 11 Jul 07Sorry, Sean, Jason’s not old enough to be President yet. Maybe in 2012.
JF
on 11 Jul 07At SXSXi this year there was a panel about how products don’t sell themselves and something like 50% of your efforts should be spent on promotion; how do you guys balance promotion?
I don’t see a distinction between running a business and promotion. To me it’s all the same thing. If you’re building something great, and people like what you’re building, and you’re excited about what you’re building, promotion is just something that happens.
Kris
on 11 Jul 07I was driving down Lake Shore Drive the other day, and I wondered to myself where the tech hub of the city is.
Do the guys that live in Chicago live in the on the North side, West suburbs, South side, or downtown, etc., with other techies? And are Feedburner, Threadless, etc., close to your office?
Sean
on 11 Jul 07How much time do you devote to your craft (i.e. programmer, designer, infrastructure guru) on a given day?
For example: Do you come home after a long day developing in Rails to work on a personal Rails project, or do you get some exercise and read a fiction book?
Bill P
on 11 Jul 07Have you cdonsidered packaging up & selling the video of your past Getting Real/Building of Basecamp seminars?
Baz
on 11 Jul 07What gives you the fear?
Dave Rau
on 11 Jul 07“I don’t see a distinction between running a business and promotion.”
Well, I agree to an extent; but surely you can’t just create something and expect it to thrive without doing some explicit self-promotion. Maybe it’s easier to do this with web-based software as opposed to selling a physical product (like a book, tshirts, a new ipod accessory, etc) these things can’t just thrive on their own merit, can they? Isn’t some promotion necessary and good?
You guys run ads on the Deck; that’s not “just something that happens” right? I guess I’m trying to get some insight about being more proactive about self promotion without being overly focused on it. Doing nothing but creating seems like a harder way to sell something.
Markus
on 11 Jul 07Hi, I see that you at 37signals are very happy Apple customers. But , as you know, Ubuntu Linux is rapidly gaining market share on the desktop also (Linux is already a winner on the servers). I work in a web design/development studio in Europe and recently some of us have installed Ubuntu on their laptops. We’re using Ubuntu for surfing the web and for coding (Ruby, Python, XHTML, CSS, etc.). I have to say that, after some hacks, font rendering on Ubuntu is even better that on mac and the gnome desktop is really beautiful. Moreover there is plenty of text-editors/IDEs for Linux. We are currently using the mac only when Photoshop is required. You can easily see the advantages of our choice: great cost saving on licenses/hardware and the ability to develop on the same platform where we deploy. Does someone use Ubuntu or other Linux distributions on the desktop at 37signals? Did you ever think about a switch (of course for coding activity)?
Jonni
on 11 Jul 07any vision for some sort of ‘mega-dashboard’ that brings together your three big apps? what’s next for you guys?
Rajiv
on 11 Jul 07For fun, how would you go about designing your ideal vision of a home entertainment setup? You decide what that means for you.
My thoughts behind this question: As a product designer, I find I don’t think of digital products and physical ones differently. And at times, I like to think about creating products outside of my experience for fun and (I suppose) to sharpen skills. Do you guys do anything like this?
Chad
on 11 Jul 07Lovin’ Ta-da List on my iPhone. Any plans for creating iPhone versions of your other products?
ML
on 11 Jul 07To what extent is maintaining this blog a chore?...Do you think companies these days (or more specifically internet startups) should put more thought into the decision to have a blog?
The blog is pretty fun to work on actually. We get to say what we think and people listen.
As for other companies, my .02: Don’t put up a blog unless you’re willing to spend time on it and provide value. Otherwise, why bother?
Too busy to post every day? Consider the format at fortuito.us: One really good post per week. Nothing wrong with that.
I guess I’m trying to get some insight about being more proactive about self promotion without being overly focused on it.
One thing I think doesn’t get enough emphasis when it comes to promotion: It takes a persistent, determined, long-term approach.
Everyone wants to build buzz overnight. But when you look carefully at most “overnight” success stories, you find years of hard work building up to that night.
If you’re doing it on your own, it’ll probably be a long slog. Set aside a little time each day. Gain fans one at a time. [Insert sports cliché about taking it one game at a time here.]
What process/apps do you guys use for bug tracking? How does “Getting Real” relate?
All Bugs Are Not Created Equal: Prioritize your bugs (and even ignore some of them) [Getting Real]
Since you have created Gig-a-board, what kind of advise could you share how you have (or recommend) gone about finding the right freelance designer, developer, or writer?
The language used in a lot of help wanted ads is terrible. Speak human and you’ll get real people responding. Speak jargon and you’ll get a line of wannabe bureaucrats outside your door.
Other than the continued commintment to SIMPLICITY . What other keys have led to your sucess? For example: Sharing office space with other successful companies like CP?
The original 37signals manifesto from back in the day will give you insight into what we were thinking back when the company started.
