Show HN: My consultancy built a project management tool made for client work

http://www.projectorpm.com

by bdunn • 14 years ago

25 11 14 years ago

thedelchop• 14 years ago

I've been using this tool for a while, and I really think it captures the needs and concerns of a consultancy (Are we going to make our time/budget) in a way that tools like Pivotal Tracker just can't match.

endersshadow• 14 years ago

Just so you're aware, I've used a PM tool called Projector before, but it's not you guys: http://www.projectorpsa.com/project_management.html

It also does time tracking and whatnot for a consulting firm. You may run into some TM issues with the name.

bdunn2• 14 years ago

Unfortunately, my attorney brought this up to me the other day. We'll more than likely ultimately need to rebrand - probably sooner than later.

Thanks for the heads up :-)

jhill7• 14 years ago

Full disclosure, bdunn's firm built my app (@aeir_talk), and take it from me, they make great products. I am so excited to see them putting their own products out. Especially one that is meeting a critical need for its users.

aculver2• 14 years ago

Thanks for the kind words, Joe. :)

aculver2• 14 years ago

Full disclosure: I'm a developer at We Are Titans, but my involvement in Projector has been limited to being one of the first users. :)

My favorite use-case for Projector so far was putting together a recent project proposal:

On my side, I: * broke down the project into stories and estimated those stories in hours, not points. * also added the regular template of tasks that take place to get a project off the ground, launched, and the known time required for those. * entered the hourly rate. * invited the prospective client to the project.

The client sees: * The sticker price. * How his request translates into work. * How larger features are broken down into smaller features that account for the cost of a feature. * He sees which features and areas of the project account for the most money. * He saw a line item for 'back and forth' design with a bunch of hours attached to it, which communicates: Nice design can be done on the cheap if you avoid the back and forth. Use us as a saw and not as a flash light. Measure twice, cut once.

This client accepted the proposal and the project management software is already configured for the project and ready for us to get started.

Like thedelchop (one of my co-workers) mentioned, the nice thing about Projector for a team like ours is that features and budgets are in the same place. I'm used to managing projects in Pivotal Tracker and my billing in Harvest. Clients are used to seeing progress daily in Pivotal Tracker and a sticker price on paper every couple of weeks. Now we all see it in one place, every day.

typicalrunt2• 14 years ago

Do I need a credit card to sign up?

Nope. All you need to sign up is an account name, email address, password and the name of your first project. When your tiral expires, we'll calculate your plan based on the number of developer accounts you've setup. You can always remove developers (ask them first!) in order to downgrade your account.

Just a couple things here to note.

The first is a spelling mistake. "tiral" should be "trial".

The second is the usage of the word "Nope". Although the gist of the pricing page looks to be informal, "nope" is an incredibly informal word, especially when "No" is sufficient enough in this context.

bdunn2• 14 years ago

We just pushed the new marketing site yesterday. Good thinking - making those edits now, thanks!

typicalrunt2• 14 years ago

No worries. It can be difficult to catch spelling mistakes in things that you write or read over many times.

Pro-tip: When I don't have the luxury of a spell-checker, I read the paragraph backwards, one word at a time, and I find that it helps to catch most of the common errors.

When you read text normally, your brain reads ahead[1] and skims (or omits) a lot of errors out of your field of view so you miss a lot of easy typos. Reading backwards mixes up your brain just enough that it stops "helping" you read.

[1] http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/Cmabrigde/

TamDenholm2• 14 years ago

Is it just me or is the #features div broken, having a 620px width but makes more sense to be 880px. Or am i missing something?

TamDenholm2• 14 years ago

Also, perhaps update the expected date of the videos. Otherwise it looks cool, i've signed up and am going to give it a go.

Show HN: My consultancy built a project management tool made for client work

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