How It Works

With Shape Up, you'll be working in Cycles, delivering Pitches consisting of one or more Scopes, which can be broken down into individual Tasks. Organise Pitches by Streams and add Documents like files, links and docs you create.

1. Streams

Streams are how you organise Pitches and Resources around a topic, project or initiative. Your teams may be working on one or many streams at one time, so Pitches can be scheduled into any Cycle, whatever Stream they belong to.

1

Streams

The Stream card shows a chart of Pitches in the last 6 Cycles and the owner.

2

Add a New Stream

Add as many new streams as you need

3

Edit and Archive

Edit Streams or Archive when you're done.

2. Pitches

Pitches are how we document our ideas and communicate across teams the problems we're solving and the solutions we're building in each Cycle. Pitch candidates start out as an "Idea", just the very basics, then we "Frame" the context and outcome we want to deliver to help prioritise. This should be enough to get buy-in at the betting table to proceed. Finally we "Shape" these prioritised frames, digging in to see what it will take to execute, what's involved and lock in what we're doing and what we're not doing.

1

Pitch Detail

View pitch details throughout the app

2

Add/Edit Pitch

Create and edit pitches with rich text, images, markdown and styling

3

Pitch Board

View pitches by stream, drag and drop to prioritise. Pitches are organised in tabs for candidates, building, planned and other stages.

3. Documents

Streams and initiatives can have a lot of associated documents, screenshots, Figmas or Miro boards, Google Sheets. You can create documents inline, upload files, or links in the Stream Resources page.

1

Create Documents

Create new rich Documents in the editor, or upload files, or links to online resources.

2

Pitch Documents

View all the documents for this Pitch in the Documents tab.

3

Document Library

View all the documents for your Organisation in the Library

4. Cycles

A Cycle is a fixed time period during which focused and uninterrupted work is done on several selected pitches. Usually 6 weeks with a 2 week cool down. The pitches your team will be working on in each cycle are selected at the Betting Table.

1

Create a New Cycle

Create a new Cycle from the cycles page

2

Enter Name and Set Dates

Choose a name and drag the block to set dates.

3

You Created a Cycle!

The Cycle will be empty initially. Shape some Pitches and the Betting Table will choose.

5. Hill Charts

All Pitches put in to a Cycle at the Betting Table will appear as a Hill Chart in that Cycle. Click on a Hill Chart to interact with it and build out the Scopes.

1

Hill Chart Previews

All Pitches scheduled for a Cycle at the Betting Table will have a Hill Chart preview in the Cycle view.

2

Bar Chart View

Toggle to see the scope progress for each Pitch in a Bar Chart

3

Hill Chart

View the Hill Chart detail view and manage Scopes and Tasks in the Pitch Hill Chart tab

6. Scopes and Tasks

Scopes reflect the meaningful chunks of a pitch that can be completed independently and in a short period of time - a few days or less. Drag the scopes around the hill chart to mark your progress.

Each scope consists of one or more Tasks. Click the Scope title to add tasks. You can comment on scopes and tasks as needed to discuss.

1

Scopes

Add scopes to the hill chart and drag them on the slope to communicate status.

2

Tasks

Click on a Scope title or add/edit tasks to manage the tasks in that scope.

3

Task Details

Click on a Task title to see the details and add/read comments.

7. The Task Mapper

Breaking your pitch into scopes can be a challenge. You can optionally use the Task Mapper linked on the hill chart to braindump all of the tasks you can think of then organise them into groups of related tasks. These groups will become scopes in the hill chart.

1

Dump Tasks

Add all the individual tasks that spring to mind when you discuss the pitch.