This is the other interview I did for my recent article for InformIT. Here is the first one, with Isaac Garcia of Central Desktop.
As with the previous interview, these are just my notes. Any errors in sentence structure, any weird sentences, any incomplete thoughts, anytime the interviewee doesn’t seem to be answering my question… Really, any issues, chalk them up to me taking notes while doing the interview. They aren’t perfect, but hopefully some folk’ll gain some insight into how 37signals thinks (ie: in a truly fascinating way).
What is 37signals?
We build web-based applications. It is generally targeted at small businesses and small teams (10-11 people). We build really simple products. Our baseline reason for existing is to build simple products. We just do a few things really well, and let you do what you need to do instead of worrying about software.
Our philosophy is “less software”. Our products do less than the rest. We think that all most people really need is less.
What people really need is “just enough”. And “just enough” is a lot less than most other companies are promising.
What sets you apart?
We are giving people what they need, and nothing more. It’s nice and simple.
We’re a small company. There is only 7 of us at 37 signals. We build the products for ourselves first. Then we realize that if we need this stuff, other people do too. We are our own target market. This is probably different than most companies, in that they build a product because they feel there is profit there. We take a much different approach.
How do you feel “teams” have changed over the last 5-10 years?
It definitely seems like distributed teams are much more common today than they were 5 years ago.
Our team was based in Chicago, Utah and Denmark, so we’ve been all over the place as well. Also, I should mention, that a lot of the people at 37signals work at home and come into the office only when we need to. We find that being away from one another lets us work more effectively as a team.
We’re big into distributed workforces. We think that there’s a lot of strengths and advantages to those.
How do your applications help / approach the new style of teams that is emerging?
Communication
Projects don’t fail because there aren’t enough charts and graphs, stats, spreadsheets. They fail because people don’t’ communicate clearly. Our tools are all about allowing people to chat or communicate online – to gather around a central location to communicate.What are your top 5 favorite “new team” applications?
1. Email
2. IM
3. CampaignMonitor: email distribution list that we use internally, and also that we use for our mailing list
4. Wikis: We use them occasionally, but Backpack takes over for that most of the time.Look to what you already have. You’d be surprised what you can solve with the tools at your disposal. It isn’t always about finding new tools to solve your problems. You can use what you have already and finding new and creative ways to use it.
Where do you feel this industry (ie: collaborative team software) is heading?
You are going to see more and more distributed teams. I think that simple communication tools are the way to handle them. Whenever we hire somebody, we don’t’ care where people live. I think you’re going to see more and more people embracing that. GO to where the talent is, don’t worry about the practicalities. Figure out the best way to communicate and go from there. You are going to see a lot more companies taking risks and hiring people outside of their immediate area. I think too many companies limit themselves to their geographic talent pool – limiting yourself in ways you don’t have to.
I think you’ll see a lot more distributed teams in the same city. We are all in the same city, but we aren’t typically in the office together. Distributed teams don’t’ need to be across long distances, they can be in close proximity. There is a lot of productivity to be had “nearby”, and getting together when you have to. I think the biggest reason is that the distraction level at the office is huge. You can waste hours just talking to people and responding to meeting requests, etc. Being able to work on your own is a much better way of working.
Closing Thoughts
Don’t complicate things. I think people inject way too much complexity into their daily working environment. I think people hurt themselves far more than other people hurt them. Especially when it comes to using software, don’t’ look at features. Look at benefits for you. Figure out what works for you. It doesn’t matter if a product has 300 features, but only 10 work for you, maybe you need something else. Don’t get carried away. Get excited about what works for us, and something that is simpler. People will use the new software. It’s really about what are people going to use. It isn’t about feature lists. Start simple. Don’t assume that you need all this stuff that you don’t actually need.