37signals Manager Playbook: How to Manage People Without Losing Your IC Edge
The 37signals Manager Playbook
37signals, the company behind Basecamp, has published its internal manager playbook. It covers the full spectrum of people management: hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, giving feedback, handling underperformance and terminations, navigating difficult conversations, 1:1s, coaching, recognition, promotion, and becoming a 'multiplier manager.' The playbook emphasizes balancing management duties with individual contributor work and outlines the company's specific leadership philosophies and standards.
This playbook is for people managers at 37signals. In it, you’ll find everything you need to know about what’s expected of you as a people manager, team leadership philosophies of 37signals, and how to balance people management with your core individual contributor work.
- mellosouls
The bar for remaining on the team at the 1-year mark isn’t just passable performance, it’s hell yeah! You’re excited to have them on the team in their current state, and you can’t wait to see what they do next.
Who writes this cringe-worthy crap? Or is it an American cultural thing?
This is just ultimately a commercial company churning out digital widgets so I hope they are paying "Hell Yeah!" money...
- wtobey1
Reading this, anyone give great advice on formulating take home projects that work really well in the AI age? I ran an interview cycle where I gave ~1 day, and tried to hold out some technical questions for a follow up design interview after they had delivered the take home. I felt like the project was very hard to define given AI lets people chew through most of what you throw in front of them very quickly. Giving a bigger project felt like it required drawing them too deeply into our domain, where I was trying to provide a slice of it that we could onboard candidates to in ~45 minutes. Given that the authors here are getting multiple weeks to do it, its hard for me to imagine an appropriate scope.
- Ecstatify
"Policy at 37signals is that employees .... The difference is subtle but important; the former is how to treat responsible, capable adults"
"Openly expressing frustration or discontent with company decisions creates a negative atmosphere and undermines team morale."
A little ironic, given that roughly a third of the company reportedly resigned in the past.
I won’t be taking management advice from them, it may work if you drink the Kool-Aid, but it otherwise seems to be their way or the door.
"Values written on a page do not define culture, but the behaviors of the people within the organization do"
The same company that says politics don’t belong at work has DHH using its company blog to comment on Tommy Robinson’s march.
https://world.hey.com/dhh/as-i-remember-london-e7d38e64
"Therefore, we’re asking everyone, including Jason and me, to refrain from using our company Basecamp or HEY to discuss societal politics at work effective immediately."
https://world.hey.com/dhh/basecamp-s-new-etiquette-regarding...