How Shape Up enables Remote Empowered Product Teams (and Why I Disagree with Marty Cagan)
Marty Cagan has been vocal in his books and online about his belief in co-locating empowered product teams. While I respect him and am fundamentally thankful for everything he shares on empowered product teams, I disagree with him on this precise aspect.
First, I understand why he takes this position. Many managers who haven’t seen a robust remote culture in action assume it’s impossible, pushing for a return to the office policy. They’ve been burned by their remote experiences—and not without reason. In year 4, after COVID-19, most organizations have failed at remote work.
Strong remote teams are possible, and Shape Up is the framework that makes it happen. Created by 37signals, a fully remote company, Shape Up provides the tools and structure for remote, empowered product teams to thrive.
Shaping sessions are crucial to making remote work. These sessions bring together the senior product team—product, engineering, and design—to collaboratively shape features at a high level. There are no endless Figma screens thrown over the wall to the developers or detailed tickets; there are just tools like breadboarding and fat marker sketches to shape ideas quickly and effectively without going into too much detail too early. (Small, autonomous teams of designers + developers then figure out the details.)
