Revisiting the good old days

October 22, 2025

16 min episode · 2 min read

Jason Fried,Kimberly Rhodes

Episode

16 min

Read time

2 min

AI-Generated Summary

Published Dec 25, 2025

Key Takeaways

✓Team structure for multiple products: Small two-person teams (one programmer, one designer) enable 60-person company to run five to six simultaneous product teams without requiring massive headcount growth.
✓Expansion versus contraction cycles: Companies should alternate between focused contraction periods and creative expansion phases based on team energy and capacity, not rigid long-term plans or external pressure to maintain consistency.
✓Idea management philosophy: Write down ideas only for immediate consideration, not future backlogs. New ideas deserve equal consideration regardless of documentation timing, preventing stale roadmaps from blocking better opportunities that emerge later.

What It Covers

Jason Fried explains why 37signals shifted from single-product focus in 2018 to building multiple products simultaneously, including Basecamp, HEY, Fizzy, Campfire, and Writebook today.

Key Questions Answered

•Team structure for multiple products: Small two-person teams (one programmer, one designer) enable 60-person company to run five to six simultaneous product teams without requiring massive headcount growth.
•Expansion versus contraction cycles: Companies should alternate between focused contraction periods and creative expansion phases based on team energy and capacity, not rigid long-term plans or external pressure to maintain consistency.
•Idea management philosophy: Write down ideas only for immediate consideration, not future backlogs. New ideas deserve equal consideration regardless of documentation timing, preventing stale roadmaps from blocking better opportunities that emerge later.

Notable Moment

Fried admits feeling stretched thin while simultaneously preferring that sensation, acknowledging some team members likely think the company tackles too much but maintains it remains energizing without requiring overtime.

Know someone who'd find this useful?