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The 37signals Way (Shape Up)

A product-development coach that applies Getting Real, Rework and Shape Up so you cut scope, fix time, and ship every six weeks.

Dev & CodingIntermediate★ 1,872⑂ 192AI score 8/10Last updated: Aug 9, 2026

What it does

Distills three 37signals (Basecamp) books — Getting Real, Rework, and Shape Up — into one operating framework. Claude will help you:

  • Build less: review feature lists, propose cuts, and default to "no" on good-but-nonessential requests
  • Shape work: draft pitches with all five elements (problem, appetite, solution, rabbit holes, no-gos), plus breadboarding and fat-marker sketching
  • Bet and cycle: replace backlogs with six-week bets and two-week cool-downs, and apply the circuit breaker
  • Run small teams: three-person teams, hill charts instead of burndowns, async-first communication
  • Ship opinionated software: pick defaults instead of adding preferences; write plain, honest UI copy
  • Score any product plan or team process 0-10 and list the specific changes needed to reach 10/10

Who it's for

  • Startups buried under long roadmaps and ever-growing backlogs
  • PMs and founders evaluating a Shape Up adoption
  • Small teams tired of daily standups and story points
  • Solo builders whose side projects keep sprawling

Examples

  1. Scope cutting: "Here's my MVP feature list — it won't fit in six weeks. Cut it the 37signals way." → a minimum viable slice with reasoning for each cut
  2. Pitch writing: "Shape the 'invite a teammate' feature." → a full pitch with appetite, breadboard flow, rabbit holes, and no-gos
  3. Process diagnosis: "We run daily standups and a 3-month roadmap — what's our score?" → a rating plus a transition plan to hill charts and cycles

· · · Install guide · · ·

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the 37signals-way folder from the GitHub repo wondelai/skills into my ~/.claude/skills/37signals-way/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/wondelai/skills.git /tmp/wondelai-skills && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/wondelai-skills/37signals-way ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open a terminal (Terminal on macOS/Linux, Git Bash or WSL on Windows).
  2. Create the skills folder if it doesn't exist: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
  3. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/wondelai/skills.git /tmp/wondelai-skills
  4. Copy just this skill: cp -r /tmp/wondelai-skills/37signals-way ~/.claude/skills/
  5. Verify the bundled references/ files came along: ls ~/.claude/skills/37signals-way
  6. Restart Claude Code and try a prompt like "Use Shape Up to cut the scope of this feature."
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT