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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteHill Charts show a project’s work moving from uncertainty, up the hill, to execution, down the hill. In Basecamp, people who understand the work place and update the dots; the software does not calculate a percent-complete score. That makes the chart useful for discussing what is known, what remains unclear, and where a team may need to investigate—not as an objective progress measurement or a precise schedule forecast.
What is a Hill Chart?
A Hill Chart is a high-level view of a piece of project work. Its central distinction is between figuring out how to do the work and doing it. The uphill portion represents discovery and problem-solving; the crest marks a point where the team believes it understands the path forward; the downhill portion represents execution.
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Basecamp’s feature page describes the chart as showing “where the work really stands” and notes that “the status is human generated, not computer generated.” A dot represents a team’s judgment about a tracked scope, not a score derived from how many to-dos are complete. The chart compresses a larger piece of work into a position the team can discuss. Basecamp’s Hill Charts overview explains the feature and its history and commentary.
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What do uphill, the crest, and downhill mean?
Uphill: the approach is still being figured out
Work is uphill when the team is still discovering, testing, or validating how to solve the problem. The useful question is not simply “How many tasks are left?” but “What do we still need to learn or decide before execution is clear?”
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Near the crest: the execution path is becoming clear
Near the top, the team believes it has worked through the important unknowns sufficiently to see how to proceed. This is a judgment, not a guarantee. New information can reveal fresh uncertainty and move a piece of work back uphill.
Downhill: the team is carrying out an understood approach
Downhill means the team understands the approach and is executing it. It does not mean the work is finished: implementation, review, or other delivery work may remain.
The Shape Up chapter on showing progress explains the distinction and why representing discovery separately from execution can make a project easier to understand.
How to use Hill Charts in Basecamp
- Break work into meaningful pieces. Organize project work into to-do lists that represent scopes able to make progress independently. A list that combines work at different stages can conceal what is actually happening.
- Track a list. Open the list’s options menu and choose “Track this on the Hill Chart.” Tracked lists appear as dots on the project’s to-dos view. Basecamp’s Hill Chart help instructions describe the interface steps.
- Place dots using informed judgment. A team member with context moves each dot to reflect the current state of that work. The position is not generated from task completion.
- Save an update and add context where useful. Saving creates a chart snapshot. Commentary can explain a change in position, a new unknown, or why the work has not moved.
- Review changes over time. Compare snapshots to see whether work is moving or staying in place, then use that view to guide a conversation. A single chart shows a moment; its history provides context about change.
For a software-level description of Hill Chart dots and settings, see the Basecamp API documentation.
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- book
- A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition and The Standard for Project Management (ENGLISH)
What to do when a dot is stuck
A dot that has not moved is a reason to ask questions, not evidence that someone is underperforming. The Shape Up chapter puts the rationale this way: “The hill chart allows everybody to see that somebody might be stuck without them actually saying it.” A stationary position alone does not explain why the work has stalled—or whether it has stalled at all.
- Ask what uncertainty, decision, dependency, or blocker remains.
- Check whether the list’s scope is clear and cohesive, or whether it bundles work at different stages.
- Consider whether the team has learned something new that changes its understanding of the problem.
- Use commentary to record the reason for the position or change so the next snapshot is easier to interpret.
If one part of a scope is understood while another is still uncertain, split the work into independently progressing pieces and track them separately. The Shape Up chapter illustrates why: backend delivery may be largely solved while design and interface work remain uncertain. One blended dot would hide those different states; separate dots can make them visible.
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- Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook: How to Launch, Lead, and Sponsor Successful Projects
- Harvard Business Review Press
- BLANK BOOK
What Hill Charts can—and cannot—tell you
- They can make uncertainty visible. The team can distinguish work still being figured out from work being executed.
- They can support project conversations. A changing or stationary dot gives people a shared point of reference for asking what has changed and what needs attention.
- They do not calculate completion. Dot placement is human-generated, so it should not be read as a mechanically derived percentage.
- They do not establish a delivery date. A chart position is not, by itself, an evidence-based schedule forecast.
- They do not replace communication or delivery criteria. The team still needs to explain blockers, agree what “done” means, and decide how to deliver the work.
Hill Charts are part of Basecamp’s implementation of the broader Shape Up method. Ryan Singer’s Shape Up book and method offer further context, but the book is not required to use the Basecamp feature.
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