Have you noticed the sweeping side line/crease cutting through the door handles (or just under the handles) on new cars lately? Cars from Honda, Mercedes, BMW, and now even Smart are sporting the ubiquitous crease.
About Jason Fried
Jason co-founded Basecamp back in 1999. He also co-authored REWORK, the New York Times bestselling book on running a "right-sized" business. Co-founded, co-authored... Can he do anything on his own?
37signals in wood
Jamis, our resident whittler, had some fun with a piece of pine from a branch he found while visiting some relatives in Eugene Oregon.
Question your work
A slide from my South by Southwest presentation:
These are questions we ask each other before, during, and sometimes after we work on something. That something can be as small as a couple-hour project or as big as something that takes a few weeks or more. Either way, it’s important to ask questions like this in order to make sure you’re doing work that matters.
Why are we doing this?
Ever find yourself working on something but you don’t know why? Someone just told you to do this or that? It’s pretty common I think. It’s important to ask yourself (and others) why you’re working on this. What is this for? Who benefits? What’s the motivation behind it? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you better understand the work itself.
What problem are we solving?
What’s the problem? Are customers confused? Are we confused? Is something not clear enough? Was something not possible before? What problem are we solving here? Sometimes when you ask yourself this question you’ll find that you’re solving an imaginary problem. That’s when it’s time to stop and reevaluate what the hell you’re doing.
Is this actually useful?
Are we making something useful or are we just making something? It’s easy to confuse enthusiasm with usefulness. Sometimes it’s fine to play a bit and build something that’s cool, but it’s worth asking yourself if it’s useful too. Cool wears off, useful never does.
Are we adding value?
Adding something is easy, adding value is harder. Is this thing I’m working on actually making the product more valuable for people? Can they get more out of it than they did before? There’s a fine line between adding value and subtracting value. Sometimes adding is subtracting. Too much catsup can ruin the fries. Value is about balance.
Will this change behavior?
Developers have a tendency to add stats to a screen just because they can. Counts, totals, sums, averages. Numbers can look cool, but do they change behavior? Does it matter if someone knows there are 38 of these instead of 42? Does it matter that someone knows it took 0.08 seconds instead of 0.02? Sometimes it might, but it’s important to constantly ask yourself: Will knowing this information change someone’s behavior? Can they do something useful with this information? Will they make a better decision because of this information? If not, pull it out of the interface. Data without purpose is noise.
Is there an easier way?
There are lots of ways to do things, but for simplicity’s sake let’s say there are two primary ways: The easier way and the harder way. The easier way takes 1 unit of time. The harder way takes 10 units of time. Whenever you’re working on the harder way you should ask yourself is there an easier way? You’ll often find that the easier way is more than good enough for now. Most people’s problems are pretty simple — we just imagine they are hard.
What’s the opportunity cost?
What can’t we do because we’re doing this? This is especially important for smaller companies that are more resource constrained. Limited time makes prioritization more important. If we work on feature A can we still do Feature B and C before April? If not, would we rather have B and C instead of A? Is A really worth the opportunity cost? Ask this all the time.
Is it really worth it?
This one should come up all the time. Is what we’re doing really worth it? Is this meeting worth pulling 6 people off their work for an hour? Is it worth pulling an all-nighter tonight or could we just finish it up tomorrow? Is it worth getting all stressed out over a press release from a competitor? Is it really worth spending $1000/week on Google Adwords? Is it really worth…?
The questions listed above are just some of the questions we’re asking ourselves all the time. At the end of the day it’s all about making the right decisions about the right things at the right time. These questions help us get there.
Incredible "Big Dog" robot from Boston Dynamics
Tiny projects keep it new
When do we do our best work? When we’re excited about something. Excitement morphs into motivation. We do our best work when we’re motivated. A great way to stay motivated is to work on something new. No one likes being stuck on a project that never seems to end.
