Ryan Singer
- Hands-On Product Leader
- Creator of Shape Up
- 20+ Years Design, Code, Execution
- Former Head of Strategy at 37signals
What I Do
Bring product to life
Got a clear opportunity, but struggling with execution? I drive product improvements from concept to release. I work with clients who have a clear view of strategy, but struggle to align product and engineering to make it happen. My strength is boiling a complex problem down to a crisp concept, then working with engineers to get it built.
Level up your shapers
When you want to establish a Shape Up-style workflow, there can be challenges transitioning your team to the new way. In a three-hour shaping session, I work with your team on a real project so they see what "good" looks like and reflect on the differences to what they did before.
Crack UI/UX problems
When growth depends on nailing the experience, you may be limited by designers who are strong on visuals but aren't thinking it through end-to-end. In a three-hour shaping session, I ask your SMEs the right questions to pull out what matters and crack the problem live on the whiteboard.
Shape Up
I wrote Shape Up in 2019 to formalize how we did product development over my 17 years at 37signals.
Shape Up is a way of working that creates more alignment with stakeholders, gives build teams more clarity about what to do, and replaces time-wasting rituals with more self-management.
Interview on Lenny's Podcast
Shaping in Real Life
The book describes how I did product development at 37signals, which is an unusual company. The engineers were all senior and product-minded, every designer wrote code, and the only stakeholders were two hands-on founders.
The reality at most companies is different. Shaping in Real Life collects my experiences helping a variety of real-world teams successfully adopt a Shape Up-style workflow.
I first taught Shaping in Real Life as an online course. Now I'm sharing the material more widely as a series of articles and videos.
A case study showing what Shape Up looks like on real-world teams today