Jason Fried

Founder, 37signals

Basecamp
44 minutes, 20.3mb, recorded 2005-03-16
Jason Fried
Ride with Jason Fried of 37signals as he takes us through the lessons learned while building Basecamp, a hosted project management tool that is extremely popular among its thousands of users. Jason shares his experiences about what works and what doesn't in web development and how the unconventional methodologies followed by 37signals give it an edge. From the advantages of working as a team with members in different continents to getting the word about your product out effectively, Jason covers it all.

The talk focuses on the four main tenets of reducing mass, embracing constraints, getting real in the process of development and managing debt. Jason explains how he learned that less is more when it comes to features and emphasizes the importance of building "half a product, not a half assed product". The success of Basecamp has shown that the lessons 37signals learned in building it are of enormous value.


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Jason Fried is the founder of 37signals, an influential Chicago-based web application design firm. 37signals' Basecamp (web-based project management), Backpack (web-based personal information management), and Ta-da List (web-based to-do lists) products are used on a daily basis by tens of thousands of people and small businesses in over 50 countries.

Resources:

This presentation is one of a series from the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference held in San Diego, California, March 14-17, 2005.

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This free podcast is from our Emerging Technology Conference series.