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Ask HN: Review my project management tool Sprint.Im

10 points by riffmaster ↗ HN
http://Sprint.Im is a simple way of managing tasks and projects collaboratively. This is my first Saas product.

BackStory: When working on projects, there was really no way to track what was completed during the present week and what tasks were pending. Sprint.Im is sort of like an introspection on what work was really done. It's called Sprint.Im as it is loosely based on the agile project management process - Scrum. Each week here is a sprint and pending tasks are moved over to the new sprint.

I'm planning to add metrics to the tool so each team member can measure his productively and compare to his previous sprints.

I would really appreciate any feedback and/or suggestions.

14 comments

[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 51.2 ms ] thread
cooperadymas
Just a note on your headline, "Sprint.Im is the simplest way to create tasks and manage projects"

I look at a lot of these project or task management tools. I'm fascinated by them and actually maintain a large running list. Too many try to use the approach of "simple" or "easy" project management. (See http://www.teamworkpm.net/ and http://www.easyprojects.net/ and http://projectbubble.com/ [title tag] and http://tasskr.com/ - the list goes on.) While simple and easy may be one facet companies or individuals are looking for, I think it's overused and the wrong approach. Realistically, claiming you are the best at anything is fairly haughty, but people are good at attributing it to marketing text.

You would probably be better off attacking it from another angle. "Effective project management for small teams." (Is it meant for teams or individuals? I presume teams, but it's not very clear.) That being said, the best approach is to run tests to find the most effective headline.

riffmaster
I understand your point "Effective project management for small teams." sounds much better.

yes, it is meant for teams. yes, planning to test with different headlines.

thanks

bretthopper
Any chance you have a link to the list you mentioned? I'm sure I wouldn't be the only person interested.
autalpha
I think it looks great, just a few thoughts (mostly on UX/UI): 1. You probably can do without the <hr> tag separating the head and the rest of the body on the landing page 2. I see a signup button, but not a login/signin for existing user 3. I find the font a bit quirky, but that's just my preference. I try to do non-cursive font for easier reading 4. The about page: a) url is sprint.im/user/about--that's a bit weird as I'd assume it's just sprint.im/about b) shorter paragraphs and make the long paragraphs about "why Sprint.im different" into a list 5. Quick tour page: the bounding box of each step needs some top/bottom padding/margin. They're connected to each other right now. 6. Register page: a) help text for password is "secret salt" I get it, but I think the word salt would be confusing b) I don't like the arrow icon to the left--it's too big and too gaudy as a list icon 7. Just another thought/question for discussion as I am also wondering about this myself. It's a B2B/Saas, I wonder if the fact that it was made by one person should be pin-pointed (on the about page). Most people would prefer that their software is made by a team/group/company. Having a single name as designer/developer takes away that illusion of "faith" and can turn a lot of people away.

I think it's a great project. Congratulations on launching your beta. It's a great step and you should be happy and proud of it. Now just iterate like a machine and I'm sure you'll definitely see some interesting movement. Your space is interesting in that: there's a lot of players, but there isn't a king or someone who basically rule the rest (well, basecamp/jira maybe?), but that means if you focus (which I see that you are) you'll capture some market share that other guys haven't or can't seem to do. Good luck and as always, please update us on each iteration.

-V.

riffmaster
Hello V,

1. I'll see what I can do for the <hr> tag 2. Once you're registered, you get a companyname.sprint.im - That is where you're expected to login. 3.ok 4. Ok will plan on changing about and a few other pages. 5. ok 6. yeah its a little confusing.

yeah I've been pondering over if its the right call to showcase that it was built by a single person. Will have to do some testing to see what works. But I was hoping that it would me a more personal touch with customers.

Thank you for all the feedback and suggestions :) yes. Basecamp and Jira are huge so is project bubble. Hoping to get a good slice of the market share soon :)

autalpha
Are you saving the "registered" cookie? If a user is registered, but accessing the site on another browser, there would be no cookie and he/she wouldn't know how to login. What language/framework are you using?
riffmaster
Yes and No. Rememberme cookie autologs in when you goto company.sprint.im (if you have logged in before). It however does not log you in directly if you try to goto sprint.im. This is something I probably should work on. A simple login link would solve all the problems.

I use codeigniter.

VuongN
Yes, you definitely need to create a login/signup links. Just ask yourself this question: "what do I gain and loose by not having a login link?" Not all people read and not all people look at icons, so you usually have to have both icon and text to get all your users to take actions. If you make it less of a guess work for your users, they will appreciate you for it.
riffmaster
Yes, I agree. Thanks for your feedback
djb_hackernews
If you are aiming this towards software development projects, you'll really need to integrate with popular bug tracking software etc. If you want to be hip, integrate with github.
riffmaster
I was actually aiming towards general project management. But, I can see how it can be integrated well with zendesk/sifterapp.. I'm not really sure how integrating with github for would work for project management.

thanks for your feedback! :)