JF
on 11 Jul 07Dave, a big part of our business is sharing what we do and how we do it. That’s how we promote. I don’t know a better way to promote than by sharing and teaching. That’s just something we do everyday by default. It’s as much as part of our business as collecting credit card payments, paying the bills, and keeping the servers up and running, but it’s not something we consciously do or plan specific times to do it. It’s just part of our day every day.
We do take our a few small ads here and there, but they probably drive just a couple percent of our business. The vast majority of all our business comes from word of mouth referrals.
Des Traynor
on 11 Jul 07Awesome, I love it when you guys do this…
1) Your old site has some really good articles (epicenter design, intro to design patterns1 etc), but there is no easy way to get at that good stuff. Also, the images for your 1 page in 7 days service are really good examples of how a group of little changes add up to big excellent changes.
Anyways, I could keep complementing the stuff I find there, but what I want to know is how do I get there without using archive.org or google? It’s good stuff, and I think a lot of your readers would enjoy it. http://www.37signals.com/papers/introtopatterns/
2) Any chance of a list of what you’re subscribed to either individually or as a group?
Thanks for being open.
Des
Giles Bowkett
on 11 Jul 07What are the most important steps for building a kickass, stable, independent business that can prosper even during harsh downturns?
Mike Gowen
on 11 Jul 07Ok, here goes…
I know JF has said in the past that he doesn’t read and blogs on a regular basis, but for the rest of you (or if JF’s habits have changed) what blogs do you read on a regular basis?
What are your favorite web application interfaces of the moment and why? And you can’t list a 37s product :)
Have you considered making a personal finance package? Seems like this niche is screaming for a simple, solid web-based solution. I couldn’t think of a better company to take stab at it.
Do you use any sort of analytics package to track paths of your customers to see first-hand how they are using the product, or do you rely solely on customer feedback? If so, what kinds of things do you look for?
John Topley
on 11 Jul 07Did you ever consider keeping Rails for yourselves and using it as a competitive advantage, or was it always going to be open-sourced?
JF
on 11 Jul 07Have you cdonsidered packaging up & selling the video of your past Getting Real/Building of Basecamp seminars?
Yes, this is something we may consider. We shot video of our last Getting Real workshop with this in mind.
JF
on 11 Jul 07Did you ever consider keeping Rails for yourselves and using it as a competitive advantage, or was it always going to be open-sourced?
We think the competitive advantage was in open-sourcing it, not keeping it to ourselves.
ML
on 11 Jul 07what blogs do you read on a regular basis?
A few blogs I check out (some more than others):
feed://feeds.kottke.org/main
feed://www.subtraction.com/atom.xml
http://radar.oreilly.com/atom.xml
feed://www.simplebits.com/xml/rss.xml
feed://feeds.feedburner.com/airbag
feed://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/?feed=rss2
feed://feeds.feedburner.com/fortuitousblog feed://feeds.feedburner.com/askthewizard feed://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/index.rdf feed://www.cameronmoll.com/atom.xml feed://feeds.feedburner.com/readwriteweb/weekly feed://www.designobserver.com/index.rdf feed://feeds.feedburner.com/threeminds feed://feeds.feedburner.com/guykawasaki/Gypm feed://feeds.feedburner.com/goodexperience feed://www.newsdesigner.com/blog/index.xml http://www.graphpaper.com/feed/ http://swissmiss.typepad.com/weblog/index.rdf
the blog i miss the most: feed://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/index.rdf
Blake Fischer
on 11 Jul 07In Basecamp: Why doesn’t the drop-down of projects appear right under my cursor when I click “Choose a project”? If it did, I could just double-click it and have the listing of projects before my eyes. Currently, I have to click “Choose a project”, figure out what the heck changed, read “Choose a project” again, reorient my cursor, and then click again. Putting the text “Choose a project” in there after I click on…”Choose a project” is completely redundant, pointless, and harmful to the user experience.
Stephen
on 11 Jul 07I am with you on that one – its still in my feed reader in the hope that someday Kathy will bring it back.
qwerty
on 11 Jul 07I find 37’s graphical identity and the graphic design of most 37’s applications nice. Who are your heros in graphic and identity design?
Rob Cameron
on 11 Jul 07What cars does everyone drive? :)
Laurence Veale
on 11 Jul 07Jason,
I work for a company, iQ Content, that does a lot of UI design, usability consulting, stuff that you were doing 4-5 years ago.
You guys flipped from what we currently do, i.e. design services to a product company.
Did you move from a “professional services” company to a “product company” because of the problem in scaling services? Or was it a logical step, like “heck, we know more than most how to design something that works so let’s just go and do it ourselves”.
Was there one point where you guys said “Damn, we’re working too hard for our money, let’s build a scalable product”? And lastly, are you working less or more now than when you were a services company?
