Time for another release!
Time for some of that critical feedback and commentary that can be both vindicating and sometimes disappointing. I read a blog the other day about start-ups, funding, failure, dreams, and resilience; this a quote really stuck with me:
“And I tried to remind people that working with people you love on things that matter; that is success. I was told I my advice helped.”
So what are we doing here?
We’re trying to work with people we love and connect with on things that matter. By building a better system for all you web designers and developers out there we can help solve daily personal problems like helping you find more time with your family, or big problems like helping bring aid to children in the middle east through you.
With all these years of experience in client services, design, development UX, and management, I think that one of the best things we could do that would really matter is helping you all do your jobs better. It took a long time figure out exactly what is it that matters so much that we can be driven so hard, but now we know. So with that said, please keep in mind that what we’re building here is the foundation for a much larger system. In order to manage clients well you have to be able to convey accurately what you’re doing. In order to measure the success of that initial plan you have to know what you were planning on doing in detail. That’s what this system does now. But that’s just the start.
The bigger picture.
We want to build a client management system that aggregates and integrates the tools you use on a daily basis so that we can bring that information into a single place and let your clients see what they need to see in order to approve, deny, question, and agree on so that you can get the job done. After we get the bugs worked out of this initial scoping tool, the plan is to build a client dashboard and a ton of integrations into the systems you already use everyday so that your client can get a window into their project with you with just the information you need them to see from all your different tools.
With BrainLeaf you’ll know exactly what you’re planning to build, so then you will be able to measure your initial estimates against your actual time with your time tracking tools and tell how well you’re doing on your quotes. Or on your quotes vs. the quotes of everyone else using the system. Our plan for the images area is to allow you to post yours or our wireframes during the sale, but then to have a place to post high fidelity artwork, links to working pages, and to be able to comment and request approval on those items. We want to implement a work order and versioning system system so that when a client asks for a change, you can select the feature make notes on what they asked to change, add the time change hours, and automatically send them a work / change order for this modification. We want to be able to pull in all those support tickets from JIRA or Clarizen, your financial reports from Harvest, your billing from Quickbooks or Freshbooks, and maybe even your communications from Wrike or Basecmap; all into a singular system that allows you to streamline your client management and never run into some of the problems that plague this industry.
There are a lot of things we want to do with this project that aren’t listed here, but this is a good start. In the end, we want to make all of your lives easier, because it matters and we love working with each other, and people like you.
Rocket Icon Designed by Edward Boatman Los Angeles, US 2010
Photography by: By Martin Staněk
Thanks for all your creative commons contributions guys!
