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There are so many project management apps out there, the competition is fierce. For a proj mgmt app to succeed, there either has to be USP and massive value.

There are so many project management apps out there, the competition is fierce. For a proj mgmt app to succeed, there either has to be USP and massive value. For example, Asana is especially good. I haven't tried Basecamp recently but it wasn't as lightweight, low-cost and nice as Asana.

veidr 13y ago
I am extremely interested in this space, both as a user and as a developer[1]. As it happens, I use (and pay for) both Asana and Basecamp. I use Asana internally with my own staff, and I use Basecamp externally with clients. My clients tend to be non-technical businesses with custom software needs -- and most of them would be like "WHAT. THE. FUCK. HELLLP~!" if I asked them to use Asana. Keyboard shortcuts, context menus, sliding popovers, disclosure widgets, multiple views onto the same data/work-graph, aiiiighhhhh! On the other hand, Basecamp has really nailed their niche -- the project management app that really is simple enough for 'average folks'. Making that choice completely alienates the tech-savvy power user that most of their competitors seem to be targeting (e.g. Flow, Wrike, Teamwork PM, Azendoo, Dooster, Teambox, TeamLab, Do.com, FMYI, to name just a few that I have evaluated and rejected). Which 37Signals, oops I mean Basecamp, is obviously OK with, given Basecamp's massive user base and success. Basecamp is a pretty cool software story, and actually a pretty cool piece of software, even though it is too limited and underpowered for me to use it as my own primary project manager. [1] I develop software (among other roles) for a living, but I develop project-management web app software mostly just in my fantasies and rage-imagination... spending many hours in a week in these apps really makes a person want to develop the One True Project Management app, though.
- HarveyKandola 13y ago
  It's not easy building that project-management app that is usable by both geeks and customers. We (http://countersoft.com http://countersoft.com) are pushing the approach of a single tool for both project tracking (geeks) and ticketing (customers). It's not easy to say the least because customers love to just do everything in email!
  - midas007 13y ago
    There's different use cases. There are high-level / strategy oriented task systems and low-level microtask work systems that tend to have more specialist features for getting shit done baked in. As payware goes, JIRA is a pretty well-rounded high-level one. Gitlab seems fairly popular for dev work because it emulates much of github and is more integrated with source control (getting shit done) than say redmine.
  - midas007 13y ago
    The enterprise use-cases have to manage immensely more complexity than F(L)OSS projects, but at the same time, they want the agility and features of those lightweight services. (Without forgetting to CYA: document and hide as much information as possible.) But in a sense a ticketing system is a double-ended marketplace of work: supply (fixer, be it IT, marketing, sales, admin) and demand (customers, be it internal or external).

veidr 13y ago

I am extremely interested in this space, both as a user and as a developer[1]. As it happens, I use (and pay for) both Asana and Basecamp. I use Asana internally with my own staff, and I use Basecamp externally with clients. My clients tend to be non-technical businesses with custom software needs -- and most of them would be like "WHAT. THE. FUCK. HELLLP~!" if I asked them to use Asana. Keyboard shortcuts, context menus, sliding popovers, disclosure widgets, multiple views onto the same data/work-graph, aiiiighhhhh! On the other hand, Basecamp has really nailed their niche -- the project management app that really is simple enough for 'average folks'. Making that choice completely alienates the tech-savvy power user that most of their competitors seem to be targeting (e.g. Flow, Wrike, Teamwork PM, Azendoo, Dooster, Teambox, TeamLab, Do.com, FMYI, to name just a few that I have evaluated and rejected). Which 37Signals, oops I mean Basecamp, is obviously OK with, given Basecamp's massive user base and success. Basecamp is a pretty cool software story, and actually a pretty cool piece of software, even though it is too limited and underpowered for me to use it as my own primary project manager. [1] I develop software (among other roles) for a living, but I develop project-management web app software mostly just in my fantasies and rage-imagination... spending many hours in a week in these apps really makes a person want to develop the One True Project Management app, though.

HarveyKandola 13y ago
It's not easy building that project-management app that is usable by both geeks and customers. We (http://countersoft.com http://countersoft.com) are pushing the approach of a single tool for both project tracking (geeks) and ticketing (customers). It's not easy to say the least because customers love to just do everything in email!
- midas007 13y ago
  There's different use cases. There are high-level / strategy oriented task systems and low-level microtask work systems that tend to have more specialist features for getting shit done baked in. As payware goes, JIRA is a pretty well-rounded high-level one. Gitlab seems fairly popular for dev work because it emulates much of github and is more integrated with source control (getting shit done) than say redmine.
- midas007 13y ago
  The enterprise use-cases have to manage immensely more complexity than F(L)OSS projects, but at the same time, they want the agility and features of those lightweight services. (Without forgetting to CYA: document and hide as much information as possible.) But in a sense a ticketing system is a double-ended marketplace of work: supply (fixer, be it IT, marketing, sales, admin) and demand (customers, be it internal or external).