Lar
JF
on 11 Jul 07Did you move from a “professional services” company to a “product company” because of the problem in scaling services? Or was it a logical step, like “heck, we know more than most how to design something that works so let’s just go and do it ourselves”.
It’s simpler than that. We didn’t like client work anymore. We liked working on our own stuff. Once our own stuff was able to support our costs we were able to stop doing client work.
Marc
on 11 Jul 07Any chance of a new segment to the 37betters?
JF
on 11 Jul 07What are the most important steps for building a kickass, stable, independent business that can prosper even during harsh downturns?
Keep your overhead low and make sure your product is valuable and useful, not just cool. In a downturn, cool goes away first. Useful is last to lose.
Aditya
on 11 Jul 071. What motivated you to be an entrepreneur? Did you always aim to be an entrepreneur, or did you observe some critical problem and you wanted to solve that problem, or did you get inspired by others and decided to explore entrepreneurship as a career path, or something else than above mentioned?
2. What are the top 3 most important characteristics of yours that made you an entrepreneur? 3 most important attributes of yours, and how did you use those in different scenarios.
3. What are 3 things that you know now but wish you could have knew them when you started your first company? 3 most important skills you lacked that time and what problems you faced because of those.
4. If there is only one piece of advice that an entrepreneur wants to take away, then what would that be?
john
on 11 Jul 07Whats teh best way to go about applying for a job at 37 signals and what do you look for in developers?
Erik Dungan
on 11 Jul 07Is it possible to visit 37s HQ or buy the team lunch? I was in Chicago recently and wanted to see what your workplace is like … but I didn’t want to be a stalker.
Jake
on 11 Jul 07What do you think of activeCollab or the 48th signal?
Diego Lapiduz
on 11 Jul 07How do you promote your products? Also, do you run tests on your product ideas or you just trust yourselfs and drop them to the net?
FredS
on 11 Jul 07Have you heard the new Spoon album? It’s pretty good.
Rick
on 11 Jul 07I am a follower and believer of your philosophies. I have implemented basecamp in my office in the last six months and it has helped me turn my company upside down in a good way.
The question I have is:
How can you apply your agile type philosophies to web applications that are intensely back end driven, and business rule heavy?
It seems to me that most of the sites you guys build for products are more front end and not as heavy on business rules.
I am asking because I would like some tips on how to implement more of your philosophies into my application development.
ML
on 11 Jul 07Have you heard the new Spoon album?
Oddly enough, I just saw Spoon live last night. They’re great.
Curt Mills
on 11 Jul 07Erik, the restraint you show’d was commendable. Be strong.
FJ
on 11 Jul 07Which applications do you use on daily basis?
MS
on 11 Jul 07One of the challenges in starting a business on the web seems to be handle credit-card payments. PayPal integration is easy, but the customer experience is awful; other options seem prohibitively expensive, and/or challenging to integrate.
When you launched Basecamp (that is, before you had a long track record of successful product launches), what’d you use to handling payments/billing?
Do you have any recommendations?
Nathan Jones
on 11 Jul 07How did you go in your search for a Support Manager?
Bruno
on 11 Jul 07How much capital does it take to run a small company like yours?
Can you talk about Jeff Bezos a bit? What’s going on with that?
John
on 11 Jul 07Which player should I pick up for my fantasy baseball squad: Ryan Freel or Rickie Weeks? I desparately need help in the stolen base category, but don’t want to sacrifice batting average in the process. I’m leaning towards Freel since Weeks isn’t leading off for the Brews anymore, but need another opinion. Thanks.
FredS
on 11 Jul 07Ok, now a real question: How much programming/development knowledge do 37s designers have? Just CSS and HTML? JS too? Some Ruby? A lot of Ruby? Just curious.
BM
on 11 Jul 07First, a fundamental Chicago question: Sox or Cubs?
On a serious note now, what are the major obstacles you face as a company working from various locales? Is it just a matter of having to withhold different taxes or is it far more complex than that?
Argo Wibowo
on 11 Jul 07I missed articles on business/entrepreneurship on svn.
Please put more business or project management posts.
Thanks Argo Wibowo
Matt
on 11 Jul 07How do you handle partnership requests? Knowing what is worth looking into and what isn’t? How do you respond?
Steve R.
on 11 Jul 07@Eric Dungan – Invite them to speak at a public forum, and buy drinks and dinner afterward. Worked for me. They’re very cool, but to paraphrase Andy Warhol, “The best party you’ll ever go to is the one where you are the worst guest.”
My question for 37signals – you let interface drive design, understood. Did you ever have trouble with backend stuff (normalizing databases, etc.) when you start ‘front first’ ? If so, how did you approach the problem? Read your book, so if you answered there, just tell me to look on page whatever – I don’t recall siing that.
