There’s little doubt that we live in an increasingly gray world. Entertainment, politics, religion, economics, the arts: all seem to be caught in whishy-washy webs of confusion. Business is no exception, but for Chicago-based 37signals, black and white is the modus operandi. At 37signals, things are either easier or wrong. It’s an approach they call Getting Real. And, yes, they wrote the book on it.
Formerly a web-design studio, 37signals now develops a handful of web applications—ranging from project management to real-time chat—each of which fastidiously shuns features and options in order to focus on getting things done and keeping it simple. DESIGNY had the chance to catch up with 37signals president and founder Jason Fried to get some insight into how the Getting Real philosophy permeates their products and their business.
When did “entrepreneur” first enter your vocabulary? Was it something you always planned on or did you fall into it?
I’ve been working since I was 13, but I think I started my first business when I was 15. I sold stereo equipment to some friends via a distributor. My grandfather was an entrepreneur, so I think it’s in my blood. I can’t imagine doing anything else.
That seems a common thread among entrepreneurs. Do you consider the rest of the team at 37signals entrepreneurs?
I know David [Heinemeier Hansson] is a work-for-yourself kind of guy. As much as we can, we try to make everyone feel like an entrepreneur. We give people a lot of freedom. They mostly set their own deadlines and make their own decisions.
How important do you think having a financial stake in the business is to motivating employees?
Well, I think it’s up to the individual, but ultimately money is a good incentivizer. We try to bonus out generously at the end of every year. We prefer to loosely tie bonuses to financial performance, so everyone shares when things are going well.
You’ve recently taken your “less” idea into the work week by cutting it to four days. When you make choices like this, is it in response to an identified need internally or is it an excercise in testing the “less is less” theory?
We decided a couple years ago to do that in the summer. Everyone had fridays off in the summer because, lets face it, working Friday’s in the summer is pretty much a lost cause anyway. We figured we’d see what would happen if we took the day off. And it didn’t seem to hurt the company in any way. Plus, it helped everyone quite a bit. This year we decided to try it all year long.
How did it help?
Who isn’t helped by a three-day weekend? Basically it allowed people to rest up a bit more, enjoy life a little more. If they wanted to work they could, of course, but it wasn’t required.
I learned about your four day work-week and countless other operation details from your blog, Signal V. Noise. 37signals is constantly sharing how its business operates. Does sharing help you have a different perspective on how business is working?
We share for a variety of reasons.
Does the blog feel like a part of your internal dialogue as well?
It definitely is. What often happens is this: We’ll be discussing something in Campfire [a web-based chat application built by 37signals], and I’ll say “Shit, that’s a good point. That’s an blog post.” And that’s how it happens. We try to share everything we can. I think it’s good to be open, transparent and clear. It’s good for business and good for your own thoughts. It’s good to air things out.
You’ve also published many of your working methods and perspectives in the book Getting Real. When doesn’t the Getting Real approach work. Who shouldn’t run a business the 37signals way?
I’ve tried to make it a habit not to speak for other people. I think there are a lot of ways to do a lot of things. We work the way it works best for us. I suspect a lot of what we do can be done elsewhere, but people have to have the courage to try.
A lot of people are immediately dismissive, “That would never work at our company…” And maybe it wouldn’t, but how happy are you really with the way things are going at your company? Are you really thrilled with being pushed to the limit all the time? Working more hours than you want? Spending a lot of time on things that never see the light of day?
I think there’s a lot of opportunity for people to try different ideas. Maybe 10% will work. Maybe 50%. Maybe more. And maybe there’s something new they’ll discover that they will share with the world. We can all learn a lot from each other if we’re willing to listen.
Do you think people often settle on something less than ideal?
I do think a lot of people settle. I settle. We all do. But you have to pick your battles.
Some things are worth fighting for. I’d say your happiness is one of them. There’s a reason why “the pursuit of happiness” was in the Declaration of Independence.
It sounds like you’re advocating a happiness-driven model?
I absolutely am. That doesn’t mean we’re all jolly and carefree, but it’s a good goal. Happy people do better work. Which leads to better products. Which leads to better profits. Simplistic? Yeah, but I do believe it.
It sounds like common sense, which is strangely absent in much business thinking.
I think almost everything is easy; it’s people that make it complicated. We make things so much harder than we need to. So stop making things hard on yourself.
Fried will share his experience as a design entrepreneur at SMART/MODELS on SATURDAY 17 MAY. Event info and registration available here.