Resetting Our Process: From Bottlenecks to Thoughtful Building
1. Where We’ve Been: A Quick Retrospective
Over the past months, we realized that our existing left-to-right process https://www.notion.so/shapeshift/Shapeshift-Product-Shipping-process-41e1c746536a452291b2391db27868fb?source=copy_link#5cda110ed8e14e6d99067669ae730e68 had turned into a bottleneck and basically doesn’t fit the world we’re living in. The speed of engineering has skyrocketed, which is fantastic, but it meant that the old way of doing things—where product swung the pendulum towards gatekeeping—wasn’t sustainable.
2. What’s Changing: The Initiative Process
https://www.notion.so/shapeshift/Operating-Agreement-process-2026-2e0887c0b7fc800f826fd560be681029?source=copy_link
We’re introducing a new initiative-driven approach. It so happens that Linear has this functionality out the gate which is awesome. This means every Monday isn’t just a product-engineering huddle about esoteric implementation details. Instead, it’s a space where well-defined promising ideas can be discussed and refined. Complete ideas with a business case or a prototype or a working POC take the day, we live reshuffle priorities for the week and open a discussion about why we’re building, for whom, and how to slouch towards more revenue.
We’re aiming to ship AI-enabled first drafts, then polish with expertise to make launch ready features/products. Quality comes through iteration rather than perfect initial specs
Long ago i wrote about the portfolio of bets, we can now iterate on a true portfolio of bets weekly.
If an idea isn’t ready yet, that’s what office hours are for! We’re here to help shape it up so that when it comes to Monday, it’s ready for prime time. I will open office hours on Tuesdays weekly, facilitating initiative scoping.
3. The New Rules of Engagement
We’re setting expectations clearly: No initiatives can exist without a business case or discussions without a working proof of concept. Product and engineering leads will align on priorities, and product will have a stronger accountability in making sure testing and final quality are top-notch. Ultimately, this is about delivering more value to our customers by making the whole process clearer, more collaborative, and more effective.
4. An Optimistic note
We’re not just changing processes for the sake of change. We’re doing this to open the doors for more creativity, more involvement, and ultimately more value delivered to the people who matter most: our users. Let’s build a better, more collaborative future together. These first few revised Mondays won’t be perfect but we’ll work towards a better meeting structure.
Polish project page as an example.
Note the cool bells and whistles, space for multiple projects, and the front page that has updates.
Ideally, when we prioritize and scope something, it has target and end dates that are firm. We can’t keep projects that extend indefinitely, that means we missed the scope and can improve.
