Before each six-week cycle, we hold a betting table where founders decide what to do in the next cycle. At the betting table, they look at pitches from the last six weeks — or any pitches that somebody purposefully revived and lobbied for again.

<aside> 👉 Check the ongoing shaped work in‣, pitches will be linked inside.

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Overview

The betting table is a meeting held after the last shaping week where stakeholders decide what to do in the next cycle. The potential bets to consider are either new pitches shaped during the last six weeks or possibly one or two older pitches that someone specifically chose to revive. There’s no “grooming” or backlog to organize. Just a few good options to consider.

Betting table meeting takes place every 8-weeks after the 4-week shaping cycle. All meetings can be viewed in the ‣.

<aside> ☝ Be sure to be familiar with Shape Up methodology in a nutshell and Shape Up lifecycle

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How we do it

<aside> ❗ Be sure to read all the pitches before the meeting in‣!

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1. Once the meeting starts, it’s all about looking at the pitches that made it to the table and making decisions. All the finished pitches will be found under the ongoing cycle mentioned above.

2. Each shaper who finished and posted his pitch will be called out to pitch his idea to the founders and to answer their questions (if there're any).

   Pitch structure:

   • 5 minutes long at max
   • Present the main idea (Problem, Solution and potential rabbit holes)
     • It doesn't have to be a formal presentation (e.g. in Keynote)

3. After all shapers pitched their ideas we should select the potential candidates and discuss them more thoroughly.

   <aside> ☝ If something isn't clear you can always call out the shaper for a quick explanation

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4. The output of the meeting is an announcement of the dev cycle. Between everyone present, there’s knowledge of who’s available, what the business priorities are, and what kind of work we’ve been doing lately. All of this feeds into the decision-making process about what to do and who to schedule.

5. After the bets are made, one of the attendees will write an announcement in ‣ and post it in #general channel on slack. That tells everyone which projects we're betting on for the next dev cycle and who will be working on them.

   <aside> ☝ Reasoning why the rest of the ideas weren't picked should be available to shapers inside Betting table's ‣.

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6. After this the Designer will have ~2 weeks time to deliver designs for each picked pitch before the start of the Cool-down as it's show in the Shape Up lifecycle

<aside> 🔥 Each picked pitch into the dev cycle must have assigned a responsible team

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