Bio

I build products and invent processes for design and development. I've worked on all levels of the software stack, from UI design to back-end programming to strategy. Through over 17 years at Basecamp I designed features used by millions while also inventing the very processes our teams used to design, develop and ship the right things. In 2019, I wrote a book about managing software development: Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters. Widely read by leaders in the industry, Shape Up changed the way many software teams talk about shaping projects, making bets, and targeting unknowns. I'm currently working with a small team to invent the next generation of creative tools for the early stage of engineering and design projects. I reserve a limited amount of time for consulting with founders on their product strategy. I usually hear from people when they're struggling to prioritize among too many options or when they aren't sure how to frame a problem they're facing. About my mentors: Jason Fried honed my intuition for product design through years of working side-by-side. He challenged me to simplify and eliminate until I constantly made choices about what mattered: what to elevate and what to push back, what to include and what to leave out. David Heinemeier Hansson and Basecamp's early core of programmers schooled me in software design practices, especially the art of separating concerns and designing code to be read by the human over the computer. I learned to program in the tradition of people they looked up to, like Kent Beck, Martin Fowler and the Pragmatic Programmers. Bob Moesta, co-creator of the Jobs To Be Done framework with Clayton Christensen, personally trained me in demand-side interview methods, demand-side research and system design techniques. I consider myself lucky to have received insights passed down to him from one of his mentors, Genichi Taguchi, on the role of function and variability in the design of systems and quality measures.