Thanks!
beto
on 11 Jul 07Any thoughts on David Allen’s GTD philosophy? (Seeing as most of your own approaches share many of GTD’s productivity and time concepts)
Also, are you all Audi/Apple fans, or just Jason is?
rendato
on 11 Jul 07Who of 37signals has a degree in computer science or similar?
JF
on 11 Jul 07Who of 37signals has a degree in computer science or similar?
Only 3 of us have college degrees. I believe 2 are CS degrees.
JF
on 11 Jul 07I find 37’s graphical identity and the graphic design of most 37’s applications nice. Who are your heros in graphic and identity design?
I don’t have any graphic design heros. My design heros are industrial designers or architects. To me those are the real craftsmen.
I’m especially fond of Frank Lloyd Wright these days. I love his approach to architecture.
condor
on 12 Jul 07This may sound negative and its not meant in that light, but why won’t 37Signals become a victim of its success? What are you doing to insure that you are never satisfied or grow complacent with your success, or that you become overly certain (entrenched) about particular ideas that can cause you to ignore new ideas or approaches?
Ryan
on 12 Jul 07Why Chicago?
Jon
on 12 Jul 07You guys advocate that restrictions in technology and products deliver better results. The choice for ruby in this respect seems strange. It is one of the most unrestrictive programming languages. Why the choice for ruby instead of a programming language that restricts the programmer in a sense? (like haskell for example).
MI
on 12 Jul 07Which applications do you use on daily basis?
Here’s a few that I use every day:
Capistrano, Textmate, iTerm, Knox, Firefox, Pyro, Adium, SSH Keychain, Virtue Desktops, Apple Mail, iTunes
MI
on 12 Jul 07You guys advocate that restrictions in technology and products deliver better results. The choice for ruby in this respect seems strange. It is one of the most unrestrictive programming languages.
We’re fans of setting constraints on the scope of a project or application, but we’re not fans of setting restrictions on the environment we have to use to accomplish our goals. Ruby allows us to be as expressive in our code as we are in our design.
We do use languages other than Ruby when they make sense. We have some performance intensive code written in C, for instance. And we use PHP for doing simple server-side include type of tasks in our more static sites.
BB
on 12 Jul 07Are you guys ever going to create 37signals t-shirts? That would be awesome.
Peter Orisan
on 12 Jul 07When you say Backpack will have some ‘liveliness’ shortly – do you mean this year? Next year? 2009?
Harris
on 12 Jul 07You frequently talk about your design decisions, but it’s rather rare that you talk about your code, except to say that you use Ruby on Rails. Why don’t you talk much about your code, and what advice to you have for coders (either backend or frontend)?
JF
on 12 Jul 07When you say Backpack will have some ‘liveliness’ shortly – do you mean this year? Next year? 2009?
Peter, I just explained above that we’re not talking about release dates until we’re certain of a release. When it’s ready you will definitely hear about it.
George
on 12 Jul 07Not sure if you want to reveal the “secret sauce”, but how do you guys do the automatic alerts in Backpack? Is it a C program running on the server? Ruby or Perl running on a page?
B
on 12 Jul 07George, what are “automatic alerts in Backpack”?
Lincoln
on 12 Jul 07How did Jason and DHH first say “lets work together?”. Did Jason know anything of Ruby at that point (as rails was just a twinkle in the eye). Finally, who says the strangest things at work? I would think Marcel based on the things I’ve read on projectionist.
FredS
on 12 Jul 07I think Marcel works elsewhere now, duder.
Dave Dash
on 12 Jul 07How did you do estimates/billing with your clients when you did client work? Did you do fixed bids or hourly rates?
It would seem from reading Getting Real that fixed bids would make more sense so you wouldn’t get stuck on a timeline, but at the same time, you suggest changing scope, because it’s hard to time how long it would take to do things… did you even give estimates?
carlivar
on 12 Jul 07Cubs or White Sox?
E
on 12 Jul 07How does Fusebox stack up to Rails?
Percy
on 12 Jul 07What’s the biggest challenge that you’ve faced with a team that’s spread over different geographical locations?
Phil
on 12 Jul 07Could you post the output of “rake stats” for one of you products? Since you care so much about the details I’d be curious to how much that adds up.
Jonathan Dickinson
on 12 Jul 07How much does the whole experience mean to you?
Neil Wilson
on 12 Jul 07Why do you think the interface to computer systems are still so awful across the industry? Why is saving people’s time valued so little?
What are your thoughts on the emerging ‘Rich Interface’ browser plugins. Isn’t it just Windows/Widgets vs. Terminal Interfaces battle all over again.
ML
on 12 Jul 07How did you do estimates/billing with your clients when you did client work? Did you do fixed bids or hourly rates?
We started out doing fixed bids on projects. After a while we got frustrated when scope kept getting changed so we started to switch more to hourly rates, retainers, and the 37express format.
Cubs or White Sox?
Cubs.
Why do you think the interface to computer systems are still so awful across the industry? Why is saving people’s time valued so little?
