Book review: Getting Real
Posted on August 17th, 2009 by Shane Gill – 3 Comments
37signals is one of those companies that you have to love. They’re a small business making kick ass web apps. They emanate a “no-bullshit” culture and give back bigtime. In fact, you can read this book for free (yes, the whole thing absolutely free) at http://gettingreal.37signals.com/.
Getting Real is a guide to creating a great software company with an emphasis on web development. It covers a huge range of topics including (but not limited to) hiring, marketing, design, development and productivity. It gives practical and philosophical advice so you come to understand the foundation of 37signals and then discover how to take action. It is one of the easiest reads ever (2-4 hours) so I would recommend you stop reading this dribble and get the book.
| Book: | Getting Real |
| Author: | 37signals |
| Binary Review: | 1 |
I believe the philosophy of 37signals is equally important for your person as it is for your company. You will not be able to apply a philosophy to your company that you are not living day to day. In the words of Ghandi, “Be the change you seek.” With that in mind, here is what 37signals stands for:
- keep it simple
- embrace change
- live within your means
Still reading? Get the damn book.
Keep it simple
“Do what is simple and leave the nasty problems to everyone else.”
The temptation is to pack as many features into a product as possible because more features = more value, right? Wrong. I count over 220 buttons in the latest version of Microsoft Word of which about 30 I actually use. How much time are you wasting on meetings, paperwork, code, testing, tweaking and marketing by creating features for the sake of features?
Embrace change
“Evolve on a day-to-day basis.”
How can 5 brains beat 90,000 brains? Surely 5 brains can not resist the nanoprobes of the hivemind. The answer? I couldn’t put it better:
Nimble, agile, less-mass businesses can quickly change their entire business model, product, feature set and marketing message. They can make mistakes and fix them quickly. They can change their priorities, product mix and focus. And, most importantly, they can change their minds. (pg 32)
The only thing that allows small business to compete with big business is it’s capacity for change. While big business is waiting for orders to filter through the ranks, small business has already attacked.
Live within your means
“Constraints lead to creativity and force your ideas into the wild.”
Living within your means goes hand in hand with keeping it simple. The more you have, the more you need. Got a car? Need a mechanic, petrol, parking, licence. Got a new product? Need more staff, more infrastructure, more funding. Instead of yearning for more, think about what you can do with what you have. Focusing on what you have instead of what you don’t have forces you to be creative.
There are a million (ok, about a hundred) really good hints and techniques in the book for accomplishing the above. A selection for your enjoyment:
- build software for yourself: solve your own problem
- begin with the interface and work backwards from there
- it’s better to make half a product than a half-assed product
- hire quick learning generalists over specialists
- beta is a cop out and passes the buck to your customers
Thanks for reading. Check out 37signals for an exciting company and don’t forget you can read the book at http://gettingreal.37signals.com/.
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This book both excites and angers me. I finished it today.
Lots of small, bite sized ideas that will resonate with a specific type of person. Lots of things that are very useful for interface driven applications, but less useful for the behind the scenes work (which is understandable, being that the book is on web development).
It slots in quite nicely with the Pragmatic Programmer way of thinking, doing only what is necessary, when it’s necessary, and not overloading yourself with too much of anything. Automating or skipping tasks when possible and so on.
Some points I liked:
Don’t let the customer force you into adding features that aren’t necessary, control your own development, and control your features. Say “no” or “not now” when you have to.
Develop simple software that focuses on being good at what it does, not being everything to everyone.
Simplify by making decisions and assumptions for your customers.
Alone time, where people aren’t allowed to talk or communicate or email or anything, just work.
Make your company and your software stand for something, have a vision that people can get involved in.
Some points I didn’t like:
Don’t write functional specifications.
No mention of documentation or maintenance by people who aren’t the original developers.
Toxic meetings. Meetings have a value when used efficiently and effectively.
Anyway, at least it was a quick read.
See this commentary here about 7 Things You SHOULD Copy from 37signals for further discussions.
In simple terms, my view is that you can only get to “average” by copying people - though in some cases (e.g. where we are below average) that will certainly be a start. The really remarkable companies are ones that create new ways of doing things (or repurpose old methods).
So “steal ideas shamelessly”, wherever you find them, but make sure you constantly think about how it fits with your particular business.