How product is built at Searoutes: why we use Shape Up, and why it works for a startup

At Searoutes, product development didn’t start with Shape Up. Like many startups, we experimented. We tried different ways of organizing work, planning delivery, and balancing discovery with execution. Some approaches worked for a while, others created friction: growing backlogs, fragmented priorities, and teams busy shipping tasks without always delivering clear outcomes. As the company grew and product expanded, we needed a way to focus our efforts and make better product decisions with limited resources. That’s when we adopted Shape Up, the methodology introduced by 37Signals (creator of Basecamp). It didn’t instantly solve everything. But over time, it became the framework that best fits how we build products today.

From tasks to bets

One of the biggest shifts Shape Up brought was moving away from task-driven planning. Traditional Agile approaches often revolve around managing tickets and maintaining detailed backlogs. While useful in some contexts, we found that this sometimes encouraged incremental delivery without enough time spent understanding the real problem. Shape Up flips that logic. Instead of starting with solutions or lists of features, work begins with shaping: clearly defining a problem, outlining constraints, and setting boundaries before development starts.

Each initiative becomes a bet, a conscious investment of time and energy. This forces prioritization. Not everything can be done, and that’s intentional.

For a startup, this clarity is essential. Focus is not a luxury; it’s survival.

Fixed time, flexible scope

Another reason Shape Up works well for us is its approach to risk management. Rather than fixing scope and letting timelines slip, Shape Up fixes time and allows scope to evolve during the cycle. Teams commit to solving a problem within a defined period and adapt implementation decisions as they learn. This reduces the risk of endless projects and encourages pragmatic decisions. The goal is not perfection; it’s delivering meaningful progress within realistic constraints.

Making the methodology our own

At Searoutes, we experimented with different cycle lengths. Basecamp promotes six-week cycles followed by cooldown periods, but the reality of a startup is to adapt. We tested shorter and longer cycles to understand what worked best for our context. Today, we run three-week development cycles followed by a cooldown week. That matches our current operational needs, while preserving Shape Up’s core principles. This experimentation was key. Methodologies should support teams, not constrain them. Making Shape Up our own allowed us to keep its strengths while adapting it to our environment.

Learning through trial and error

Adopting Shape Up was not a perfect transition. We initially struggled with shaping problems clearly enough. Some pitches seemed clear at first but later proved too vague, while others were simply too ambitious. We sometimes underestimated unknowns, over-scoped ideas, and discovered mid-cycle that assumptions needed revisiting. Over time, we improved. We learned how much detail is “enough” before development starts: defining the problem, goals, and constraints without dictating exactly how to build the solution. This gave teams the autonomy to make decisions during cycles with confidence, without constant reprioritization or validation loops. Even today, we don’t claim to apply Shape Up perfectly, and that’s fine. The methodology continues to evolve with us.

Why it works for a startup

Startups operate under constant uncertainty: limited resources, changing markets, and fast-moving customer expectations. Shape Up helps us navigate this by creating:

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  clear focus through intentional bets
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  autonomy for teams to solve problems
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  predictable delivery rhythms without heavy process overhead
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  space for learning during cooldown periods

Most importantly, it encourages outcome-oriented thinking. Success is not measured by the number of tickets completed, but by whether we solved a meaningful problem for users.

Building with intention

For us, Shape Up is not a rigid framework. It’s a shared way of thinking about product development: shape carefully, commit intentionally, build pragmatically, and learn continuously. We tried, stumbled, adjusted, and improved along the way, and we still do. But through experience, one thing became clear: for a startup building complex products in a fast-changing industry, Shape Up gives us the structure we need without slowing us down. And that balance makes all the difference.

Building the future of sustainable logistics, together

Shape Up gave us the structure to build with intention. But methodology only goes so far: it’s the people and the product that make the difference. At Searoutes, we’re building the most advanced maritime routing and multimodal freight emissions intelligence platform in the industry, helping clients calculate optimal routes, model fuel consumption, and measure carbon emissions with accuracy that matters at scale. We’re proud of what we’ve created … and we’re just getting started. If you want to work in a team that cares as much about how it builds as what it builds, we’d love to hear from you. Explore open roles at Searoutes →