The typical project
The typical project starts out great but then our motivation and interest wanes as time goes on. It’s natural. Staying interested in a project over a long period of time is a challenge for anyone. The longer the project the thinner the tail. You’re not going to do your best work in the tail.
The ideal project
When you break a big project into smaller chunks — into tiny projects — you stand a better chance at maintaining motivation and rekindling interest. When you have a pile of tiny projects you get the chance to work on something new more often. We do our best work when we’re excited about starting something new.
Break problems down to their atomic level
The best way to optimize for new is to break features and projects down to their atomic level. Keep breaking them down until you all you have left are a lot of small project elements instead of a few big project molecules.
For example, we just introduced bulk delete in Highrise. The UI and underpinnings we built for this will eventually (probably) be used for bulk tagging and other bulk actions. But instead of trying to shove all the other potential bulk actions into this release — ultimately turning a one week project into a 4 week project — we decided to just tackle bulk delete first. It took a few days from inception to public launch. Now we can get excited about the next phase since it’s a new tiny project again.
Bottom line: Shatter big projects into little pieces. Finish and launch one piece at a time. Introduce value now. Over time you can recombine these pieces into the one big feature you had planned. Working on, finishing, and launching one little piece at a time will help you stay motivated because you’re always working on something new. Your best work is in the bursts, not in the tails.
[Credit for the waveform concept goes to Jim Coudal]
Web Conferences: Where's the outrage?
Over the past 7 years I’ve probably been to almost every major web industry conference at least once. I can’t remember the last time I saw a good honest disagreeable debate on stage. There’s too much “yeah, totally” and “I definitely agree” and “Absolutely” going around.
Panels of friends
Part of why this happens is that the web design industry as a whole is pretty chummy when it gets together. That’s not a bad thing, but it amplifies the echo chamber.
Another reason why this happens is that when people put panels together they usually put their friends on them. Friends can disagree, but it doesn’t happen in public very often.
Finally, most of the panels I’ve seen aren’t assembled to present three different points of view — they are assembled to present the same point of view in three different ways.
Conferences are meek, Blogs are strong
There’s plenty of debates going on over the web. Take the recent Calcanis vs. Hansson round. And then the recent Norman vs. 37signals exchange. And then there are the savvy provocateurs such as Michael Arrington that suggested 37signals drove a company to the deadpool because we encourage people charge for their products. We didn’t respond on the web, but it would be fun in person.
These back and forths are wonderful. They are passionate, interesting, and heated. People are forced to sharpen their position and everyone learns a thing or two. They expose important discussions and spawn new ones. They also generate a lot of traffic for those involved.
So why does the web have all the good debates? Where are the web conferences pitting two opposing viewpoints on stage? Hearing two passionate points is a great way to reevaluate what you believe. Where’s the web conference called Web Fight Night? I see a big market opportunity.
Any takers?
If anyone wants to set up a conference or special event let us know. We’ll take the side of the “self-funded small business that encourages people to stay away from the VCs, says you don’t need to live in San Francisco to be successful, suggests that charging for your products is a good thing, espouses the advantages of small teams, applauds shorter work weeks with more reasonable hours, rejects the notion of traditional ‘seriousness business stuff,’ and believes keeping it simple is the way to success.”
Campfire fun
Jamis loves digging through numbers and stats and generating interesting reports. One of the most fun is when he writes a script to summarize the Campfire activity in our main “All Talk” room.
