# How to ship fast

Source: https://www.varunsrinivasan.com/2024/08/17/how-to-ship-fast

## Summary

The article argues that small teams searching for product-market fit should protect speed by cutting distractions, bureaucracy and unnecessary hires. It advises avoiding "side quests," meaning any work that is neither writing code nor talking to users, and declining them politely. It recommends a daily maker's schedule with one short standup, and skipping big-company practices such as sprint planning and product specs. It also says hiring should stay small, with people who can ship fast, and that tools should be chosen to speed shipping, so a new hire can fix a bug and deploy it on their first day.

## Article

Advice for small teams searching for product market fit

Avoid side quests If you aren’t writing code or talking to users, it’s a side quest. People will rope you into a lot of these so learn to decline them politely.

Remove bureaucracy Your team should have a maker’s schedule1 and one short standup daily. Don’t cargo-cult into big company things like sprint planning and writing product specs.

Hire fewer people Speed is a startup’s only advantage and you lose it with each hire. Your team should be exceptionally talented, painfully small and be able to ship. 2

Hire people who can ship fast Find people who enjoy solving user problems and move with urgency, even when no one is watching. These aren’t teachable skills so make sure someone has it before you hire them.

Optimize your tools for speed The primary goal of your tech stack is to help your team ship quickly. Avoid novelty and premature optimizations. A new hire should be able to fix a bug and deploy it to users on their first day.

August 17, 2024 · engineering

## Comments

**timdaub.eth**: > Find people who enjoy solving user problems and move with urgency, even when no one is watching. These aren’t teachable skills so make sure someone has it before you hire them.

I‘m very doubtful of this claim. If these skills aren‘t teachable, what are they? Genetic?

**macbudkowski.eth**: Haha, that's a fair question. I'd guess they are teachable, but it might take a lot of time to learn them.