Donate an idea to HN: Checklists
A colleague who is a hobbyist aerobatics pilot says that aviation has become as safe as it is through the ubiquitous use of checklists. Everything has a checklist, and said checklist goes into the smallest detail. I've taken that on-board and we're starting to use explicit checklists when we deploy new systems, run through tests, diagnose problems, etc., and it's starting to make a real difference.
But building the checklists was a pain.
Recently I had a new boiler installed at home. No problems, great hot water, great heating, everything seemed fine. Now I find that some of the hot water taps are leaking. They were installed with the older, lower pressure system in place, and they need upgrading to cope with mains pressure hot water. Similarly, sometimes the kitchen hot water tap makes loud, ugly noises.
If I'd had a checklist of things to confirm before signing off, the plumbers would never have left the building without dealing with them. They're being great, but it's costing them time and money, and me hassle, to get these things put straight.
A checklist would save time, money and hassle.
How about a web site where I type in "Hot water" and it gives me a checklist. Or "New ISP" and it gives me a checklist. Perhaps the checklist can then be refined further, or perhaps it allows me to mark things as done or pending.
I think I'd pay money to be registered with a site like that.
Comments?
37 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 77.6 ms ] threadYes.
Think of a household or service disaster, and ask whether it could've been saved/improved by asking the right question at the right time.
http://www.ehow.com/search.aspx?s=hot+water&Options=0
http://springpadit.com
I used to work with a number of these guys. Given what I know about how the site works, they could probably get you off and running pretty quickly in the unlikely event that it doesn't already do what you want.
Combine it with a todo list service maybe ?
That's their chicken-and-egg problem, and it's in their hands. Let people contribute without a login, let them benefit from their contributions, and people will play. Control the quality in the first stages and you have a viable product.
How would you deal with differences of opinions in what should be on the checklist for a topic? Wiki-style colloboration?
You can create checklists, create and track changes between instances, diff changes between the master and instances, create iterative checklists, embed checklists in other checklists and set dependencies. Also the interface was built with usability and flexibility in mind.
I have also added task, data list, comment, contact and document management since all of those are necessary for a good process management tool.
My inspiration for this was the fact that process and workflow management is a pain point for individuals and small businesses and there have been no easy-to-setup, user focused solutions out there.
I will be putting up a directory of public checklists in the near future, once the rest of the product is stable and usable.
I was waiting to post this but until I was ready to open signups but I have working on it for the last 4 months.
Email me if you want to be a Beta user: daniel at chcheck dot com. There are some bugs but it is definitely usable.
Isn't the idea posted above more focused on the crowdsourcing/directory aspect of this, and not so much the "I've created a great checklist creator!" part? It's not "EXACTLY" what s/he's talking about by any means.
One of the intentions of the product is to handle these large distributed processes with the management of a Master Checklist that can be diffed with other masters and instances. I added that feature to facilitate those sort of crowdsourced checklists/processes.
The public workflow would need to be super-simple looking (that whole web 2.0-ish look 'n feel) with prominent search. Perhaps something like: chcheck.com/business vs chcheck.com/public and chcheck.com/ would represent the user's path choice.
Just some thoughts - perhaps you're already moving down a similar path. Best of luck!
The current interface is in the process of being given a more understandable and inviting initial user experience to accomplish that.
The rough idea was that you would collect this public information, add a calendar/reminder component and then localize (which would be the hard part).
It sounds as if you may be going down this path at some point in the future. If so, I think it would be a very interesting service for which small businesses might pay a token yearly fee.
Alternatively, I've had a bad experience getting a washing machine, and I want to add the item:
"When buying a washing machine, make sure it can accept mains pressure hot water."
I can't see how to do that.
What you are looking at also provides the interface you login to when you want to create checklists or work with one of your running checklist instances.
What you are talking about, the directory piece of the puzzle, is in development and almost out the door. It will allow you to find checklists in this manner and clone them into your account so you can edit them and create any number of instances based on them.
Currently I can't see anything I want. I can't even really understand what it does have. It looks good, it looks like there might be substance, but from the screen I'm on I can't understand what it thinks I'm trying to do.
Does that make sense?
I'll email you separately, and this isn't entirely negative, and I want it to work for me.
And what's a "module"? And what does "Add a new object" mean?
The system has a few different objects that can be embedded in pages and checklists - todo lists, data lists, docs, files, comments and other checklists. The feature needs some work before its usable.
Understood.
I think the underlying problem here is that you have a particular model in your mind of objects and actions, and I, as yet, have no way of discovering what that model is, why it's useful, or how I use it. I think you need to make explicit, either through the interface itself, or with an explanation (big, bold cartoons can be effective) what your underlying model really is.
Whether you should stop coding and do it now, or whether you should finish alpha coding and then do it, is up to you, but without some sort of communication of your model of what happens, I don't think you'll get any useful feedback.
I hope that helps - it's intended to. More via email.
This happened about a month sooner than I was planning so I haven't had a chance to address the learnability of the app yet. Would love to have you check it out when I am a little farther along.
I'm looking forward to seeing the finished site with all of the features Daniel has in mind fully implemented
Hunch.com inspired me for a website like that.
It could be really useful to solve basic car troubles or anything technical.
So I would love a checklist tool that I could use for this. Right now I am using jottit and just making a list; if your system worked better I would use it.
I often check my gear against lists that are published by camping supply companies (Coleman, etc). Much further down the line, it might be an interesting business model to allow for "sponsored" lists.
The article describes how medical checklists, especially when nurses are empowered to force doctors to follow them, can improve patient outcomes.
The article also mentions an interesting example of checklists in aviation history.
I am also struck when reading Gawande that in many ways, his writing is like Gladwell's: interesting anecdote, statement of principle, seemingly unrelated anecdote, full description of principle.
However, given these same elements, I feel much more convinced by Gawande than by Gladwell. The latter's principles never really seem to follow from the anecdotes quoted; there's a logical gap, or he seems to be misinterpreting the research, or he's found a corner-case, or he's just grasping for straws.
Yet, I can't really figure out why I don't feel the same way about Gawande. Perhaps because he writes mostly about medicine, and as a (former?) doctor, he lends more credibility? Whereas Gladwell writes about more everyday and varied things, in which he is obviously not an expert?