4 ms·

I would think about your positioning some. You’re marketing this as having “less complexity” which first of all, isn’t going to appeal to people unless they’

I would think about your positioning some. You’re marketing this as having “less complexity” which first of all, isn’t going to appeal to people unless they’ve already used the other tools. But, if they had tried Trello, that’s far from complex, as you say it doesn’t have the features you think are needed, so you are more complex than that. It might be that you’re excellent at UX but that needs some comparative examples to see how you have differentiated things. Instead, it might make sense to go more with all the features you need, nothing you don’t angle. Note that I don’t think this really differentiates too much from clickup which has personal productivity options, and as you get bigger you know customers are going to ask for more and more features, because that’s what they do, and we also know that business accounts are the money makers in this market. It also runs counter to building an “all in one” tool. If you hope to replace chat, docs, collaboration, calendar, and journaling, that’s a big change for people who stepped in just looking for task management. I did see that your prices are lower so you might try positioning based on lower prices than your competition, if you have carefully chosen those price points.

tonypham 4y ago
Thanks so much for your suggestions. And yes, you're right. Positioning is what we're trying to figure out at the moment. We'll consider your feedback very seriously. Thanks again for taking the time to give us some ideas. Cheers,
- jacurtis 4y ago
  I really like the positioning of "a project management suite for solos and small teams". That to me is very appealing because these don't really exist very well. Most project management tools are designed for tons of people. You might be able to make them work for a solo or small team, but they tend to be focused on larger teams, because as mentioned previously, those tend to be the customers spending the most money and they ask for features and they get made. Before long every project management tool becomes a large team project management tool because of this. Positioning yourself as specifically designed for solo and small team project management to me is an underserved market. When I looked at your landing page, I scrolled down quickly thinking "cool another PM tool... just what the world needs". Then when I saw the line 3/4 of the way down that said "Specifically designed for solos, small teams and businesses" that caused me to perk up and go back to the top and look at the page from a different perspective that I was much more interested in. I see now looking at it again that you mention "personal productivity" which I now understand is your way of saying small and solos. But I just interpreted it as a PM tool that made you productive amongst your team. So it didn't really resonate to me. Anyway, the product is actually interesting. I'm going to check it out. I've been wanting a PM tool for solos. There are a couple out there, but they all suck. The best solution up to this point for solo project management that I have found is just using a generic solution like Notion or Trello and adapting it to my needs. So this is worth a shot IMHO.
  - tonypham 4y ago
    Thanks for your valuable feedback and suggestions. I greatly appreciate it. The one thing I'm concerned about regarding the positioning of "a project management suite for solos and small teams" is that people will question: "If my team grows bigger, does the app still work well for us? Or we have to find another solution?"
    - cseleborg 4y ago
      I wonder if it's worth worrying about that. There's plenty of freelancers who have no ambition of growing beyond a small team that helps them with the side stuff. Those are the freelancers who don't want to become entrepreneurs. I think they're an interesting enough market to target, and maybe it's OK if those who have dreams of growth don't feel addressed here? Come to think of it, it may actually be flattering to solos if you recognize them for what they are and don't treat them as not-yet-bigs, if that makes sense.
