What needs to be finished first
A stable, autonomous team with clearly defined responsibilities and working agreements is formed.
What needs to be ready before start
Shaping document template (problem, appetite, solution sketch, rabbit holes, no-gos); bet-table format (list of pitches with sponsor votes); Hill Chart tool (Basecamp or custom); cycle and cool-down calendar; repo for historical shapes.
Shaper (typically founder, senior PM or senior designer); bet-table participants (decider, senior stakeholders); cycle team (2-3 people typical, often 1 designer + 1-2 engineers); cool-down owner for maintenance and preparation.
Raw ideas from pitch backlog; previous cycle results; Hill Chart status of active pitches; available team capacities; known bottlenecks or external commitments.
6-week cycle plus 2-week cool-down, preceded by 1-2 weeks shaping per pitch
Bet table on calendar before each cycle. Shaping rooms and time windows for shapers. Cycle boards set up. Cool-down phase explicitly protected.
The one question this method answers
Which shaped pitches do we bet on for the next 6-week cycle, and how does the team deliver them autonomously in fixed time with negotiable scope?
Marker: Phase
| Step | Duration | Action | Hint |
|---|---|---|---|
1Phase 1: Shaping | 1-2 weeks per pitch (parallel to current cycle) | Shaper writes pitch with problem, appetite (small batch 2 weeks or big batch 6 weeks), solution sketch (fat marker, not pixels), rabbit holes, no-gos. Solution is conceptual, not detailed. | If shaping produces pixel mockups, it measured too deeply. Solution sketch is rough (fat-marker sketch, concept diagram). Detail emerges in the cycle. |
2Phase 2: Bet table | 1-2 h before cycle start | Decider and senior stakeholders review all pitched shapes. Per pitch: bet, no-bet, later. Bet only as many pitches as team capacity allows (typically 2-3). Pitches are committed, not backlog. | Bet table is decision, not discussion. If a pitch is not bet, say so clearly with rationale. Pitches that are not bet do not automatically move to the next cycle, they must be resubmitted. |
3Phase 3: Cycle work (6 weeks) | 6 weeks | Cycle team works autonomously on the bet pitch. No required sprint cadence, no mandatory standups. Team structures itself. Weekly Hill Chart update for stakeholder visibility. | Autonomy means the team makes how and scope decisions itself within the appetite. Stakeholders who reprioritize mid-cycle break the model. |
4Phase 4: Hill Charts instead of burndowns | Weekly 30 min per pitch | Hill Chart: each scope line moves on a curve from Unknown (left uphill) through Top of Hill (peak: we know how) to Done (right downhill). Uphill movement = risk, downhill = execution. | If after three weeks all lines are still uphill, uncertainty is too high. Hammer scope or cancel pitch. Never extend the cycle, that breaks the model. |
5Phase 5: Scope hammering | Ongoing in cycle | If time threatens to run short: cut scope, do not extend time. What is must-have, what is nice-to-have? Cut decisions by the team, within appetite. | Scope hammering is discipline. Teams that avoid cut decisions do not finish or silently shift scope. Cycle ends on time, done or not. |
6Phase 6: Cool-down (2 weeks) | 2 weeks | Maintenance, bug fixes, small improvements, cleanup, preparation of next shaping. No new cycle pitch in this phase, otherwise there is no real pause. | Cool-down is often abused as backup sprint. Teams that insert pitches there burn out and undermine bet-table discipline. |
What comes out at the end
One shape document per pitch (problem, appetite, solution sketch, rabbit holes, no-gos); bet-table notes with decisions; Hill Charts per pitch and cycle; cycle report with delivered pitches, cut decisions and lessons.
One bet-table entry per cycle with date. Shapes archived with cycle reference. Hill Chart history weekly, not overwritten. Cool-down outcome documented.
Compact working template for Shape Up with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.
Six-week cycles with cool-down, shaped pitches, and bet tables instead of Sprints and backlogs.
When and for what do we use this method?
Which data, observations, decisions, or materials are available?
Short notes along the runsheet.
Owner, date, and success signal.
Concrete filled scenario, fictional example
Concrete filled scenario, fictional example
Bet table (2026-05-06):
Cycle status CW 20 (2026-05-18):
Scope hammering P-21: Export function cut to CSV-only, no PDF in this cycle. Rationale: too much unknown in PDF templates, would burst cycle.
Cool-down plan (2026-06-16 to 2026-06-30):
Recognize symptoms and steer against them
Shape document contains pixel mockups and implementation details, team autonomy restricted.
Shaping stays conceptual. Fat-marker sketches, no mockups. If the shaper wants detail, they are in the wrong mode. Detail emerges in the cycle.
Cycle takes 8 weeks instead of 6 because pitch is not finished. Other pitches shift.
6 weeks are fixed. Scope is cut, time is not extended. If nothing can be cut, end pitch with honest status, do not extend.
Sponsor inserts topics mid-cycle, team loses focus.
Bet-table decision is binding. New urgent topics wait for next bet table or cool-down. Sponsor discipline is prerequisite for Shape Up.
Hill Charts are filled with percentages like burndowns, not with risk view.
Hill Chart measures uncertainty, not effort. Uphill = we do not know how. Downhill = we know and execute. Train team to distinguish both states.
Cool-down is filled with new pitches, maintenance and preparation fall short.
Protect cool-down strictly. No new pitches. Maintenance and next shaping are enough. Sacrificing cool-down burns out the team.
Pitch has no clear timebox (small or big batch), bet table cannot decide.
Appetite is mandatory section in the shape. If shaper gives no appetite, send pitch back to shaping. No appetite, no bet.
Done signals checkable in under a minute
Go to the profile for purpose, similar methods, and sources or continue to the next method in the catalog.