Jason Fried

Founder & CEO at 37signals (makers of Basecamp and HEY). Non-serial entrepreneur, serial author (Getting Real, REWORK, REMOTE, It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work). Email me at jason@hey.com.

Co-founder & CEO

THE BIG REGRESSION

My folks are in town visiting us for a couple months so we rented them a house nearby.

It’s new construction. It’s amped up with state of the art systems. The ones with touchscreens of various sizes, IoT appliances, and interfaces on everything.

And it’s terrible. What a regression.

The lights are powered by Control4. They require a demo to understand how to use the switches, understand which ones control what, and to be sure not to hit THAT ONE because it’ll turn off all the lights in the house when you didn’t mean to. Worse.

The TV is the latest Samsung which has a baffling UI just to watch CNN. My parents aren’t idiots, but definitely feel like they’re missing something obvious. They aren’t — TVs have simply gotten worse. You don’t turn them on, you boot them up.

The new Miele dishwasher wouldn’t even operate the first time without connecting it to an app. This meant another call to the house manager to have them install an app they didn’t know they needed either. An app to clean some peanut butter off a plate? For serious? Worse.

Thermostats... Nest would have been fine, but these other proprietary ones from some other company trying to be Nest-like are baffling. Round touchscreens that take you into a dark labyrinth of options just to be sure it’s set at 68. Or is it 68 now? Or is that what we want it at, but it’s at 72? Wait... What? Which number is this? Worse.

The alarm system is essentially a 10” iPad bolted to the wall that has the fucking weather forecast on it. And it's so bright! I’m sure there’s a way to turn that off, but then the screen would be filled with the news instead. Why isn't this just the alarm? Worse.

And there's lag and delay everywhere. Everything feels a beat or two behind. Lag is the giveaway that the system is working too hard for too little.

Now look... I’m no luddite. But this experience is close to conversion therapy. Tech can make things better, but not here. I’ve heard the pitches — you can set up scenes so one button can change EVERYTHING. Not buying it. It actually feels primitive, like we haven’t figured out how to make things easy yet. That some breakthrough will eventually come when you can simply knock a switch up or down and it’ll all makes sense.

It’s really the contrast that makes it alarming. We just got back from a vacation in Montana. Rented a house there. They did have a fancy TV — seems those can’t be avoided these days — but everything else was old school and clear. Physical up/down light switches in the right places. Appliances without the internet. Buttons with depth and physically-confirmed state change rather than surfaces that don’t obviously register your choice. More traditional round rotating Honeywell thermostats that are just clear and obvious. No tours, no instructions, no questions, no fearing you’re going to do something wrong, no wondering how something works. Useful and universally clear. That’s human, that’s modern.

AGAIN?

When we measure things, answers usually come as numbers. But there’s a different kind of measurement I have in mind most of the time.

It’s a simple, one-word question: Again?

You can go through rigorous employee performance reviews to try to decide if someone’s doing their job well, or you can simply ask “Knowing what we know now, would we hire this person AGAIN?”

You can load up the calendar with postmortems and data analysis sessions, or you can simply ask “Would we want to do that AGAIN?”

You can attempt to justify to yourself why something made sense on paper, or you can simply ask “Would I make that decision AGAIN?”

Do I want to work with this team AGAIN? Would I want to work at this company AGAIN? Would I want to work on this project or product AGAIN? Would I want to visit this city AGAIN?

At this point, I quietly ask myself “Again?” all the time. When things go right, when things go wrong, when I’m not even sure which way they’ve gone, I’ll ask myself “Again?” The answer is obvious.

What’s great about this is that things that would objectively measure as “wrong” can be absolutely worth it when you ask the question “Again?” With again, you aren’t just measuring outcome, you’re also measuring experience. Experience contains outcome, and a whole lot more.

Maybe that was a flop commercially, but it was worth it broadly, so yes, I’d still do it all over again. Or, wow, that was a smashing success but it really beat me down... Would I do it again? “No” is perfectly valid, and correct, in that case.

Asking “Again?” is one of the simplest things you can do, and it’ll mine some of the richest answers you’ll find. It tells the whole truth in a way that numbers never do.

The original Cuisinart was peak interface/appliance design.

Two perfect paddle buttons.

One for ON that catches and stays down for continual operation.

And one for PULSE/OFF that does exactly what it says. It doesn't stay down, it returns to reset when you let go. Hold it down as long as you want to pulse. Let go and it stops. Or just push it down to disengage ON, and turn it off.

The description may sound a bit convoluted because of the dual purpose PULSE/OFF button, but when you use it it's absolutely obvious. And couldn't be better.

Big flat toggle buttons under satisfying tension. Clear affordances. You push them down, not in. One click catches, one doesn't. You can use them with bare hands, oven mitts, fingers coated in slippery whatever. Doesn't matter. Plenty of surface area.

Outstanding design. It's been all downhill from there.

ANYTHING DESIGNERS

Do designers like Raymond Lowey or Henry Dreyfus exist anymore? Designers who can design anything?