      - tonypham 4y ago
        Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It makes a lot of sense. Cheers,
      - jussy 4y ago
        Agreed and maybe expand on this angle. For example, I struggle(time intensive) with the centralisation of resourcing and project/task assignment workflow. Find an available capable person, invite to org, assign to team/project, get working. I scale through subcontractors so the ability to decentralize that workflow would be nice. E.g. suggestions of who would be best for this project in an internal or public marketplace of other solos.
  - airfoil 4y ago
    I don’t have a ton of value to add since the parent comment did a wonderful job of laying things out. I wanted to mention that I also perked up and paid closer attention when I saw that this was designed for solos and small teams. I’ll definitely be giving a try. Thank you for sharing!
- justWells 4y ago
  I work in B2B SaaS marketing as a PMM. I’d try something a little catchy’r on the home page. “Personalized project management for the entire team” Or something of that ilk
  - tonypham 4y ago
    Thanks for your suggestions. I must admit that copywriting is freaking hard - much harder than designing and building products :))
  - FitBoy 4y ago
    [dead]
eagsalazar2 4y ago
DFM may be a nice lens to look at positioning this through IMO. It's thoughtfully designed around the larger workflow which more archaic (jab jab) tools don't understand or ignore. Honestly I love Trello but wouldn't give it the time of day in your positioning. Just emphasizing the depth of expertise and broad perspective on daily/weekly individual/team workflow that made your tool possible will, without saying it, be positioning you agains the anti-pm tool genre of pm tools (like Trello). Combine that with some talk about "delightful UX" (snark snark, you suck Jira!) and "modern, robust infrastructure with insane performance" (lol Asana you also suck!). Just thinking out loud but seriously positioning against Asana, Jira, Shortcut, etc should be as easy as saying, in other words, "brainless, terrible user experience, and buggy" (all of which are true and everybody knows it).
- tonypham 4y ago
  Thanks so much for your contribution. You made some really great points here. I'll take your ideas into consideration. Thanks again for your help.
- bornfreddy 4y ago
  With UX and performance jabs you take care of clickup too. God it sucks.
  - solardev 4y ago
    I haven't used ClickUp much myself, but I've heard good things about it. Why does it suck for you?
    - jetofff 4y ago
      Using click up for work right now. It's super powerful and is useful to someone like me who will utilize all the features, but very confusing and overwhelming to someone who needs to learn the tool.
    - bornfreddy 4y ago
      URLs sometimes work and sometimes don't. The UI is complex compared to the (old, on premise) Jira which is saying something - looking for tickets that you know are there is infuriating. The best way to copy the ticket text (once you do find it) is to copy it from the changelog and clean it up, or just take a screenshot... and so on. One of the worst UIs I have ever seen. Pretty? As a picture. Useful? Hell no. Sorry for the rant, but I have pretty strong feelings about it. Moved to (online) Jira and while not perfect, it's much better than ClickUp.
kristianc 4y ago
Related on positioning - all of the above is correct and also unless you’re going hard for the SEO marketing / growth hacker angle I’d maybe reconsider AppSumo as a partner as I very much associate them with the SEO / website takeover modal / scuzzy dark pattern side of things. AppSumo will also bring in a very specific type of customer.
- tonypham 4y ago
  Thanks for your suggestion. I'll consider it.

