
How we structure our work and teams at Basecamp - becewumuy
https://m.signalvnoise.com/how-we-set-up-our-work-cbce3d3d9cae#.lvp8eimw3
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thedoops
Fantastic article. I find the idea of cycles being pretty core to this. Jason
mentioned it in more detail in a comment below, but the fact a stakeholder
can't sway an ongoing project until its cycle is finished is huge.

I work on a small team building IT and IS infrastructure for a very sales-
oriented business. Stakeholders are always throwing in a new twist at what
feels like the most inopportune times. If we could tell them we'll consider it
on the next formalized cycle that would be huge for preventing redirections.
Stakeholders may not acknowledge it themselves, but they care less about what
gets done and more about when. Closing that feedback loop we always be more
effective than feature creeping a project into oblivion.

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mattei
The concept of large and small pieces of work, and having developers rotate
between them in naturally forming teams I found to be excellent for morale and
hence productivity.

Also once a cycle is locked in, it's _rarely_ adjusted. And no timesheets.

Really basic things that IMO Basecamp is doing a great job advocating for in
an industry that still needs it.

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zackkitzmiller
It's strange to me that all projects have a designer and the designer leads
the project management.

~~~
erikpukinskis
Why? Design (in the ideal) is about making things actually achieve the outcome
they are supposed to. It subsumes all other product work.

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combatentropy
Ever since Getting Real
([https://gettingreal.37signals.com/](https://gettingreal.37signals.com/))
I've agreed with practically everything Jason Fried has ever said. Wish there
were more CEOs like him.

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dbg31415
Is it 2005 again?

Someone please remind me how Basecamp is relevant?

It's a closed system that doesn't play nicely integrating with anything
else... near as I know still doesn't have a Kanban board... or file
versions... and search is still pretty terrifying.

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dangoor
I found the article to be an interesting look into an approach to project
management at a small, successful software product shop.

You may not find Basecamp relevant, but they still offer a service that people
pay for 10+ years after they started. How many of the Kanban board-based
project management tools that exist today will still be around in 10 years?

~~~
dbg31415
Their strategy...

TL;DR: They dig in like ticks with marketing folks and saddle everyone else
with dated and inefficient tools. The make integrations next to impossible,
exports messy, and seemingly strive to fracture teams by providing duplicate
services to tools like Slack, Asana, JIRA, GitHub... etc... that all do
everything Basecamp does, but better, AND also offer integrations so all your
teams can play nice and work seamlessly. Basecamp is cancer. I'd be surprised
if they're still around in 10 years if they don't open their platform up and
make it easy to swap components in and out of their closed system.

If a team already has Slack, or Skype, or Flowdock, or HipChat, or Fleep... or
any of the other 200 chat tools... now with one instance of Basecamp introduce
to a team they also have to check that system for messages from the one team
that uses Basecamp in their company. Not even sure you can turn that feature
off... but it's inefficient to not have integrations. "One-solution-fits-all"
is dead, open APIs and modular tools lead to happy teams.

~~~
sgslo
Do you consider yourself to be an empathic person, able to understand their
needs? I sincerely hope not. The inability of tech-focused people like
yourself to understand that the group of people really give a ____about the
latest tools is astounding.

While there are thousands of companies who want an open, modular system, there
are tens of thousands more who could care less about what an 'API' is, what an
'integration' is, or getting fancy SAAS tool A to work with fancy SAAS tool B.

These companies only care about how a tool can help them run a better
business, and for that, they're going to look for a single solution that does
everything they want. They absolutely will _not_ be looking for 5 tools they
can string together to make some Frankenstein 'solution'. And hat's off to
them for that, the sooner they realize their business is not a special
snowflake the better.

~~~
dbg31415
Through contracting, I've been exposed to just about every tool, and
combination of tools out there over the last 20+ year as a project / product
manager.

Basecamp is cancer. There isn't a team around that wouldn't be better off on
Asana, or GitHub + ZenHub, or Atlasssian, or Trello... or anything else.

Would gladly dedicate 5 hours per week in training people on alternatives for
free, if it meant I never had to go into a client's office who used Basecamp.
The amount of busy work and slop and inefficiency it allows... I get people
are blind to better options, but seriously spent a few hours researching and
trying the tools. A stitch in time saves nine... measure twice, cut once...

Please compare it to using other tools and see for yourself.

~~~
dasmoth
>>> The amount of busy work and slop and inefficiency it allows...

(Disclaimer: I've not used it in a business setting, but do roughly know my
way around because we have a "family Basecamp" for some projects)

Have you considered the possibility that something that allows for a bit of
"slop and inefficiency" might make for a more pleasant, and perhaps even a
more productive, working environment than neo-Taylorist perfection does? I'm
not actually 100% sold on the product myself, but the way it's pitched (e.g.
"Work can wait") is pretty refreshing in the contemporary marketplace.