Here’s a summary of stuff people have said and done in the room over the past 30 days:
away (said "bb15" or "bbl" or "brb") Ryan Singer :: 32 Jamis Buck :: 26 Mark Imbriaco :: 23 Jason Fried :: 20 Sam Stephenson :: 16 Jeff Hardy :: 16 David Heinemeier Hansson :: 13 Jeremy Kemper :: 13 Sarah Hatter :: 3 Josh Peek :: 2 Matt Linderman :: 1 back (started a message with "back") Jason Fried :: 36 Mark Imbriaco :: 9 Jamis Buck :: 8 Sarah Hatter :: 5 Jeff Hardy :: 4 Jeremy Kemper :: 3 Ryan Singer :: 3 David Heinemeier Hansson :: 2 Josh Peek :: 2 Sam Stephenson :: 2 backpack (mentioned "backpack" or "BP") Jason Fried :: 284 Sarah Hatter :: 144 Jamis Buck :: 126 Mark Imbriaco :: 101 Ryan Singer :: 89 Jeremy Kemper :: 87 Sam Stephenson :: 62 David Heinemeier Hansson :: 60 Matt Linderman :: 40 Jeff Hardy :: 35 Josh Peek :: 3 basecamp (mentioned "basecamp" or "BC") Jason Fried :: 108 Jamis Buck :: 95 Sarah Hatter :: 78 Ryan Singer :: 54 Mark Imbriaco :: 53 David Heinemeier Hansson :: 42 Jeremy Kemper :: 21 Sam Stephenson :: 18 Matt Linderman :: 8 Jeff Hardy :: 3 Twitter :: 1 Josh Peek :: 1Continued…
Why we disagree with Don Norman
Don Norman, an author, professor, and partner at the Nielsen Norman Group, read the Wired article about us and wrote a piece asking, “Why is 37signals so arrogant?”
Hansson said: “I’m not designing… for other people.” I think that simple phrase speaks volumes. Thank goodness most companies recognize that this attitude is deadly.
If 37signals wants to follow this attitude, I think that is fine. I’m pleased that they are enjoying themselves and that their simple applications do indeed meet many people’s simple needs. But I would prefer someone who designed software for other people. If you want a hobby, fine, indulge yourself.
First off, let me say I respect Norman. His book The Design of Everyday Things is a classic. I’ve always admired him and think he’s spot on most of the time.
That said, I think he’s looking at this the wrong way. In fact, most of what he says about us in his piece misses the point.
Continued…iPhone SDK, Apple's Touch Platform, and The Next Two Decades
What we saw today was the spark. The explosion will continue for twenty years. We will all feel the warmth.
What we saw today was the beginning of two-decades of mobile domination by Apple. What Microsoft and Windows was to the desktop, Apple and Touch will be to mobile.
And while mobile platforms have been around for a while, they never really gained passionate traction. Palm sorta had it for a while. Windows Mobile has been getting better. RIM is the current choice for business email on the go.
But just like there were a lot of players in the portable music space, there were no clear leaders. Until Apple came to town.
The same thing is happening today in the mobile space. Palm, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Symbian. They’ve been players, but no one has broken out big. No one has managed to grab both the business and consumer markets like Windows did on the desktop. Until Apple came to town. At least that’s my prediction.
Apple has the superior product, the big momentum, the cool, the lust, the business hooks, the consumer hooks, the customer experience, the interface, the design (interface and industrial), the smooth development environment, the vision.
And, maybe the secret key to it all, they have the commercial platform that makes it possible for a developer to actually sell, distribute, and update their software with the flip of a switch. And don’t forget the customer experience revolution — buying and it-just-works installation of iPhone software will be as one-click easy as buying music from the iTunes store. It’s all wrapped into one beautiful package. A package that only Apple can deliver.
This is brand new big shit. It all started today.
Looking for an iPhone Developer? Post an ad in the new iPhone Developer category on the Job Board.
Come see 37signals at SxSW
If you’re at SxSW this weekend and next week, you can see both Jason and Sam present.
Jason’s 10 Things We’ve Learned at 37signals presentation is at 3:30 pm on Saturday, March 8th in Room A.
Sam’s Secrets of JavaScript Libraries panel is at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, March 11th in Room 9.
We hope to see you there.
Oh, and… After my talk stick around to see Jim Coudal’s A General Theory of Creative Relativity starting at 5 in the same room. It’ll be the perfect way to finish the day.