Strategic Heartbeat for Impactful Products
(Also: actually ship your damn features)
In the age of AI, everyone can build. Only a few can SHIP.
Every letter is a doctrine. Every doctrine is a decision. Every decision is a release.
"Code is cheap. Taste isn't."
Each pillar of SHIP represents a fundamental shift in how we think about releasing features.
Before Software
Socialize Ideas, Gather Natural Audience Leverage
"Announce what you're building before you build it."
The old playbook: build in secret, launch with fanfare, pray for adoption. The new playbook: signal your intent, build in public, let users pull features into existence.
Hot Take: If your launch surprises your users, you've been building for yourself.
Over Heroics
Habitual Excellence Accumulates Results, Transforming Business Every Active Turn
"Steady releases beat dramatic launches."
Big bang releases are organizational theater. They feel important. They look impressive in slide decks. They're also scientifically designed to maximize risk and minimize learning.
| Anti-Pattern | HEARTBEAT Alternative |
|---|---|
| Quarterly mega-release | Weekly micro-releases |
| Launch day war rooms | Tuesday ship rituals |
| Feature embargos | Living changelogs |
| "When it's ready" | "Ready enough for Tuesday" |
Hot Take: Your release frequency is your learning frequency. Ship slow, learn slow.
Not Implementation
Identify Meaningful Problems And Create Transformations
"Users don't care how you built it. They care that you built the right thing."
The AI revolution didn't just make code cheap—it made code disposable. You can rebuild your entire frontend this afternoon. What you can't regenerate is the insight that told you what to build.
What user pain does this solve?
(No pain, no gain)
Who asked for this?
(If nobody, why are you building it?)
How will we know it worked?
(If you can't measure it, it didn't ship)
Is this the smallest thing that delivers the value?
(MVP = Maximum Value, Pruned)
Hot Take: In 2025, your competitive advantage is taste, not technical skill. AI has taste parity with nobody.
Your People
Promote, Update, Loop, Solicit, Engage
"A feature that ships in silence dies in silence."
Building is step one. Releasing is step two. Making people care is the whole game.
The PULSE Protocol:
The PULSE Channels:
Hot Take: Marketing isn't a post-launch activity. Marketing is the release.
More acronyms. More opinions. All essential.
Features Under Demand
Build what they ask for. Ship what they need.
Also: the antidote to Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt
Principle Of Least Astonishment
Bore them into adoption.
If users say "wait, what?"—you failed
Release, Iterate, Publicize
The three stages of actually shipping.
Also what happens to features you don't promote
Delivered Only Artifacts
Features without fanfare are dead on arrival.
Signs your feature is DOA
Announce, Iterate, Measure
The post-launch trinity.
Before every release, ask:
If any answer is "no"—you're not ready to SHIP.
"In the age of AI, code is a commodity.
Shipping is a craft."
Anyone can prompt their way to a feature.
Only the disciplined can SHIP it properly.
FeaturePulse exists because the hardest part of features isn't building them—it's knowing which ones matter and making sure the world knows when they land.
S.H.I.P. it or skip it.