Shape Up by Ryan Singer

Set the appetite before the scope, shape the work, and let the circuit breaker fire.

Three takeaways for AI PMs

• Set the appetite before the scope
• Shape with the engineer who knows the stack: Singer stresses bringing the senior engineer who knows the infrastructure into the shaping session, not just the PM and designer.
• Breadboard before you design: A breadboard lists the places a user can be, the things they can act on, and how those connect.

Do this Monday

• Before your next planning meeting, write a one-line appetite for every candidate item (one week, two weeks, six weeks) and drop anything you would not fund at that size.
• In your next spec session, draw a breadboard for the top AI feature on one page with the engineer who knows the stack, before anyone opens a design tool.
• At the end of the current cycle, hold a betting-table review: what is shaped, what is a raw idea, and what got cut rather than extended.