Raw ideas Requests or feature ideas that are expressed in words and haven’t been shaped. R&D mode A phase of building a new product where a senior team spikes the core features to define the core architecture. Rabbit hole Part of a project that is too unknown, complex, or open-ended to bet on. Production mode A phase of building a new product where the core architecture is settled and we apply the standard Shape Up process. Pitch A document that presents a shaped project idea for consideration at the betting table. If there isn’t time to do them, they get cut.

Nice-to-haves Task left for the end of the cycle. Must-haves Tasks that must be completed for a scope to be considered done. Level of abstraction The amount of detail we leave in or out when describing a problem or solution. Layer cake A scope of work you can estimate by looking at the surface area of the UI. Imagined tasks Work the teams decide they need to do after just thinking about the project. Iceberg A scope of work where the back-end work is much more complex than the UI or vice versa. Hill chart A diagram showing the status of work on a spectrum from unknown to known to done. Fat marker sketch A sketch of a UI concept at very low fidelity drawn with a thick line. Downhill The phase of a task, scope or project where all unknowns are solved and only execution is left. Discovered tasks Tasks the team discovers they need to do after they start getting involved in the real work.

De-risk Improve the odds of shipping within one cycle by shaping and removing rabbit holes. Cycle A six week period of time where teams work uninterruptedly on shaped projects. Cool-down A two-week break between cycles to do ad-hoc tasks, fix bugs, and hold a betting table. Cleanup mode The last phase of building a new product, where we don’t shape or bet on any particular projects but instead allocate unstructured time to fix whatever is needed before launch. Circuit breaker A risk management technique: Cancel projects that don’t ship in one cycle by default instead of extending them by default. Breadboard A UI concept that defines affordances and their connections without visual styling.

Big batch One project that occupies a team for a whole cycle and ships at the end. Betting table A meeting during cool-down when stakeholders decide which pitches to bet on in the next cycle.

Bet The decision to commit a team to a project for one cycle with no interruptions and an expectation to finish. Baseline What customers are doing without the thing we’re currently building.

Affordances before pixel-perfect screensĪppetite The amount of time we want to spend on a project, as opposed to an estimate.

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