Follow along as I share screenshots, scraps, and conversations that birthed a tiny little Basecamp feature. 👋 Hiya, I’m Conor, one of the designers at Basecamp. Before joining Basecamp I remember reading some neat posts by Jason Zimdars where he shared how a feature got from A → Z. In the spirit of JZ’s old Design… keep reading
Basecamp is hiring! We have a rare opening for a Rails programmer to work on new product development within our General Practice team. We haven’t had an opening for this kind of work for a few years, so we’re excited to welcome someone new to the team! This is a position for an experienced Rails… keep reading
Some people are destined for mediocrity. Take this guy for example: A college kid, who, despite a semi-decent college showing as an American football quarterback, was drafted 199th by a professional team. You don’t have to be a football or sports fan to realize how terrible that is. And he wasn’t drafted for anything near… keep reading
At some point, it seemed that everyone who’s company got acquired was handed talking points for a spiel about Our Incredible Journey. There’s ample reason to laugh at this trope, but there’s also ample reason to dig a little deeper. (I enjoy playing an armchair remote psychologists because it’s both easy and the patient doesn’t… keep reading
Even before software as a service became a thing, it was pretty common to sell business applications on per-seat pricing. The bigger you are, the more you pay! At Basecamp, we rejected that model from day one, and have stuck to our guns for 13 years. Not because we don’t like money, but because we… keep reading
Today I was chatting with someone looking for opinions about project management software. It would have been easy to weigh in with a list of reasons why that person should try Basecamp. But what if that isn’t the right way to help them? Instead, I offered the following list of questions that I use when… keep reading
My calendar to start the year If your time is for the taking, you’re working at a crazy company. A few weeks ago I shared what my calendar looked like. It struck a nerve. Tons of talk around it. And then a few days later we hosted a “The Basecamp Way to Work” workshop at our office… keep reading
As designers we’ve all used foggy sentences like these: “I felt it was getting a little too heavy for the casual nature of the feature.” “The screen was a little confusing so we moved the layout around.” “We really need this flow to be easy and clear.” They sound meaningful but they don’t point to… keep reading
Seemingly inconsequential decisions can open the door to significant organizational and operational complexity Lately we’ve been on a bit of a tear internally working to eliminate operational complexity from our business. Complexity is like addiction… It comes on slowly, forming weak bonds that you can barely feel. But as it continues, the bonds strengthen quietly… keep reading