Product One: A software developer’s task planner
Product One is a hierarchical todo list. I can say this with confidence now because it’s almost ready for an initial release without starting ‘the year’. I needed a task tracker that would run on Linux. I was using AbstractSpoon’s ToDoList for years, but it’s a Windows application and runs poorly on Linux.
I can hear it already: “but how are you going to make money off a Linux application?” Popularity is the goal, not profits. Build something that people want, and the money will follow. This is also great for cutting down the project risk: if it turns out that no-one else is interested, fine, I won’t spend a lot of time developing it. If people do like it, then they can tell me what they want to see and I can come up with a monetization plan from there.
Besides, it’s cross-platform, not just Linux. wxWidgets on Python. sqlite backend. One of the quickest things I’ve ever developed to a usable state, if I do say so myself.
There’s a lot of todo lists out there, so future development will be more focused. I’m calling this a software developer’s task planner for a few reasons. One is that a hierarchy and project management system is too complicated for most people. They don’t have that many things to track and will do just fine with Outlook’s task manager or Post-It notes on their monitor.
That won’t do it for me. The difficulty for me is stemming the tide of tasks that need to be done. I notice a bug: I write it down and continue doing what I was doing. I have an idea in the shower: I write it down. Someone makes a suggestion: I write it down. I get stuck on a task: I divide it up and write it down. Some of my lists have thousands of entries. Outlook isn’t going to cut it.
By concentrating on software developers, I gain in a few ways. I’m a developer myself, so what’s useful to me is likely to be useful to others. I can introduce more complicated concepts like hierarchies without overcomplicating the product. I can focus my marketing efforts. I can specialize the product towards the target audience. This is basic Crossing The Chasm: you pick a niche and push hard until you completely own it. ‘Software Developers’ is a pretty wide niche, admittedly, but I can always revise that.
October 19th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
First Post!
Hey Ian. Cool site.
So anyway whats your USP for this? I mean, what will it offer over ToDoList or another hierarchical task list tool? I’m not trying to put the product down or anything like that. I’m just interested in what makes it different from what is already out there.
October 20th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
I hadn’t actually thought about this. I wrote a response, slept on it, decided I didn’t like it.
The specific answer to the question is “programmer’s task organiser”, but the broader and more relevant question is “what makes your program better than the ones that are already out there?”
To some extent, that’s something I want to find out as I go. At this stage, I’m purely after attention. If someone says “hey, that’s great, but could you add this?” then I’ve started moving towards an actual market desire. Right now I’m guided by what I want the software to do, and presumably there’s some overlap with what other people want.
Down the track there’ll be programmer-oriented features such as estimation tools, source control integration and reporting. You wouldn’t see these in a more general hierarchical todo list. In my experience, most people don’t deal with the same volume of tasks that need to be tracked. This is another reason why I’m concentrating on the programmer market: we *do* have a lot to track, and it needs to be tracked accurately. A tree is not too complicated a data structure to store all of this information in.
My particular organiser is designed with high performance in mind and cross-platform compatibility, but neither of those are particularly unique, nor do they solve any new problems. I’m writing this with the intent that it will be used for small-scale planning (each task might last minutes or hours), and typically with a single user. It’s a supplement for bug tracking and roadmap tools, not a substitute.
October 21st, 2007 at 12:13 am
I thought about this some more. Instead of writing a reply I’ve written a post: http://toomanyteacups.blogspot.com/2007/10/why-my-business-ideas-suck.html. Not exactly in the same vain, but thats where my thoughts took me.
October 21st, 2007 at 12:16 am
Grr. Stupid links and full-stops. A working version (or so I hope):
http://toomanyteacups.blogspot.com/2007/10/why-my-business-ideas-suck.html