These guys designed locomotives, thermostats, telephones, buildings, ocean liners, company logos, typewriters, vacuum cleaners, floor polishers, product packaging, cars, bottles, aircraft interiors, livery, stamps, radios, tractors, even space station interiors!

The depth, breadth, quality, and taste of their work is astonishing. Where are these people today? Who are these people today? Who's working across so many different industries, mediums, product types, and categories at such a high level?

https://lnkd.in/gKC2UYFt
https://lnkd.in/gd5G-PSJ

What's your longest software relationship?

Basecamp and I have been together since 2008. We've never even discussed seeing other project management tools.

It helped me win student body president at Northwestern. I launched the very first coding bootcamp with it and orchestrated a Chicago mayoral campaign on it. It powered every course I've taught, and every Techstars program I've managed. Now it's how we run customer discovery at Shokuna, with some AI automations I've wired up on top of it.

37signals has been building for the web since 1999. They launched Basecamp  in 2004. And now I'm watching Jason tease "Basecamp 5" like it's a Marvel post-credits scene.

So now I'm curious: What software has actually stuck for you? Not what IT force-fed you - what you chose, kept choosing, and would mass-email your complaints about if they ever killed it?

Event Organiser (Online HR Conference)
-  End-to-end planning and execution of a virtual HR summit, bringing
 together thought leaders and professionals in the industry

Workshop Moderator & Event Support
 - Co-hosting and moderating discussions
 - Assisting speakers and participants with technical setup and
 troubleshooting.
 - Managing attendee admission, event chat, audience Q&A

Virtual Assistance
- Social Media Management: Content creation, scheduling, and engagement
- Content Planning & Strategy: Developing content calendars and structuring marketing efforts for brand consistency.
- Light Graphic Design: Creating visuals in Canva for social media, presentations, and branded assets.
- Project Coordination: Managing timelines, & deliverables

Event & Project Management

L&D SHAKERS

Conceptualized, curated, and executed a series of workshops, involving ideation, speaker sourcing, and implementation with a focus on interactive and practical learning experiences.

Events Catalyst for Immersive Series (Volunteer)

Hacking HR

Event Specialist

Growmotely

Successfully increased attendance and provided better analytics for online masterclasses by implementing a new event management platform and strategy, resulting in improved engagement and experience.

Implemented an automated scheduling system for social media posts and newsletters through HubSpot, significantly improving workflow efficiency.

Managed and maintained a global online community for remote professionals and freelancers using the Circle platform, fostering engagement and connectivity within the community.

Community & Events Manager 

Conceptualized and successfully delivered a 3-day global online summit on the future of work and business, attracting 700 registrants, featuring renowned guest speakers from around the world, covering all event expenses through ticket sales, and significantly enhanced our brand awareness and expanded our network and community.

Conceptualized, coordinated and co-hosted over 40 educational workshops and webinars for professionals and entrepreneurs and several community events.

Established strong connections with renowned speakers and cultivated a network within the realm of remote work and digital nomadism.

Experienced with remote work, able to collaborate in a cross-functional environment, comfortable with asynchronous communication, self-management, and working in a global/distributed context.

Events Manager

Contributed to a wide range of projects within the marketing team (educational webinars, social media management, marketing campaigns, research, working directly and offering daily support to the CMO).

Intern

Saône Capital

Calendar management, meeting scheduling and communication management with clients, partners and the team.

Documents and LinkedIn management.

Webcast support and production (handling communication with guests, co-hosting, recording and editing)

Fractional Executive & Social Media Assistant

Digital Nomad Association Croatia

Conceptualized and planned the first edition of a one-week co-working, co-living, retreat experience in Plitvice, Croatia for remote workers, freelancers and entrepreneurs.

Collaborated on the creation of the registration flow and forms and managed communication with partners, participants, and other stakeholders.

Generated and implemented innovative strategies to promote the event, designed promotional visuals including the program, booking guide, and social media visuals for guest speakers.

Event Organizer

Help Net Farma

Participated in the comprehensive due diligence and execution of two significant transactions within the pharmaceutical market in Romania.

Engaged in the creation and revision of corporate documents, provided support for the establishment of working points, including the drafting and analysis of lease agreements, and facilitated registration with the Trade Registry.

Legal Advisor

Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii

Specialized in corporate and commercial law, providing expertise in the incorporation of companies, corporate change and reorganization, corporate management procedures, and resolution of disputes among associates.

Involved in several complex projects and transactions in various areas such as capital markets, the pharmaceutical industry, energy, insurance and tobacco industry.

Involved in several mergers and acquisitions projects, significant takeover transactions and European structural funds projects.

Junior of - counsel

Passionate about bringing people together in meaningful ways, I thrive on using my organizational and creative skills to craft human-centred events, spaces and experiences that inspire connection and impact.

Curiosity is my fuel. Being of service is the way I manifest in the world.

taplio

The Battle

Jason Fried

Andreea Ioana Gătin

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taplio

The Battle

Jason Fried

Andreea Ioana Gătin

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jason Fried's LinkedIn Performance

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