Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#1

Post by dpcan » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 4:08 PM UTC

I deal with a lot of clients, many of them have their own internal systems and teams, and they add me in to their projects.

I've noticed that now my life consists of having multiple Basecamp, Trello and Asana projects all open in different tabs at the same time. Then they want me chatting in Skype, or they text and email. And I have to remote with Join.me, Zoho, GotoMeeting.

No longer are project management systems keeping me organized, it's turned into a mess.

Do you deal with this too? Are there any solutions out there that can interface with all these major systems at once?

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#2

Post by LeifCarrotson » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 4:30 PM UTC

Don't treat your customers' project management systems as your own organization tools.

Instead, treat them as deliverables and manage your own organization elsewhere.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#3

Post by fixie » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 4:32 PM UTC

We actually ran into the exact same problem while juggling multiple projects and ended up creating Taco - https://tacoapp.com. Taco aggregates your Basecamp, Trello, Asana and 35+ other services into a single screen so you can prioritize your day across multiple services. Works especially well with a new tab Chrome extension.

Haven't found the best way to consolidate applications for real time services. Although, I've found that it hasn't been too difficult to get people to hop on the Slack train. I've been in the same problem with video chat - Google Hangouts, Facetime, GoToMeeting, Skype, etc. Would love to hear what other people use.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#4

Post by quickpost » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 4:34 PM UTC

fixie wrote: post #3

We actually ran into the exact same problem while juggling multiple projects and ended up creating Taco - https://tacoapp.com . Taco aggregates your Basecamp, Trello, Asana and 35+ other services into a single screen so you can prioritize your day across multiple services. Works especially well with a new tab Chrome extension. Haven't found the best way to consolidate applications for real time services. Although, I'…

That's awesome! I've been needing this type of tool for a while - will definitely give it a whirl.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#5

Post by turaw » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 4:37 PM UTC

fixie wrote: post #3

We actually ran into the exact same problem while juggling multiple projects and ended up creating Taco - https://tacoapp.com . Taco aggregates your Basecamp, Trello, Asana and 35+ other services into a single screen so you can prioritize your day across multiple services. Works especially well with a new tab Chrome extension. Haven't found the best way to consolidate applications for real time services. Although, I'…

I don't use it, but have you tried out Sameroom [1] for real-time chat? They seem pleasant enough. No idea what to do for video chat, though.

[1]: https://sameroom.io

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#6

Post by fixie » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 4:39 PM UTC

quickpost wrote: post #4

fixie wrote: post #3

We actually ran into the exact same problem while juggling multiple projects and ended up creating Taco - https://tacoapp.com . Taco aggregates your Basecamp, Trello, Asana and 35+ other services into a single screen so you can prioritize your day across multiple services. Works especially well with a new tab Chrome extension. Haven't found the best way to consolidate applications for real time services. Although, I'…

That's awesome! I've been needing this type of tool for a while - will definitely give it a whirl.

Great! Would love to hear what you think!

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#7

Post by DanielBMarkham » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 4:40 PM UTC

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #2

Don't treat your customers' project management systems as your own organization tools. Instead, treat them as deliverables and manage your own organization elsewhere.

+1 on this. What the poster describes is a symptom, not the real problem. The real problem is multiple folks all expecting them to be as available as a little icon on the screen. Perhaps even to be able to control their actions by manipulating a tool.

You can't do that, and it's not because they're all using separate systems. It just doesn't scale. (Insert long discussion here about multi-tasking, competing business interests, cost-of-delay, and so on)

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#8

Post by ncallaway » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 4:57 PM UTC

fixie wrote: post #3

We actually ran into the exact same problem while juggling multiple projects and ended up creating Taco - https://tacoapp.com . Taco aggregates your Basecamp, Trello, Asana and 35+ other services into a single screen so you can prioritize your day across multiple services. Works especially well with a new tab Chrome extension. Haven't found the best way to consolidate applications for real time services. Although, I'…

Yea, this looks interesting. We've managed an internal sprint board with JIRA and treated the customer-facing task tracking systems as inputs and outputs of our sprints.

It'd definitely be nice to replace our internal system with something that was lighter-weight than JIRA and had integrations (bidirectionally) with the customer-facing task tracking systems. I'll run this by the team and we may give it a try.

One question: I don't see pricing or a paid version anywhere on the site. What's the business model for this product?

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#9

Post by morgante » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 4:58 PM UTC

fixie wrote: post #3

We actually ran into the exact same problem while juggling multiple projects and ended up creating Taco - https://tacoapp.com . Taco aggregates your Basecamp, Trello, Asana and 35+ other services into a single screen so you can prioritize your day across multiple services. Works especially well with a new tab Chrome extension. Haven't found the best way to consolidate applications for real time services. Although, I'…

Wow, this is exactly what I've been looking for. I can't wait to give it a spin.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#10

Post by dabeeeenster » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:12 PM UTC

fixie wrote: post #3

We actually ran into the exact same problem while juggling multiple projects and ended up creating Taco - https://tacoapp.com . Taco aggregates your Basecamp, Trello, Asana and 35+ other services into a single screen so you can prioritize your day across multiple services. Works especially well with a new tab Chrome extension. Haven't found the best way to consolidate applications for real time services. Although, I'…

Just some feedback - it drives me nuts when services aren't clear what their pricing is. If it's free, fine. If it's paid, fine. If it's free now but you plan on charging later for premium features, fine. But IMO you have to be upfront about it.

There's nothing on the homepage, no pricing page, nothing. It makes me nervous to sign up without this information.