# Product Development
We follow the product development practices set forth in "Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters" only we use Monday.com instead of Basecamp. "Shape Up" is required reading for anyone involved in product development. Ideally, everyone in the organization should read through Part 1.
Additional development related principles:
# Start working on Minimum Viable Changes
The first thing to consider is to start working on smaller pieces of functionality. Instead of minimum viable products or minimum viable features, start thinking in terms of Minimum Viable Changes.
# Benefits of shipping smaller for organizations
- More in line with expectations and needs of stakeholders
- Easier to coordinate and to reason about
- Frequent interactions gather more information
- Quicker to respond to market need
- Higher predictability
# Benefits of shipping smaller for developers
- Prevents overshooting needs and gold plating
- Higher code review quality
- Easier to troubleshoot a small release
- Less time between idea and feedback gives more sense of progress
- Quicker feedback allows you to bind the request and the work to the result
- Faster feedback increases motivation
| Tired | Wired |
|---|---|
| Deploy infrequently | Deploy frequently (if it hurts, do it more often in small doses) |
| Multiple changes | Single changes (able to link problems to changes quickly) |
| Deploy in weekend | Deploy on peak times (prioritize finding problems quickly) |
| Human integration testing | Automated integration testing (test everything) |
# FAQ
What is the wrong way?
Long software development cycles where epics, sprints and story points are the focus.
What is the correct way?
Shortening the cycle to get an idea into production to bring value to customers as soon as possible.
What is the benefit to engineers?
Engineers will get to ship more often and see changes in production sooner.
What is the benefit to managers?
Managers can focus on the immediate most important changes that need to happen.