One factor I see: Biz types often want to focus on features that sell upfront and short-term profits instead of usability (often only valued after the sale) and long-term relationships. They want to “make their numbers” for this quarter instead of thinking about what’s going to win them a customer for life. I guess our culture kinda validates this thinking by emphasizing shallow glitz instead of actual substance.
Any thoughts on David Allen’s GTD philosophy?
If it works for you, then that’s great. None of us practice it ourselves though.
Are you all Apple fans?
Yes.
Dave
on 12 Jul 07On this blog, why do you make links in the body text of the blog the same color as the text – and have them only reveal as links on mouseover?
Andy T
on 12 Jul 07You have 4 great apps. Why not give the option to access all 4 with one login, and in one location? It’s annoying when we have to login to each app seperately, and it hass prevented us from using 37signals to its full capacity.
Inquiring Mind
on 12 Jul 07Do you guys have 1) a business plan 2) operating agreement 3) marketing plan? Or does that not fit your getting real philosophy?
Keshav Shah
on 12 Jul 07What do you think of Google Gears? Would you use it in any of your apps?
Ben
on 12 Jul 07How do each of you manage your personal wellbeing and how important has a positive mental outlook been in the construction of the company you now own?
What was the hardest moment you had in the history of the signals?
Spitball
on 12 Jul 07You’ve said “I don’t have anything against advertising, but we’ve found better ways to get our message out than spending money on advertisements.”
Any details of surprisingly successful ways to get your message out to those just starting out?
Ro
on 12 Jul 07I assume you guys have had disagreements. Have you ever had a screaming match? About?
Sharing is therapeutic.
niceone
on 12 Jul 07We run a popular website and find that we always have a long list of things to do and never get through them. We have a small team and as usual you tend to have to do a bit of everything (accounts, phones, support, content etc) and at the end of the day find that you haven’t really got to the things you should have.
I am sure you guys have been through the same stages before you could afford to hire extra geeks with the success of your recent web apps….and possibly those problems never go away.
How do you keep on track and focussed? I noticed you said you don’t use GTD so what apps or processes do use use to get things done.
Cory
on 12 Jul 07I am currently building an app that I have geared towards my local area only. I am a 1 person show, doing this entire app in every second of my spare time. What is the one piece of advice that you could give someone like me who is trying to go it alone, while still trying to produce a fun, valuable service to people?
Great work! You guys are an inspiration!
JF
on 12 Jul 07How did Jason and DHH first say “lets work together?”. Did Jason know anything of Ruby at that point (as rails was just a twinkle in the eye).
I posted somewhere (usenet maybe or possibly SvN) asking if someone could give me a hand with some PHP stuff I was working on. I couldn’t figure out how to get the pagination stuff right.
I got a lot of responses, but David’s were the best and most helpful. He also was kind enough to follow up a few times and answer my dumb questions.
Then I decided to hire him to finish the project I was working on. The project was Singlefile, an online book organizing tool. Neither of us had heard of Ruby at this point. We were still working in PHP.
We worked together a few years on a contract basis (David was still in school in Denmark at the time). Then David finished school and we decided to work together full time.
Then in the middle of 2003 I pitched the Basecamp idea. I’d been working on some prototypes, had some sketches, had some HTML mockups, etc. We decided to do it. We were planning on going the PHP route, but David suggested this little known Ruby language. At the time I was hesitant, but I decided to trust David’s judgement and we went with it.
The rest is known history.
JF
on 12 Jul 07You have 4 great apps. Why not give the option to access all 4 with one login, and in one location? It’s annoying when we have to login to each app seperately, and it hass prevented us from using 37signals to its full capacity.
We’re half way there. Highrise and Basecamp support OpenID. Backpack and Campfire will support it shortly.
When you use OpenID on your Basecamp and Highrise accounts you only need to log into one of them to be logged into all of them.
We posted about this a few weeks ago. Highrise was just added to the black bar yesterday.
JF
on 12 Jul 07Do you guys have 1) a business plan 2) operating agreement 3) marketing plan? Or does that not fit your getting real philosophy?
1. No. 2. Yes. An LLC requires an operating agreement. 3. No.
JF
on 12 Jul 07What is the one piece of advice that you could give someone like me who is trying to go it alone, while still trying to produce a fun, valuable service to people?
Your version one should be half a product, not a half-assed product.
The tendency is to think you need to cram everything into your version one because that’s your only chance to make a great impression. If you do that you’ll either 1. never launch, or 2. probably make a terrible impression.
Nail the basics on your first version. There’s always time to add other stuff later.
mid-waltz
on 12 Jul 07Thanks for answering, even if it’s a “big part of your business”. :) Here’s a few questions:
Did you have any kind of business studies? What would you say to a designer/programmer that is starting a business but doesn’t have a clue about business? He’s doomed from the start?
