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Phase 3: Building ​

Around 80% of the Shape Up Method relates to how to prepare requirements for developers. But there are a few principles that developers should keep in mind as well.

Shape Up is self-organizing, which is why small teams are preferable. Our building teams usually consisted of:

  • backend developer(s) (part-time or full-time participation depends on the task)
  • frontend developer (part-time or full-time participation depends on the task)
  • product designer (who usually participate in few building teams, very activity first 2 weeks and less actively next 4 weeks)
  • QA (optional, join the team at a later stage)

Teams have daily sync or async stand-ups and often got into technical and UI discussions.

Since the Shape Up Method involves a six-week cycle, it is recommended to have a proof of concept within the first or second week. What you should try to do here is take the biggest tasks from your defined scope (or the ones that seem riskiest), explore them, and work on the “happy scenario.”

This approach helps to surface details and edge cases that need to be addressed. Once you know that the solution is doable, you can climb the "hill", leave the “unknown phase” and enter the “known phase.”

Having prepared a comprehensive list of items to complete, you can start prioritizing. If you realize at this point that you won’t have enough time, you can adjust the scope accordingly. You will likely have to make some compromises with respect to technology and UX. This is fine as long as you stay focused on the end goal. The most important thing is to focus on the key objectives even if some details are missing.

Sync status with stakeholders ​

It’s vital to be in touch with the stakeholder of the idea/pitch. Sometimes this means having regular meetings, sometimes it’s enough to ask questions on Slack – You are free to choose any option.

Good practice it to share your work in progress on one of dev-XX servers.

Materials ​

To understand how betting works and what it entails, please read chapters 10–15 of the "Shape Up" book:

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