The cynic in me can't help but notice that this post seems to reframe Basecamp and similar solutions as the central collaboration hubs, with team chats being additional tools.
Given the fact that 37Signals refocused on Basecamp a couple years ago [1], and given the aggressive competition they must be facing from Slack and the likes (on top of other project management platforms like Trello or Asana), this is pretty understandable.
I agree with some of the points made, mostly that you should have some sort of asynchronous, slower pace type of hub that should act more or less as the source of truth and progress. For my team, it's been GitHub for a while [2], and I haven't met a (functioning) team who did without. At the very least, there's a Hackpad or a whiteboard somewhere that lists what needs to be done and where things are at.
Is it sometimes frustrating to be constantly connected to your entire team? Sure. Does it breed expectations of immediacy? Sure. But this is not specific to the workplace: Uber, Tinder, Airbnb, ... heck iMessage. We've already been down that road for a few years now. Just look at how frustrated one can be when you chose not to answer a text for a day.
Teams that have their sh*t together will use something like Basecamp, Asana, Trello or GitHub. But the problem the author raises here is much larger than just work collaboration and I very much doubt that this global trend will curb in the short to middle term. We will build behaviors to cope with the culture of "now", but I very much doubt that it will look like Basecamp.
I can't really believe that it's a competitive space. It seems like a massively growing market... from what I can tell there's a crazy amount of "fresh blood" in the form of businesses using antiquated software and newly formed organizations forming which are just graduating from Google Docs.
In a growing market it's not really a zero sum game, multiple players just means more growth.
Comments
The cynic in me can't help but notice that this post seems to reframe Basecamp and similar solutions as the central collaboration hubs, with team chats being additional tools.
Given the fact that 37Signals refocused on Basecamp a couple years ago [1], and given the aggressive competition they must be facing from Slack and the likes (on top of other project management platforms like Trello or Asana), this is pretty understandable.
I agree with some of the points made, mostly that you should have some sort of asynchronous, slower pace type of hub that should act more or less as the source of truth and progress. For my team, it's been GitHub for a while [2], and I haven't met a (functioning) team who did without. At the very least, there's a Hackpad or a whiteboard somewhere that lists what needs to be done and where things are at.
Is it sometimes frustrating to be constantly connected to your entire team? Sure. Does it breed expectations of immediacy? Sure. But this is not specific to the workplace: Uber, Tinder, Airbnb, ... heck iMessage. We've already been down that road for a few years now. Just look at how frustrated one can be when you chose not to answer a text for a day.
Teams that have their sh*t together will use something like Basecamp, Asana, Trello or GitHub. But the problem the author raises here is much larger than just work collaboration and I very much doubt that this global trend will curb in the short to middle term. We will build behaviors to cope with the culture of "now", but I very much doubt that it will look like Basecamp.
[1]: http://www.inc.com/magazine/201403/jason-fried/basecamp-focu...
[2]: https://wiredcraft.com/blog/github-for-everything/
I can't really believe that it's a competitive space. It seems like a massively growing market... from what I can tell there's a crazy amount of "fresh blood" in the form of businesses using antiquated software and newly formed organizations forming which are just graduating from Google Docs.
In a growing market it's not really a zero sum game, multiple players just means more growth.