For legal matters, do you think hiring the best lawyers is worth the expenses?
How many hours do guys work a week?
How do you picture the web in 10 years?
How do you picture 37s in 10 years?
Inquiring Mind
on 12 Jul 07Operating agreements aren’t required in all states, but evidentially are in Illinois. Required or not, it’s in the members’ best interest to have one. IMO. Thanks for the response.
balupton
on 12 Jul 07What recommendations would you make to web developers who want to make it big just like you guys did? (besides the stuff you post on this blog of course, which I’m grateful for, so thanks).
And what were the key things that you did in the past that got you to where you are today?
Scott
on 12 Jul 07You share a lot of information via SVN. How much of that is found by curiosity and interests vs random recommendation from the readers of your blogs or users of you products?
On a side note. This “Interviewed by the public” concept is masterful.
ML
on 12 Jul 07You share a lot of information via SVN . How much of that is found by curiosity and interests vs random recommendation from the readers of your blogs or users of you products?
Most of the information is found by us. We give a “[tx john]” type attribute to links that we get from readers or customers.
Gregg
on 12 Jul 07What is the Getting Real approach to vacation time?
Chris Fierer
on 12 Jul 07What kind of admin functionality do you build into your web apps to take care of common customer issues, statistics, etc?
Phil
on 12 Jul 07I’m curious about your average work day. I know you guys don’t work the standard 9-5, but what is an average day like for the guys in Chicago?
Do you find you work later at night, when inspiration strikes, or do you try to maintain some sort of schedule?
briano
on 12 Jul 07can you talk a little bit about how you approach your work/life balance? do you set limits for yourselves? i remember reading something about how robert rodriguez and his wife integrate their work with their life – taking their kids to film sets, constantly filming their kids at home, etc. it’s a natural extension because they love what they do. when you love what you’re doing, it’s tough to take a break. how do you manage the balance?
37 Love!
on 12 Jul 07When can we get 37Signals tshirts? Cmon’ – you know that logo on a black shirt is untouchable.
Benoit Caccinolo
on 12 Jul 07Hi I’m kind of a Rails Hacker and a found of Getting Real. In this book, I like the rule: “Hire your customers”. So, deciding I would develop an application used by the 37’s guys, what application should I develop?
Eric Prugh
on 12 Jul 07What kind of research goes into your interface design? What do you consider to be unique about your approach to UI design?
JF
on 12 Jul 07What kind of research goes into your interface design?
What do you mean by research specifically? I’m not sure how to answer that without knowing what you mean.
Eric Bowman
on 12 Jul 07Did you ever hire anyone for the CUSTOMER SUPPORT POSITION?
Greg
on 12 Jul 07What is the exact name of the Sharpie you use for sketching ? What “real” tools do you use often ?
Thanks
John Clegg
on 12 Jul 07You guys have a number of products and a small team. How do you prioritize the work on your products? (How does Getting Real apply to multiple projects ?)
JF
on 12 Jul 07You guys have a number of products and a small team. How do you prioritize the work on your products? (How does Getting Real apply to multiple projects ?)
There’s no real science behind it. Different people are working on different things all the time. One person usually works on one product at a time. If it’s a bigger update or requires additional expertise then two or three people may pitch in. Sometimes a designer and programmer work together. Other times it may just be a designer and other times just a programmer.
Sometimes some products go untouched for a few months or more. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s often good to let things just be the way they are for a good while. Then we’ll come back armed with a lot of good longer-term feedback and decide what to work on next.
JF
on 12 Jul 07Did you ever hire anyone for the CUSTOMER SUPPORT POSITION
We’re working with someone ON A CONTRACT BASIS right now.
JF
on 12 Jul 07I was driving down Lake Shore Drive the other day, and I wondered to myself where the tech hub of the city is.
We’re not all that involved in the scene, but I wouldn’t say Chicago has a tech hub. There are companies downtown (Feedburner), on the north side (Threadless), somewhere in the middle or a little west (37signals), etc. People are all over the place.
All of the Chicago Signals live in Chicago proper.
Jay
on 12 Jul 07What do you guys think of growing attention on the RIA space? Especially to Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR. Do you see future in there? Does it give whole new edge to traditionally HTML+Javascript in user experience arena?
Scott
on 13 Jul 07Two additional questions:
When the announcement when out that 37Signals was looking for someone to do customer support it was mentioned that each of you would still be involved. Given that 37Signals has developed a very personal relationship with customers and fans, it seems that although this was a business decision, it must have been personal for each of you as well. How hard was it to make the decision to bring in someone as customer support and let go just a little?
Now for a light question. Every personality in a group is different and they all have a swear word or phrase. Mine, regardless of who or what it’s being directed at is “Oh you dumb mother fu*#er. At the risk of being chastised for your response what is yours. DHH can probably sit this one out given the flack he took from one of his posts.
