Yesterday, I learned about a very interesting company - 37signals.
37signals is an American software development company founded in 1999 and is well-known for its product Basecamp. The company has attracted significant attention due to its unique working methods, product design philosophy, and streamlined and efficient development model.
On their website, they list the company's 37 core signals:
00 Start here
Welcome! This website is a catalog of ideas — these ideas (signals) drive us. Our best-known products include Basecamp, HEY, and ONCE, and we have also written several books on business and software, including "Getting Real," "REWORK," "REMOTE," "It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work," and "Shape Up." Additionally, we created the Ruby on Rails framework. Click the circle in the lower right corner to continue browsing or explore the numbered list at your leisure. Enjoy!
01 Independent responsibility
We have no investors, no board of directors, and we're not preparing for an exit. We feel a moral obligation to exercise our independence, to do the things that no one would give us permission to do, to try the things that other companies are afraid to try. We don't aim for safe and good. We aim for original and unique.
02 Work is not war
The language of business is full of metaphors from war. Companies "conquer" markets, "capture" mindshare, "target" customers, use sales "forces", hire "headhunters", "beat" competitors, pick "battles", and achieve "killer" results. It's a lousy way to think, and it's something we avoid at all costs. Work is not war, and we come in peace.
03 Small teams
Small teams can do big things, but big teams struggle to handle small things—and often, small teams are more than enough. That's the power of small teams: you only do what needs to be done, and you don't overbuild.
04 Profit motive
The tech industry is especially good at losing money. Growth is exhilarating, but profits are elusive. We go with the Econ 101 approach: spend less than you make. That's why we've been profitable every year. It's a responsible way to reliably take care of customers over the long haul.
05 Bias to action
The tendency to procrastinate, defer, or delay is strong. Don't. Act and move on. Act again if necessary — most decisions are temporary anyway.
06 Every six weeks Shape Up
Shape Up is a methodology we invented to help software teams design, build, and ship great software every six weeks without burning out. Why six weeks? It's long enough to make meaningful progress but short enough to see the finish line from the start. Plus, it gives you about eight chances per year to recalibrate and decide what to do next. We have a free book that explains this method.
07 We don't sell you
It’s often said that if you're not paying for the service, then you are the product being sold. Not here. We don’t sell customer data to anyone or use personal information for targeted advertising. We sell products, and customers pay for them — end of story. Our business model is selling products, not selling you.
08 8/8/8
8 hours for work, 8 hours for life, 8 hours for sleep. That’s a reasonable formula. It’s not just work/life balance — it’s work/life/sleep balance. Lack of sleep isn’t a badge of honor; it’s foolishness — truly. Go read Matthew Walker’s "Why We Sleep." (The core message of this book, which I’ve read, is that sleep must be prioritized.)
09 NOTASAP
The expectation of instant response is everywhere. Real-time everything doesn’t fit with human rhythms, yet it’s how many people work and communicate today. We’re not like that. We think urgency is overrated, and ASAP is poison. Most of the time, real-time isn’t the right time. (I often find myself in an ASAP emergency state, and indeed, more slack is needed.)
10 Fortune 5 million
Many companies are obsessed with competing for the big customers of Fortune 500. That's boring. We focus more on Fortune 5 Million — those small and medium-sized enterprises like us. They are neglected, underserved, and not given enough respect. And we're here to serve them.
11 Don't replicate the office
Work remotely instead of locally separated. Don’t just move the same meetings to Zoom, but reduce the number of meetings. Instead of discussing everything in real-time, adopt asynchronous communication. Instead of always needing to know where everyone is, learn to let go and trust others more. Don’t try to replicate the patterns and symbols of the office — oppose it. We even wrote a book about it.
12 Time is not equal
An hour does not equal an hour. It is a collection of time, and 60 minutes uninterrupted is of higher quality than time split into four 15-minute segments. An undisturbed hour creates high-quality time and work. Cutting the day into small chunks of time to work is a very bad way.
13 Repetition
If you are talking about something novel or unique, you may need to repeat yourself for years before you are truly heard.
14 Meetings are not free
Meetings should be the last resort, not the first choice. A one-hour meeting with five people is not a one-hour meeting, but a five-hour meeting. Is it worth it? Can you simply write it down to solve the problem? Always be aware of the cost and price of meetings.
15 Bury "working yourself to the bone"
Working yourself to the bone, overstraining, and continuous high-intensity work—whatever you call it, we refer to it as "invisible poison." Working nonstop for weeks, months, or even years until you're physically and mentally exhausted is not admirable. Trapping yourself in anxiety about whether you've done "enough" or "done enough yet" is no way to live. Finish your work for the day, shut down that damn computer, and enjoy life properly.
16 The trap of marginal thinking
If you need a machine but don't buy it, eventually you'll find that you've already paid its cost without actually getting it. (From my understanding of the original text he referenced, I think it's talking about the harm of path dependency. Here’s the link to the original article: https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/clayton-christensens-how-will-you-measure-your-life)
17 Political discussions
We respect everyone's right to political expression and social activism, but we steer clear of political debates in our internal communication systems. 37signals will not take public stands on political issues that have nothing to do with our business.
