Ask HN: What SAAS PM tool can help me out?

7 points by trienthusiast 12 years ago | 8 comments

Hi ! I run a medium product review blog that reviews approximately 100 products a year across a team of 10 testers.

I want a software to help me streamline/track the process.

Basically I would like to

- keep the details of the testers (names, addresses, general info, history)

- keep the details of the companies (people/email addresses)

- keep track of what products each company is about to release this year with a release date

- track each product across the review cycle (requested from company, shipped to reviewer, test in progress, review received, review entered on site, review published)

It would obviously be amazing if all the steps could be assigned to a person and documents attached and reports run (ie on what a tester has on his pipeline, what products are in the "released but not shipped yet" status) etc.

I started using Trello which is OK, but does not do all I need

Thank you all for the suggestions!

mattbrewsbytes 12 years ago |

This sounds like it is right in the middle of not really a PM tool and not really a CRM tool. You want to track and forecast work and don't have varying tasks per item.

Maybe Basecamp? I have never used it but it sounds like it could be used in that way. At the day job many years ago we used something from Replicon that was time tracking based to forecast. Never got traction at work though because nobody liked tracking time since these were internal projects and salary based people at a big company.

Models could be:

- Company: has_many :people, has_many :products

- People: name, email, address, notes, type:tester|customer

- Products: name, desc, release date, links, notes

- Reviews: product_id, tester assigned, status, notes, links, attachments, etc.

It doesn't sound terribly hard to build, although it sounds like you might be sub-contracting your testing? If that is the case, you may want some financial aspect tracked like if they are paid by hour, by review, etc.

This gets complex if you have differing permissions, for instance if a tester can only see their own work or if customers can login and view status or collaborate (upload collaterals, contact tester).

trienthusiast 12 years ago | |

Yes, that's really where i am: there's nothing (apparently) like that and I would have to build it myself in maybe something like zoho creator... but it would definitely take (me) a while. Especially if I want to add notes between testers, email notifications and the like.

I wouldn't be too bothered by time tracking etc, but I would like at any given status to know where a product is, what's on each testers pipeline and so on.

akg_67 12 years ago |

Are you willing to write detailed specifications for your requirements? How much would you pay for a solution that fits all your requirements? Do you believe other businesses may have similar problem like yours?

If someone built a solution to your requirements, will you be the first 'public' customer and 'endorse' the product? Will you commit to be a customer for certain duration?

You may get the idea of where I am going with this line of questioning. You have a real existing problem to solve and the solution to this problem may be start of a business for someone else.

If none of existing solution meet your needs, Reach out to your local freelance and entrepreneurial community and see if someone has interested in building a business providing solution to your problem.

A business idea that comes with defined requirements, a customer, and revenue stream is an attractive combination.

logicman 11 years ago |

You should check out Brightpod.com - might be what you are looking for. It's got the best of Basecamp and Trello.

charlieirish 12 years ago |

asana? https://asana.com/

trienthusiast 12 years ago | |

the problem I have with Asana, the tool below etc that they are all focused on projects.

I would like something based on "objects".

Ie the products are objects that can be moved across owners (ie from a brand to a tester, from the tester to the site) and the "owners" be objects with properties (contact info, addresses etc...).

Trello does something similar, but the "Cards" are not interlinked... it's a good Excel Sheet, but not a database (no relationships between tables).

Does it make sense? Do you think I have to have it developed specifically for me? There must be something similar out there...

sunilkumarc 12 years ago |

You can use Wrike. http://www.wrike.com

Using Wrike you can schedule, prioritize, discuss and track progress in real time.

trienthusiast 12 years ago | |

hi thanks for your answer.

I think this would have the same issue i have with Asana/Basecamp... project management but I don't really have project, I have items to move across owners