Sean
on 13 Jul 07How important is having a very memorable domain name for a product? Was there much debate on adding the ‘hq’ to the Basecamp url, for example?
Does the domain define the product or is it truly the other way around?
Thank you for this great resource.
JF
on 13 Jul 07How important is having a very memorable domain name for a product? Was there much debate on adding the ‘hq’ to the Basecamp url, for example?
Domain names aren’t important at all. Google.com is the only domain name people need to know these days. They’ll find you there if they can’t find you otherwise.
There was no debate about the “hq” (Basecamp and Highrise) or “now” (Campfire) or “it” (Backpack). We don’t let a domain name get in the way of a great product name.
George
on 13 Jul 07B – In Backpack, you are able to set reminders that can be sent to your email or cell phone. I was just wondering what 37signals used to generate the reminders. Is it a server based program running in the background, checking all alerts every 5 min, or is it something web-based?
Devan
on 13 Jul 07When you decided to switch from client work to your own apps. How did you let you existing clients go? Was it a “thanks but no thanks” letter/email or did you refer them onto other agencies?
As partners in a small firm, how do you handle work/life benefits? I mean in a non-monetary sense, i.e. if one partner wants to take a day off a week, or take a block of time off, or start late/finish late – does that mean the other team members get the same or similar benefit up their sleeve to compensate?
Do you ever stop and say “Wow! I actually AM changing the world” ?
Anonymous Coward
on 13 Jul 07@Jay: See David’s recent post, What if I actually like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript?
Jay
on 13 Jul 07Yep, saw about DHH post. But I would also like to hear from JF about his thoughts as well. JF, if you care to share your thoughts?
JF
on 13 Jul 07When you decided to switch from client work to your own apps. How did you let you existing clients go? Was it a “thanks but no thanks” letter/email or did you refer them onto other agencies?
We finished the projects we had and then and then just stopped taking on new work. Our client relationships were usually one-offs. We’d do a project and then the client would go their own way. We didn’t do maintenance or hosting or anything like that.
JF
on 13 Jul 07Yep, saw about DHH post. But I would also like to hear from JF about his thoughts as well. JF, if you care to share your thoughts?
At this time I’m not a big believer in the RIA movement. I haven’t yet run into a situation where I wished this app or that app was “richer”. In fact, in most situations I wished the apps were leaner, quicker, and more streamlined.
That’s not to say it’s impossible to be leaner, quicker, and more streamlined with the newer generation or RIA tools, but I just don’t see that happening. I see new tools that make things fancier. It’s a pretty common trajectory when something new comes out. Maybe it will settle down eventually. Cool wears off, usefulness never does.
I love the piecemeal nature of HTML/CSS/JS. It’s easy to work with, it encourages simpler solutions, and it’s something that all browsers work with right out of the box.
Salman
on 13 Jul 07When building a web based product, what kind of average page view per visitor do you notice? Does it vary accross products dramatically?
Where are you guys hosted?
Tod Pedler
on 13 Jul 07Despite bringing us RoR and corrupting a legion of Java developers in the wake, are you guys looking/considering/don’t care/ the Adobe AIR runtime for developing deeper integration between Basecamp and the layman’s desktop experience?
Brad Gessler
on 13 Jul 07Do you folks spend all of your time working on the 37sig product lineup or do you do work for other clients? If the latter, how do you balance the two?
Shai Shefer
on 13 Jul 07How do you guys measure stats for your applications? Did you write something to analyze them or just query the DB every time you’re interested in some info?
Career Changer
on 13 Jul 07I’m in my late 30s, with an advanced degree in the social sciences, & looking to move out of academia. I’ve built some sites with html, basic js stuff (form validation, rollovers etc.), & have been getting back into programming (“back” = from apple ii+ days, so gradually getting my head around the whole object-oriented & MVC paradigms) with python & ruby.
My Q is, what do you think the most important skills for someone trying to break into web development are these days? And what do you think employers look at – resume, formal training, portfolio etc.? For someone without formal CS qualifications, what’s the best way to demonstrate competency?
JF
on 13 Jul 07Do you folks spend all of your time working on the 37sig product lineup or do you do work for other clients? If the latter, how do you balance the two?
All of our work is focused on our own products. We don’t do any client work.
Jason Pontius
on 13 Jul 07Do you provide health insurance for your employees outside Chicago? We’re a baby 37s wannabe, with employees in Oakland, Portland, and NYC, and insuring everyone has been a huge PITA. In the end the company is going to reimburse everyone 100% for getting individual plans (which in NYC can run $1800/month).
You guys are a pretty decentrallized company too— have you had any trouble getting group insurance, and if so, have you applied the 37s touch to solving it?
Ben D.
on 13 Jul 07Will the new version of Backpack support the iPhone? That is, will it be possible to edit/delete items without having to rollover?
