We use their product Basecamp for managing our projects and think it's pretty good. But equally impressive to me is the thinking that is 37signals, the mother ship. The company is whimsically named after the 37 radio telescope signals that astronomer Paul Horowitz identified as potential messages from an extra terrestrial intelligence. But what is admirable is the earthly intelligence that has a staff of 17 create products loved by over 3 million customers. Some of this intelligence can be seen on their blog, where I recently came across the post, Hire managers of one. Let me quote from it:"When you’re hiring, seek out people who are managers of one.
What’s that mean? A manager of one is someone who comes up with their own goals and executes them. They don’t need heavy direction. They don’t need daily check-ins. They do what a manager would do — set the tone, assign items, determine what needs to get done, etc. — but they do it by themselves and for themselves.
These people free you from oversight. They set their own direction. When you leave them alone, they surprise you with how much they’ve gotten done. They don’t need a lot of handholding or supervision."
I couldn't agree more. Click on the link to read the full post.