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Matt MacInnis, CPO at Rippling ($16B), said on 2026-05-10

2026-05-10 · 17:58 UTC ·@aakashgupta ·1 min read

Brief

Aakash Gupta advocates replacing long planning decks with a concise PLANNING.md stored in the code repo, citing Matt MacInnis (Rippling CPO) and a concrete 40-line spec format (Problem, Hypothesis, Success metrics, Rollout). He argues repo-based specs enable Claude Code integration, better IDE access and auditability, and points to Garry Tan's 65K-star Claude Code as proof; he urges committing a PLANNING.md on GitHub today.

Why it matters

Matt MacInnis, CPO at Rippling ($16B), said on 2026-05-10: "No more planning decks, only markdown pushed to a git repo." A 40-line PLANNING.md replaced a 15-page doc and includes Problem (e.g., "Users receive 12+ notifications/day; notification fatigue tickets up 34%; 8% of users muted all notifications"), Hypothesis, Success metrics (primary: mute rate drops >=15%; guardrails: high-priority CTR drop <=2%; DAU drop <=1%), and Rollout (10% of users, 2 weeks, kill if mute rate improvement <5%).

Key details

  • Keeping the spec in the same repo lets Claude Code read it during implementation, gives engineers IDE access, and provides git diffs/history for accountability; Google Docs, by contrast, scatter comments across Slack/email and get buried in Drive.
  • Garry Tan open-sourced the Claude Code setup (65K GitHub stars). Aakash Gupta's actionable start: create a GitHub repo, click "Add file," write PLANNING.md in the browser, and commit — no CLI needed — because "PMs who ship code make engineers happier."
Source evidence

Matt MacInnis, CPO at Rippling ($16B), said it last week: "No more planning decks, only markdown pushed to a git repo."

Here's what replaced the 15-page Google Doc. A PLANNING.md file with four sections:

Problem: 2 sentences. Data-backed. "Users receive 12+ notifications/day. Notification fatigue tickets up 34% last quarter. 8% of users muted all notifications."

Hypothesis: What you believe will happen. "Batching low-priority notifications into a daily digest will reduce mute rates by 15%+ while maintaining engagement with high-priority alerts."

Success metrics: Specific thresholds with guardrails. "Primary: mute rate drops ≥15%. Guardrail: high-priority CTR doesn't drop >2%. Guardrail: DAU doesn't decrease >1%."

Rollout: % exposure, duration, kill criteria. "10% of users, 2 weeks, user-level randomization. Kill if mute rate doesn't improve ≥5% after 2 weeks."

40 lines. That's the spec.

The location is what makes it work. When the spec lives in the same repo as the code, Claude Code reads it directly during implementation. Engineers reference it without leaving their IDE. Git log shows you why something shipped. Version control gives you diffs, history, accountability.

Google Docs live in silos. Comments scatter across Slack, email, and the doc itself. Engineers can't find the spec during implementation because it's buried in someone's Drive folder.

Garry Tan open-sourced his entire Claude Code setup. 65K GitHub stars. The planning system in the repo is part of why it works.

You can start today without a terminal. Create a GitHub repo. Click "Add file." Write your PLANNING.md in the browser. Commit it. You just shipped a spec to git. No CLI needed.

Aakash Gupta (@aakashgupta)

PMs who ship code make engineers happier.

Here's why, and how to start this week.

🔗: news.aakashg.com/p/pm-guide-…

— https://nitter.net/aakashgupta/status/2044203532858077257#m