Total transparency

What It Covers

37signals cofounders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson explain their approach to radical business transparency, sharing work-in-progress designs, code, and company decisions publicly without legal approval.

Key Questions Answered

• •Chef philosophy for sharing: Companies should emulate chefs who publish complete recipes without fearing competition, recognizing that sharing blueprints attracts attention and customers rather than enabling competitors to replicate success.
• •Work-in-progress documentation: Recording and sharing unfinished designs, code reviews, and problem-solving processes in real-time provides more authentic learning value than polished retrospectives where details get misremembered or sanitized.
• •Timing over content restrictions: The main regret from years of transparency was announcing their no-politics policy too quickly after internal communication in 2021, not the decision itself—suggesting brief delays matter more than censoring information.