28 ms·

Show HN: Lean Specs - Simple project specifications and estimates

20 points by pytrin 14y ago

oliwarner 14y ago
Sorry but what about this is "Show HN"? You're not showing anything! This seems to be a fairly common thing on HN - have half an idea, do a bit of webdesign and create a email-submission form.
- pytrin 14y ago
  We're showing a product we're about to launch in a couple of weeks and are looking for feedback and to hear what the HN crowd thinks about this kind of service.
  - andyjohnson0 14y ago
    There needs to be something for us to give feedback on. I hope that your launch goes well.
    - pytrin 14y ago
      Thank you :) We hoped to get some feedback from people using current tools before we launch, and we're getting some already, so that's great.
      - borneo 14y ago
        So now that you obliviously recieved your own spec from some HN commenters.. (I wanted at least screenshots man!) What would be an example of current tools people are using for drafting tech specs beyond a word processor? What software is similar to yours / competition / etc?
mattyfo 14y ago
Nothing to see here but I am curious to see what this team has come up with. As a UX Architect/Product Manager it's a tough game staying on top of client requests, clarifying them and then handing them off for development. I think the challenge is having something that meets the needs of everyone but is flexible enough to adjust for unforeseen work, new requirements and shifting priorities.
- adambenayoun 14y ago
  Matt, Thanks a lot for the feedback - we know there's a huge pain for everyone involved in the specification stage. I personally wrote so many spec documents and price proposals in my life and I can tell you that it was the part I enjoyed the least in the project. (Althought extremely crucial for its success). I hope we can solve this pain and make this a better experience for everyone involved.
  - mattyfo 14y ago
    For sure, when you launch the beta let me know and I'll give you my honest feedback. I might even be able to use it on a project but will have to take a look at the product first.
    - adambenayoun 14y ago
      Great! We'll make sure to post a url on hacker news once we go live. Alternatively if you want to be notified - make sure to leave your email on http://www.leanspecs.com http://www.leanspecs.com
Nicolas___ 14y ago
This is an ok home page. Your idea could be very good or very bad, depending on how your service works. But right now, there is no way to tell because it shows nothing at all. You basically asked for some feedback on the content of some <title> tags.
- pytrin 14y ago
  We want feedback from people who are building specifications with current tools, to help us make some decisions on the final featureset of the product. We wish we could show screenshots, but the interface currently is functionality only without design :(
d0m 14y ago
I really like the social media share buttons. Are these custom made?
- pytrin 14y ago
  Yes, custom buttons who fetch the counters through the various (unofficial) APIs for each service. We'll be releasing a set of those on Github soon
  - mapleoin 14y ago
    They're also a bit broken: http://i.imgur.com/D916w.png http://i.imgur.com/D916w.png I have a recent Firefox with what seems like bigger fonts than you were expecting.
    - adambenayoun 14y ago
      Thanks for catching that - we'll try to see if we can address that issue.
josephfung 14y ago
Like the title, but was disappointed. Coming up with a spec format that clients will like has always been a fairly easy problem to solve - as well the spec is usually worked on once the project has been awarded, so isn't even part of the sales process. As well it's hard to improve the writing + sharing experience of Word + Email or Google Docs + Sharing. The attention to estimating is nice, and will save freelancers or less experienced teams time, but is only really useful to teams that do contract and custom work. I was hoping for more of a focus on the collaborative work that comes out of writing specs: more around the commenting/editing/workflow. When working on a spec (either internal or external) change requests or modifications are important, as are interdependencies and change tracking. Your product title made me think "GitHub for Specs" and it doesn't seam you're going that way. Shame.
- adambenayoun 14y ago
  Joseph - thanks a lot for the feedback. We're at the stage that we're looking for feedback from other individuals and see how they are experiencing the pain we've experienced in the past. We intend on reading every single feedback left on our form and here and discuss how we can better serve our potential users. By the way - I loved the "github for specs" :)
  - josephfung 14y ago
    No problem. Good luck with the new service. Oh yeah - thinking back to consulting work - something that let me "make a beautiful spec and share it" would have felt like a one-time-use service. Subscribe for a month, make a spec, take the learnings and add it to my own Word template. The problem I mentioned (collaborative spec maintenance) is something that I know I'd pay for as a subscription - specifically because it helps me manage something for the ongoing health of our products. It becomes more core. The only downside is that a solution more aligned to infrastructure costs (as I have suggested) can't command as high a price premium as something that is aligned to revenue (i.e. help me rationalize/explain higher estimates to customers).
    - adambenayoun 14y ago
binarysolo 14y ago
Like the project idea, but like others have said, there's nothing much to show for right now. I understand what you're trying to do -- outsourcing requirements for your MVP before invest more time -- but seriously, call a spade a spade... (This is probably more Ask HN than Show HN.)
jimparkins 14y ago
Ironic? That your website touting"lean" has a MVP that is too minimal?
rglover 14y ago
Bummer. I've been thinking of a strategy to reform this exact process for my business, but there's nothing I can do here (yet). ETA?
- adambenayoun 14y ago
  rglove - we hope we'll be able to launch this product within 3-4 weeks top. Leave your email and feedback and we'll make sure to send you an email once we're live.
ams6110 14y ago
Something to help format and present specifications to a client would likely be something I would be interested in trying. However basing estimates on "industry averages" is probably about as bad an idea as letting your manager estimate your work for you. As Joel Spolsky has said in at least one article[1]: Only the programmer who is going to do the work can figure out what steps they will need to take to implement that feature. And only the programmer can estimate how long each one will take. Industry averages might be usable at some level as a sanity check, but honestly most software that is more complex than very basic CRUD is not going to conform to any "averages" for purposes of estimating. [1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000245.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000245.html