tonypham 4y ago

Thanks so much for your suggestions. And yes, you're right. Positioning is what we're trying to figure out at the moment. We'll consider your feedback very seriously. Thanks again for taking the time to give us some ideas. Cheers,

jacurtis 4y ago
I really like the positioning of "a project management suite for solos and small teams". That to me is very appealing because these don't really exist very well. Most project management tools are designed for tons of people. You might be able to make them work for a solo or small team, but they tend to be focused on larger teams, because as mentioned previously, those tend to be the customers spending the most money and they ask for features and they get made. Before long every project management tool becomes a large team project management tool because of this. Positioning yourself as specifically designed for solo and small team project management to me is an underserved market. When I looked at your landing page, I scrolled down quickly thinking "cool another PM tool... just what the world needs". Then when I saw the line 3/4 of the way down that said "Specifically designed for solos, small teams and businesses" that caused me to perk up and go back to the top and look at the page from a different perspective that I was much more interested in. I see now looking at it again that you mention "personal productivity" which I now understand is your way of saying small and solos. But I just interpreted it as a PM tool that made you productive amongst your team. So it didn't really resonate to me. Anyway, the product is actually interesting. I'm going to check it out. I've been wanting a PM tool for solos. There are a couple out there, but they all suck. The best solution up to this point for solo project management that I have found is just using a generic solution like Notion or Trello and adapting it to my needs. So this is worth a shot IMHO.
- tonypham 4y ago
  Thanks for your valuable feedback and suggestions. I greatly appreciate it. The one thing I'm concerned about regarding the positioning of "a project management suite for solos and small teams" is that people will question: "If my team grows bigger, does the app still work well for us? Or we have to find another solution?"
  - cseleborg 4y ago
    I wonder if it's worth worrying about that. There's plenty of freelancers who have no ambition of growing beyond a small team that helps them with the side stuff. Those are the freelancers who don't want to become entrepreneurs. I think they're an interesting enough market to target, and maybe it's OK if those who have dreams of growth don't feel addressed here? Come to think of it, it may actually be flattering to solos if you recognize them for what they are and don't treat them as not-yet-bigs, if that makes sense.
    - tonypham 4y ago
      Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It makes a lot of sense. Cheers,
    - jussy 4y ago
      Agreed and maybe expand on this angle. For example, I struggle(time intensive) with the centralisation of resourcing and project/task assignment workflow. Find an available capable person, invite to org, assign to team/project, get working. I scale through subcontractors so the ability to decentralize that workflow would be nice. E.g. suggestions of who would be best for this project in an internal or public marketplace of other solos.
- airfoil 4y ago
  I don’t have a ton of value to add since the parent comment did a wonderful job of laying things out. I wanted to mention that I also perked up and paid closer attention when I saw that this was designed for solos and small teams. I’ll definitely be giving a try. Thank you for sharing!
justWells 4y ago
I work in B2B SaaS marketing as a PMM. I’d try something a little catchy’r on the home page. “Personalized project management for the entire team” Or something of that ilk
- tonypham 4y ago
  Thanks for your suggestions. I must admit that copywriting is freaking hard - much harder than designing and building products :))
- FitBoy 4y ago
  [dead]

eagsalazar2 4y ago

DFM may be a nice lens to look at positioning this through IMO. It's thoughtfully designed around the larger workflow which more archaic (jab jab) tools don't understand or ignore. Honestly I love Trello but wouldn't give it the time of day in your positioning. Just emphasizing the depth of expertise and broad perspective on daily/weekly individual/team workflow that made your tool possible will, without saying it, be positioning you agains the anti-pm tool genre of pm tools (like Trello). Combine that with some talk about "delightful UX" (snark snark, you suck Jira!) and "modern, robust infrastructure with insane performance" (lol Asana you also suck!). Just thinking out loud but seriously positioning against Asana, Jira, Shortcut, etc should be as easy as saying, in other words, "brainless, terrible user experience, and buggy" (all of which are true and everybody knows it).

tonypham 4y ago
Thanks so much for your contribution. You made some really great points here. I'll take your ideas into consideration. Thanks again for your help.
bornfreddy 4y ago
With UX and performance jabs you take care of clickup too. God it sucks.
- solardev 4y ago
  I haven't used ClickUp much myself, but I've heard good things about it. Why does it suck for you?
  - jetofff 4y ago
    Using click up for work right now. It's super powerful and is useful to someone like me who will utilize all the features, but very confusing and overwhelming to someone who needs to learn the tool.
  - bornfreddy 4y ago
    URLs sometimes work and sometimes don't. The UI is complex compared to the (old, on premise) Jira which is saying something - looking for tickets that you know are there is infuriating. The best way to copy the ticket text (once you do find it) is to copy it from the changelog and clean it up, or just take a screenshot... and so on. One of the worst UIs I have ever seen. Pretty? As a picture. Useful? Hell no. Sorry for the rant, but I have pretty strong feelings about it. Moved to (online) Jira and while not perfect, it's much better than ClickUp.

kristianc 4y ago

Related on positioning - all of the above is correct and also unless you’re going hard for the SEO marketing / growth hacker angle I’d maybe reconsider AppSumo as a partner as I very much associate them with the SEO / website takeover modal / scuzzy dark pattern side of things. AppSumo will also bring in a very specific type of customer.

tonypham 4y ago
Thanks for your suggestion. I'll consider it.