We’ve used a lot of project management (PM) apps over the years, and one thing has consistently been true. They’re slow.
All of those things that they do to make them user friendly in the beginning eventually get in the way of you doing your work. It’s as if they don’t trust us to have information density on a screen. From the homepage of the most popular web based PM app on the market you’re:
- 5 screens away from creating a todo.
- 3 screens away from uploading a file.
- 3 screens away from posting a message.
- 5 form fields away from saying “Yeah, -great idea!”
If any of this strikes you as weird, we think we’ll have something interesting to show you soon.
We’ll be inviting a few select people to our private beta of Staction in the next few weeks. If things go well, we’ll broaden the net. We’ll be setting up a site soon to start collecting emails for the first round of beta testers. We’ll let you know when it’s on…
July 14th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
“From the homepage of the most popular web based PM app” – I know, I know… pick me. :-) OK, seriously – assuming this PM app you mention is 37BC, then I’d hope your new app might be better than 37BP, yes?
July 15th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Kel, Actually I’ve always really like BP. I consider it to be one of the few perfectly executed apps on the market. Not sure about the stuff added on to make it more like an intranet, but other than that… amazing. BC is also perfect in it’s way. Execute something simply, and it will be solid, and durable. However, for advanced users, and people that live in their PM apps, it’s a bit tedious. While Staction would be great for keeping track of personal todos and items, it’s sweet spot is on communication in small groups. If you need to have tons of people with varying technical prowess huddle around a pm app, – BC is a good tool. If you need to share pages of simple content with people, or organize your thoughts, BP is perfect. If you need to rapidly communicate, swap files, and todos, Staction is going to scratch your itch.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Hmm – OK. I guess we’ll have to see it when it’s here. I’ve been using BP since the beginning and short of some “sharing hiccups” I find it useful for my own files as well as our small team. We barely rely on IM/Chat but do make plenty of use of ToDo lists etc. fwiw, One of the problems encountered w/ BP is LONG pages of content having no way to easily collapse information (think JS accordion style) so we can see an overview without being immediately bombarded by the details.
So bring it on. I’d love to see what Staction brings to the table.