20 points by pytrin 14y ago

Sorry but what about this is "Show HN"? You're not showing anything! This seems to be a fairly common thing on HN - have half an idea, do a bit of webdesign and create a email-submission form.

pytrin 14y ago
We're showing a product we're about to launch in a couple of weeks and are looking for feedback and to hear what the HN crowd thinks about this kind of service.
- andyjohnson0 14y ago
  There needs to be something for us to give feedback on. I hope that your launch goes well.
  - pytrin 14y ago
    Thank you :) We hoped to get some feedback from people using current tools before we launch, and we're getting some already, so that's great.
    - borneo 14y ago
      So now that you obliviously recieved your own spec from some HN commenters.. (I wanted at least screenshots man!) What would be an example of current tools people are using for drafting tech specs beyond a word processor? What software is similar to yours / competition / etc?

mattyfo 14y ago

Nothing to see here but I am curious to see what this team has come up with. As a UX Architect/Product Manager it's a tough game staying on top of client requests, clarifying them and then handing them off for development. I think the challenge is having something that meets the needs of everyone but is flexible enough to adjust for unforeseen work, new requirements and shifting priorities.

adambenayoun 14y ago
Matt, Thanks a lot for the feedback - we know there's a huge pain for everyone involved in the specification stage. I personally wrote so many spec documents and price proposals in my life and I can tell you that it was the part I enjoyed the least in the project. (Althought extremely crucial for its success). I hope we can solve this pain and make this a better experience for everyone involved.
- mattyfo 14y ago
  For sure, when you launch the beta let me know and I'll give you my honest feedback. I might even be able to use it on a project but will have to take a look at the product first.
  - adambenayoun 14y ago
    Great! We'll make sure to post a url on hacker news once we go live. Alternatively if you want to be notified - make sure to leave your email on http://www.leanspecs.com http://www.leanspecs.com

Nicolas___ 14y ago

This is an ok home page. Your idea could be very good or very bad, depending on how your service works. But right now, there is no way to tell because it shows nothing at all. You basically asked for some feedback on the content of some <title> tags.

pytrin 14y ago
We want feedback from people who are building specifications with current tools, to help us make some decisions on the final featureset of the product. We wish we could show screenshots, but the interface currently is functionality only without design :(

d0m 14y ago

I really like the social media share buttons. Are these custom made?

pytrin 14y ago
Yes, custom buttons who fetch the counters through the various (unofficial) APIs for each service. We'll be releasing a set of those on Github soon
- mapleoin 14y ago
  They're also a bit broken: http://i.imgur.com/D916w.png http://i.imgur.com/D916w.png I have a recent Firefox with what seems like bigger fonts than you were expecting.
  - adambenayoun 14y ago
    Thanks for catching that - we'll try to see if we can address that issue.

josephfung 14y ago

Like the title, but was disappointed. Coming up with a spec format that clients will like has always been a fairly easy problem to solve - as well the spec is usually worked on once the project has been awarded, so isn't even part of the sales process. As well it's hard to improve the writing + sharing experience of Word + Email or Google Docs + Sharing. The attention to estimating is nice, and will save freelancers or less experienced teams time, but is only really useful to teams that do contract and custom work. I was hoping for more of a focus on the collaborative work that comes out of writing specs: more around the commenting/editing/workflow. When working on a spec (either internal or external) change requests or modifications are important, as are interdependencies and change tracking. Your product title made me think "GitHub for Specs" and it doesn't seam you're going that way. Shame.

adambenayoun 14y ago
Joseph - thanks a lot for the feedback. We're at the stage that we're looking for feedback from other individuals and see how they are experiencing the pain we've experienced in the past. We intend on reading every single feedback left on our form and here and discuss how we can better serve our potential users. By the way - I loved the "github for specs" :)
- josephfung 14y ago
  No problem. Good luck with the new service. Oh yeah - thinking back to consulting work - something that let me "make a beautiful spec and share it" would have felt like a one-time-use service. Subscribe for a month, make a spec, take the learnings and add it to my own Word template. The problem I mentioned (collaborative spec maintenance) is something that I know I'd pay for as a subscription - specifically because it helps me manage something for the ongoing health of our products. It becomes more core. The only downside is that a solution more aligned to infrastructure costs (as I have suggested) can't command as high a price premium as something that is aligned to revenue (i.e. help me rationalize/explain higher estimates to customers).
  - adambenayoun 14y ago

binarysolo 14y ago

Like the project idea, but like others have said, there's nothing much to show for right now. I understand what you're trying to do -- outsourcing requirements for your MVP before invest more time -- but seriously, call a spade a spade... (This is probably more Ask HN than Show HN.)

jimparkins 14y ago

Ironic? That your website touting"lean" has a MVP that is too minimal?

rglover 14y ago

Bummer. I've been thinking of a strategy to reform this exact process for my business, but there's nothing I can do here (yet). ETA?

adambenayoun 14y ago
rglove - we hope we'll be able to launch this product within 3-4 weeks top. Leave your email and feedback and we'll make sure to send you an email once we're live.

ams6110 14y ago

Something to help format and present specifications to a client would likely be something I would be interested in trying. However basing estimates on "industry averages" is probably about as bad an idea as letting your manager estimate your work for you. As Joel Spolsky has said in at least one article[1]: Only the programmer who is going to do the work can figure out what steps they will need to take to implement that feature. And only the programmer can estimate how long each one will take. Industry averages might be usable at some level as a sanity check, but honestly most software that is more complex than very basic CRUD is not going to conform to any "averages" for purposes of estimating. [1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000245.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000245.html