Ask HN: iPhone app or mobile website for nanny management website?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2162973

by nmaio • 15 years ago

4 3 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

We just launched our MVP, http://akfamilies.com - a nanny management website. We know that we have to take this thing mobile since nannies are always on the go (picking up the kids, getting groceries, going on playdates). I would know BECAUSE I am a nanny (or "manny" actually, ha). It's a pain in the rear-end to get your schedule via text message and sloppily written to-do lists on a pieces of paper - so we want to keep everything in one place and on your smartphone.

Anyway, what's the route we should take this? And of course, feel free to bash away on the website and/or idea. All feedback is appreciated, even if it's harsh.

Thanks, -Nick

stray• 15 years ago

Both.

codeslush• 15 years ago

Nick - congrats on getting something out the door. We have a nanny and I don't think we would use this application for her. It's possible that we are in the minority, but we have had her for almost 5 years and she knows what needs to be done. It's pretty rare for us to ask anything out of the ordinary - certainly not prevalent enough to require an app to manage it.

HOWEVER - as a family, we could ABSOLUTELY use something like this. We have a big family - and a lot is expected of each of us. We have kids that aren't in school yet, and kids that are in high school. Keeping things straight is a real pain in the arse.

My wife should be able to view my schedule, or a family schedule, etc... Each member would be responsible for updating their calendar. Todo's can be tasked to whomever - and tracked - just like reminders. Heck, I would even like to see a chore-chart type thing in an app like this where it creates some todo's based on recurring chores.

So, this doesn't really answer your question - but maybe it could expand your market a bit!

To answer your question: How about a different approach. Our nanny doesn't have a smart phone - so mobile or iphone/android is out of the question. But she can get sms messages. How about making adding sms support to what you already have using a library like twilio to support uni or bi-directional updates/notifications? Nanny gets notified and can reply to txt or whatever but the website is always available for additional interface/views/etc...

Well, just an idea. If you expanded into the "family" concept, I would definitely recommend an iphone (smart phone) approach over mobile web because of the enhanced notifications and alerts and whatnot offered by native apps.

Hope this helps a little.

nmaio• 15 years ago

Thanks for sharing your family dynamics - it really helps to get a picture of how other families operate. The family I work for has four kids and uhhh, four part-time nannies (don't ask, ha).

We'll have to look into Twilio some more and see if it's a better option for the project right now.

Although, expanding to bigger sized families that have lots going on is a good idea. I think we'll be leaning the iPhone route because of this, but unfortunately, we don't have any experience in that area - so it'll be interesting.

Thanks again for the detailed and varied feedback!

Ask HN: iPhone app or mobile website for nanny management website?

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