JF
on 13 Jul 07Jason, we provide health insurance for all full-time employees. We use Blue Cross Blue Shield’s group plan. It’s not cheap, but it’s been great so far. It’s worth spending on.
Sean
on 14 Jul 07I heard about your site on the radio. I would be using your apps except for one thing. My job takes me offsite. A lot. Frequently, I wind up in places that simply have no web or cellular access; occasionally for days at a time. Usually what I wind up with is either radio, the occasional landline, a narrow BW pipe for sending very small emails (no web access) or nothing at all. While I use Plaxo occasionally, I don’t depend on it for this reason alone.
Usually I wind up writing all the various information down (or throwing it in a rtf or .doc) and organizing it later on during the trip or once I return. Needless to say, this takes too much of my time. I have about 100+ different folders on the laptop for different things to throw into Plaxo, Excel or other stuff.
Considering my circumstances, here’s what I would need to use Basecamp, Highrise & Backpack effectively -
1. A widget (like Yahoo or another ‘miniapp’) that would allow me to input the information and save in xml or another format for view and/or edit later with the widget or a text editor.
2. Same widget allows me to automatically sync those files I individually saved into the Basecamp/Highrise/Backpack account once I return to civilization (and internet access).
3. I may need to take some information with me on another trip, but I wouldn’t need the whole database. What I would need to be able to do is save selected files for what I’m doing to the laptop. Then I could edit/view with widget as needed and again, sync up when I get back.
4. Another feature that would be awesome is if I could type something in an RTF format email (like contact info), and be able to send it to a Highrise or Backpack account. Upon receiving it either through subject line or format, the server knows that this is basic information to be incorporated into my database. It would then automatically create and save an entry for that information that I could look at later.
I guess the best comparison is like a PADD (yes I’m a trekkie). I go on my ‘away’ thing and use the ‘PADD’ for what I’m doing at the time. I then upload to the ‘core’ on getting home. Hope that makes sense. Any ideas?
Andy
on 14 Jul 07How can we download or sync our contacts that are in HighRise? Likewise, how do we do so with BaseCamp? Furthermore, if we add a Client in HighRise, must we enter it in BaseCamp too? Those are our only concerns.
Prakash
on 15 Jul 07Which would be the top few catalogs that you guys look at? patagonia? others?
thanks,
Henry
on 15 Jul 07Are you using 17” macbook pro’s or 15.4” macbook pro’s ?
Do you back up your mac’s on a regular basis ?
BradM
on 15 Jul 07“How important is having a very memorable domain name for a product? Was there much debate on adding the ‘hq’ to the Basecamp url, for example?”
I posted a blog article about that!
I guess no one read in :-(
Dhrumil
on 16 Jul 07“Here’s what I would need to use Basecamp, Highrise & Backpack effectively”
Funny statement.
Simon Nielsen
on 16 Jul 071) Kirk or Picard ?
2) Whats you favourite novel ?
MI
on 16 Jul 07Are you using 17” macbook pro’s or 15.4” macbook pro’s ?
Most of us use 15.4” ones, but there is at least one 17”.
Do you back up your mac’s on a regular basis ?
I back mine up every night to an external drive, and everyone else does the same. I’m extra paranoid so I back up to a second external drive once a week. Most of us use SuperDuper for backups.
1) Kirk or Picard ?
Picard.
2) Whats you favourite novel ?
Cryptonomicon, I think. At least today.
Jorge
on 16 Jul 07I’m seriously considering quitting my job. Working there is not interesting or fun anymore so I’m thinking of freelancing for a while. Or maybe I’ll work on my own things, like you guys. Have any of you been freelancers? Any tips?
Antonio
on 17 Jul 07I’ve been sweeping your svn archives and found out this really old post about localization and translation. (Localize This) I’m a freelance designer/developer in Mexico City, but currently I’ve been getting a lot of gigs as IT/Logistics Advisor, at least 90% of the times your products could be a great simple/fast/affordable solution, but the language limitations force me to use other solutions that are less efficient, more complex and way more expensive.
Have you ever consider localization of your products seriously?
David
on 17 Jul 07Do you find daily routines to be a positive productivity booster, or a creativity crusher or something inbetween?
Is there anything that you do in your physical office / home settings to improve productivity?
Aaron
on 17 Jul 07I’m curious what you guys think about this article: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/neveruseawarning
Thanks very much.
Stuart
on 18 Jul 07To what extent do you guys try to make your products/site conform to web standards. For example, HTML 4.01 Strict/ Transitional or XHTML, CSS2, accessibility for impaired users, etc?
JF
on 18 Jul 07Stuart, we do our reasonable best to comply with web standards, but we don’t reload the validator every time we make a change.
There’s plenty of non-standard code that works just fine on all the browsers we support. Plus some of the javascript stuff we do breaks standards, but it doesn’t break browsers.
When things break browsers we take notice, but when they break standards we’re not as concerned.
This discussion is closed.