Heads up! This page uses features your browser doesn’t support. Try a modern browser likeFirefox orChrome for the best experience.
Getting Real
The smarter, faster, easier way to
build a successful web application
Introduction
Chapter 1
What is Getting Real
Chapter 2
About Basecamp
Chapter 3
Caveats, disclaimers, and other preemptive strikes
The Starting Line
Chapter 4
Build Less
Chapter 5
What’s Your Problem?
Chapter 6
Fund Yourself
Chapter 7
Fix Time and Budget, Flex Scope
Chapter 8
Have an Enemy
Chapter 9
It Shouldn’t be a Chore
Stay Lean
Chapter 10
Less Mass
Chapter 11
Lower Your Cost of Change
Chapter 12
The Three Musketeers
Chapter 13
Embrace Constraints
Chapter 14
Be Yourself
Priorities
Chapter 15
What’s the Big Idea?
Chapter 16
Ignore Details Early On
Chapter 17
It’s a Problem When It’s a Problem
Chapter 18
Hire the Right Customers
Chapter 19
Scale Later
Chapter 20
Make Opinionated Software
Feature Selection
Chapter 21
Half, Not Half-Assed
Chapter 22
It Just Doesn’t Matter
Chapter 23
Start With No
Chapter 24
Hidden Costs
Chapter 25
Can You Handle It?
Chapter 26
Human Solutions
Chapter 27
Forget Feature Requests
Chapter 28
Hold the Mayo
Process
Chapter 29
Race to Running Software
Chapter 30
Rinse and Repeat
Chapter 31
From Idea to Implementation
Chapter 32
Avoid Preferences
Chapter 33
“Done!”
Chapter 34
Test in the Wild
Chapter 35
Shrink Your Time
The Organization
Chapter 36
Unity
Chapter 37
Alone Time
Chapter 38
Meetings Are Toxic
Chapter 39
Seek and Celebrate Small Victories
Staffing
Chapter 40
Hire Less and Hire Later
Chapter 41
Kick the Tires
Chapter 42
Actions, Not Words
Chapter 43
Get Well Rounded Individuals
Chapter 44
You Can’t Fake Enthusiasm
Chapter 45
Wordsmiths
Interface Design
Chapter 46
Interface First
Chapter 47
Epicenter Design
Chapter 48
Three State Solution
Chapter 49
The Blank Slate
Chapter 50
Get Defensive
Chapter 51
Context Over Consistency
Chapter 52
Copywriting is Interface Design
Chapter 53
One Interface
Code
Chapter 54
Less Software
Chapter 55
Optimize for Happiness
Chapter 56
Code Speaks
Chapter 57
Manage Debt
Chapter 58
Open Doors
Words
Chapter 59
There’s Nothing Functional about a Functional Spec
Chapter 60
Don’t Do Dead Documents
Chapter 61
Tell Me a Quick Story
Chapter 62
Use Real Words
Chapter 63
Personify Your Product
Pricing and Signup
Chapter 64
Free Samples
Chapter 65
Easy On, Easy Off
Chapter 66
Silly Rabbit, Tricks are for Kids
Chapter 67
A Softer bullet
Promotion
Chapter 68
Hollywood Launch
Chapter 69
A Powerful Promo Site
Chapter 70
Ride the Blog Wave
Chapter 71
Solicit Early
Chapter 72
Promote Through Education
Chapter 73
Feature Food
Chapter 74
Track Your Logs
Chapter 75
Inline Upsell
Chapter 76
Name Hook
Support
Chapter 77
Feel The Pain
Chapter 78
Zero Training
Chapter 79
Answer Quick
Chapter 80
Tough Love
Chapter 81
In Fine Forum
Chapter 82
Publicize Your Screwups
Post-Launch
Chapter 83
One Month Tuneup
Chapter 84
Keep the Posts Coming
Chapter 85
Better, Not Beta
Chapter 86
All Bugs Are Not Created Equal
Chapter 87
Ride Out the Storm
Chapter 88
Keep Up With the Joneses
Chapter 89
Beware the Bloat Monster
Chapter 90
Go With The Flow
Conclusion
Chapter 91
Start Your Engines