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ShowHN: Tracker.pm - Our In-house PM tool goes public

34 points by joeconway 14y ago

joeconway 14y ago
We at Leto love to build our own tools to make our work easier. We think that one of them, Tracker, is ready to help other people who want an alternative PM tool to the big players. We thought that Jira was too heavy, PivotalTracker had too much jargon and Trello was on the right track but not quite right. We've taken all the best ideas from the different tools available and made them into something we really enjoying working with. We'd love to know what the people on Hacker News think of it. EDIT: we have an app too, with iPad and Android support around the corner! appstore.com/trackerpm
- danpalmer 14y ago
  I've just signed up, and it looks good, although I'm wondering what about Trello you found 'not quite right'? I'm a big fan of Trello and use it for a few projects.
  - joeconway 14y ago
    Thanks Dan! Basically we thought that Trello is great but we wanted: -The ability to make time estimates for each task -Nice email integration, with the ability to reply to notification emails to add comments to the tasks -Number of task and hourly counts for the columns
    - danpalmer 14y ago
      Fair enough, I guess Trello is more about project/issue management and less about time tracking which is really the point of 1 and 3 above. From having a quick look around the service, I think I'll stick with Trello for my projects, but then time tracking isn't something I need. I can see that this would be quite useful for many freelancers though, who need more time tracking capabilities. And at any rate, it's nicer than Pivotal! Email integration is a good idea, and something that Trello is really missing out.
- erso 14y ago
  You really couldn't think of a better name?
dclaysmith 14y ago
Looks a lot like my app: http://www.thetaboard.com http://www.thetaboard.com But with some more bells and whistles and a predefined PM workflow. (In fairness, we both look like Pivotal and Trello to a lesser degree so it doesn't bother me) Given the noticeable similarities, I'd love to hear how you get on with signups and revenue. ThetaBoard is currently free (It's hard to compete with Trello's price!) but I would certainly love to make a living with it. I've just found it very difficult to "market" something that is designed to appeal to such a broad market. Good luck with the launch.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
porker 14y ago
It looks just like Trello - what makes it different? A page which told me what was different would help me to decide quickly if it's worth signing up. And help your sales!
jahewson 14y ago
Suspiciously similar to http://trello.com http://trello.com UI design...
- gilini 14y ago
  First thing that crossed my mind when I clicked the link. But I guess there's not much you can do to emulate Kanban's workflow.
  - ricardobeat 14y ago
    That's the same as the iPad argument. There are a thousand ways to design a kanban board, only one resembles Trello. See Pivotal Tracker: http://www.pivotaltracker.com/features http://www.pivotaltracker.com/features
- nsfmc 14y ago
  the real bummer is that the iphone app bears significantly less resemblance to trello's and seems to imply that tracker was at some point much less trello-ish and more focused on keeping projects within some time budget (since the inverted bar graph seems to let you know which stage the majority your project's tasks appear to be in) it's a shame that there's such a strong resemblance on first glance because i'm sure this is useful to small teams who think trello's too laissez faire and also would like a ui that acknowledges that they have to be accountable to specific time/budget constraints.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
daemon13 14y ago
Actually, to be fair and honest, Trello's main UI design looks suspiciously similar to the Excel templates that I used for project management 10 years ago [and freely shared with many people], which in turn were inspired by GDPM (Goal Directed Project Management] book [1]. The UI design was listed in the book's appendix. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Goal-Directed-Project-Management-Techniques/dp/0749453346 http://www.amazon.com/Goal-Directed-Project-Management-Techn... This is the 4th edition of the book, the first was published more than 10 years ago. quote "Goal Directed Project Management (GDPM) is a unique methodology that has been developed and refined by the authors over a period of more than 20 years. In this time, organizations all over the world have adopted it as a standard approach." Unless there is a pixel for pixel copy, why don't we stop implicating that similar UI designs and ideas is an offense and wrongdoing?
- swah 14y ago
  a) Do you still use them? b) Can we see it? :)
  - daemon13 14y ago
    a) Now not, but the UI is very handy to have 1 page overview of the project. I used it for implementing Hyperion Essbase for business & financial planning in 1998 and in 2003-2005. So I managed a 6 mths / $200-300K project with just three reports. b) Too lazy to un-dig from my archive to prove the point :-) But the basic usage is the following: 1. Milestones Milestone #1 Milestone #2 Milestone #3 Goal #1.1 Goal #1.2 Goal #1.3 Key - this shall fit one page, or you are doing this wrong. Best used in conjunction with other GDPM templates (check the book and website). 2. Weekly Planning Monday Tuesday Task #1 Task #2 Task #3
- jahewson 14y ago
  I'm talking about the stylesheet, not Kanban in general. It's the unnecessary similarity - the blue outline glow to indicate selection, and little coloured label rectangles at the top. There are scores of other ways to style those - but they chose the exact same as Trello. At best it's a lack of imagination.
a_macgregor 14y ago
Reminds me a lot to pivotaltracker.com
a_macgregor 14y ago
Reminds me a lot to pivotaltracker.com