18 Two Responses in Customer Service
When a customer complains, there are always two responses on the table: "No big deal" and "The end of the world." These two options always come up, and whoever picks first forces the other party to pick the opposite. Don't let your customers feel like they're stuck with the "end of the world" response. (https://world.hey.com/jason/no-big-deal-or-the-end-of-the-world-0b0d8619, actually this isn't just for customers; it applies to everything. Not everything has to be black or white—this world is full of gray areas.)
19 Pay people, not addresses
Why do most companies reduce your salary if you move from San Francisco to Nashville? Companies hire people, not postal addresses. The same person produces the same work no matter where they are. Therefore, at 37signals, anyone in the same position gets the same pay—no matter where they live or who they are—anywhere in the world.
20 Small technology
Big technology demands. Big technology surveils. Big technology targets. Big technology squeezes. Big technology dominates. Big technology tramples. Big technology homogenizes. But what we support is small technology.
21 Knowing how to refuse
"Refusal" means saying no to one thing. And "agreement" means saying no to many things. ("No" is no to one thing. "Yes" is no to a lot of things.)
22 Survival company
The world is obsessed with startups, but we prefer to support "sustaining companies" — those that have already proven their worth, clarified their businesses, and are striving for long-term sustainability. Companies that can endure inspire more trust. Longevity is not accidental. We take pride in this, and we are also proud of our upcoming 25th anniversary in 2024. (And we hope our startup can become a stayup.)
Past 23 years
Long-term planning is your past thinking, short-term planning is your current thinking.
24 Unchanging
There's a simple way to ship on time and within budget: stay fixed. Don't add time, budget, or people; just reduce the project scope.
25 Disagree but Commit
Reaching consensus feels good, but we're not after broad agreement—we're after being right. So we'll take the time to think, debate, persuade, listen, and reconsider, and then someone will make the call. If you disagree, that's fine, but once the decision is made, you're all in.
26 Crisis is an Inflection Point
A crisis is an opportunity too precious to waste. Sometimes the very events that seem to hold you back are the forces that push you forward. Adversity helps you grow stronger.
27 Global Perspective
Basecamp and HEY paying customers are in over 160 countries, and our fully remote team is spread across five continents. Our perspective has become increasingly global, and we intentionally avoid relying solely on a single worldview, cultural perspective, or socio-political lens. (It's crucial to remain open and respectful towards different cultures and viewpoints.)
28 Goal Setting
The reason most of us are unhappy much of the time is that we set goals for the person we were when we set them, not for the person we'll be when we get there. (Quoted from Jim Coudal)
29 Embrace the Joy of Missing Out (JOMO), not the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
Did you see it? Have you heard about it? What do you think? Can you believe it? Oh my god, that tweet! Have you read that article? Have you watched that video? Are you done with season two yet? Too much FOMO (fear of missing out). We'd rather celebrate JOMO - the joy of missing out. Missing out on trivial stuff makes life better. (The mindset shift from FOMO to JOMO, FOMO is just the psychological mechanism of loss aversion amplifying our assessment of the importance of what we miss.)
30 Communication misunderstanding issues
Companies don't have communication problems, only misunderstanding problems. The smaller a company, team, or group is, the less likely misunderstandings will occur. As Osmo Wiio said: "If communication can fail, it will. If a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in the most destructive way."
31 "Easy," right?
The word "easy" is often used to describe someone else's work. Don't easily assume that something you're unfamiliar with or don't do often is "easy." Is it fair to call your own work "easy"?
32 Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails was born here. It's a free, open-source framework that powers robust platforms like Shopify, Coinbase, GitHub, Airbnb, Kickstarter, Square, Twitch, Basecamp, and HEY. In fact, Basecamp was the first application built on Ruby on Rails. Rails has fueled tens of thousands of programming careers and helped many companies reach millions of users and valuations in the billions.
33 Plans are guesses
Planning is guessing. The longer the plan, the less accurate the guess. Substitute weeks for years. A three-year plan? Make it a three-week plan. A ten-year plan? Make it a ten-week plan. Plan more frequently, not less. The closer the plan is to the present, the more accurate it will be.
34 Sleep on it
At the end of the day, you might think you've done great work, but the truth may reveal itself the next morning. Even if you're sure, it's best to sleep on it before making a decision.
35 A company is not a family
When a company says it's a family, it's actually asking for employees' full dedication—whether it's nights, weekends, or doing anything for the "family." However, great companies are not fake families but allies of real ones. They don't invade personal time, don't ask employees to be online during vacations, and don't require them to work overtime on Sundays for a Monday meeting. (This is something we haven't done well, which is related to our strategic direction choice—it's hard to make money easily.)
36 Context over consistency
Following a fixed pattern can be comforting, but in design, we believe that designing based on the current context is better than merely pursuing past consistency. (Recently, I came across a model called the Markov chain: a mathematical model in statistics and probability theory that describes a series of events where the transition from one state to another depends only on the current state, not on the past states. This "memoryless property" or "Markov property" is the core characteristic of Markov chains.)
37 37signals The origin of the name
Humans have been analyzing radio waves from outer space to look for extraterrestrial intelligence. Since the start of this analysis, almost all signal sources have been identified. However, 37 signals remain unexplained.
Each company has its own philosophy. If a company's philosophy can align well with its business and the company consistently adheres to it, continuously upgrading and optimizing it as the business progresses over time, then a philosophy that fits itself is always the best.