We've been doing Shape Up since July 2020 and have yet to fail to ship what we shape for each 6 week cycle, and while there's sometimes a bit of a crunch in the last few days before a release, everyone is generally working at a pretty relaxed pace.
My favorite side-effect of working this way as a leader is that by batching 6 weeks worth of planning effort, the team (and myself) can just be generally left alone to get into it without having to decide on the next priority every single week. Combined with async check-ins (that the team provide themselves every couple of days via Basecamp) instead of daily/weekly stand-ups, everyone generally has an empty calendar at all times.
We've been doing Shape Up since July 2020 and have yet to fail to ship what we shape for each 6 week cycle, and while there's sometimes a bit of a crunch in the last few days before a release, everyone is generally working at a pretty relaxed pace.
My favorite side-effect of working this way as a leader is that by batching 6 weeks worth of planning effort, the team (and myself) can just be generally left alone to get into it without having to decide on the next priority every single week. Combined with async check-ins (that the team provide themselves every couple of days via Basecamp) instead of daily/weekly stand-ups, everyone generally has an empty calendar at all times.