34 points by joeconway 14y ago

We at Leto love to build our own tools to make our work easier. We think that one of them, Tracker, is ready to help other people who want an alternative PM tool to the big players. We thought that Jira was too heavy, PivotalTracker had too much jargon and Trello was on the right track but not quite right. We've taken all the best ideas from the different tools available and made them into something we really enjoying working with. We'd love to know what the people on Hacker News think of it. EDIT: we have an app too, with iPad and Android support around the corner! appstore.com/trackerpm

danpalmer 14y ago
I've just signed up, and it looks good, although I'm wondering what about Trello you found 'not quite right'? I'm a big fan of Trello and use it for a few projects.
- joeconway 14y ago
  Thanks Dan! Basically we thought that Trello is great but we wanted: -The ability to make time estimates for each task -Nice email integration, with the ability to reply to notification emails to add comments to the tasks -Number of task and hourly counts for the columns
  - danpalmer 14y ago
    Fair enough, I guess Trello is more about project/issue management and less about time tracking which is really the point of 1 and 3 above. From having a quick look around the service, I think I'll stick with Trello for my projects, but then time tracking isn't something I need. I can see that this would be quite useful for many freelancers though, who need more time tracking capabilities. And at any rate, it's nicer than Pivotal! Email integration is a good idea, and something that Trello is really missing out.
erso 14y ago
You really couldn't think of a better name?

dclaysmith 14y ago

Looks a lot like my app: http://www.thetaboard.com http://www.thetaboard.com But with some more bells and whistles and a predefined PM workflow. (In fairness, we both look like Pivotal and Trello to a lesser degree so it doesn't bother me) Given the noticeable similarities, I'd love to hear how you get on with signups and revenue. ThetaBoard is currently free (It's hard to compete with Trello's price!) but I would certainly love to make a living with it. I've just found it very difficult to "market" something that is designed to appeal to such a broad market. Good luck with the launch.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

porker 14y ago

It looks just like Trello - what makes it different? A page which told me what was different would help me to decide quickly if it's worth signing up. And help your sales!

jahewson 14y ago

Suspiciously similar to http://trello.com http://trello.com UI design...

gilini 14y ago
First thing that crossed my mind when I clicked the link. But I guess there's not much you can do to emulate Kanban's workflow.
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  That's the same as the iPad argument. There are a thousand ways to design a kanban board, only one resembles Trello. See Pivotal Tracker: http://www.pivotaltracker.com/features http://www.pivotaltracker.com/features
nsfmc 14y ago
the real bummer is that the iphone app bears significantly less resemblance to trello's and seems to imply that tracker was at some point much less trello-ish and more focused on keeping projects within some time budget (since the inverted bar graph seems to let you know which stage the majority your project's tasks appear to be in) it's a shame that there's such a strong resemblance on first glance because i'm sure this is useful to small teams who think trello's too laissez faire and also would like a ui that acknowledges that they have to be accountable to specific time/budget constraints.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

daemon13 14y ago

Actually, to be fair and honest, Trello's main UI design looks suspiciously similar to the Excel templates that I used for project management 10 years ago [and freely shared with many people], which in turn were inspired by GDPM (Goal Directed Project Management] book [1]. The UI design was listed in the book's appendix. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Goal-Directed-Project-Management-Techniques/dp/0749453346 http://www.amazon.com/Goal-Directed-Project-Management-Techn... This is the 4th edition of the book, the first was published more than 10 years ago. quote "Goal Directed Project Management (GDPM) is a unique methodology that has been developed and refined by the authors over a period of more than 20 years. In this time, organizations all over the world have adopted it as a standard approach." Unless there is a pixel for pixel copy, why don't we stop implicating that similar UI designs and ideas is an offense and wrongdoing?

swah 14y ago
a) Do you still use them? b) Can we see it? :)
- daemon13 14y ago
  a) Now not, but the UI is very handy to have 1 page overview of the project. I used it for implementing Hyperion Essbase for business & financial planning in 1998 and in 2003-2005. So I managed a 6 mths / $200-300K project with just three reports. b) Too lazy to un-dig from my archive to prove the point :-) But the basic usage is the following: 1. Milestones Milestone #1 Milestone #2 Milestone #3 Goal #1.1 Goal #1.2 Goal #1.3 Key - this shall fit one page, or you are doing this wrong. Best used in conjunction with other GDPM templates (check the book and website). 2. Weekly Planning Monday Tuesday Task #1 Task #2 Task #3
jahewson 14y ago
I'm talking about the stylesheet, not Kanban in general. It's the unnecessary similarity - the blue outline glow to indicate selection, and little coloured label rectangles at the top. There are scores of other ways to style those - but they chose the exact same as Trello. At best it's a lack of imagination.

a_macgregor 14y ago

Reminds me a lot to pivotaltracker.com

a_macgregor 14y ago

Reminds me a lot to pivotaltracker.com