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WorkFlowy (YC S10) launches a better way to organize your brain

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Re: WorkFlowy (YC S10) launches a better way to organize your brain

#111

Post by revorad »

davidw wrote: post #96
chrisgoodrich wrote: post #75

Woah. I get a very 37signals-esque feel from this. You know, the feeling when you've found something really awesome that could really help out your daily organization? I used to use backpack from 37signals, but ended up favoring my Moleskine. I signed-up for WorkFlowy and created 5 lists and I think I could use this on a daily basis. Simple and to the point. Help me remember the random things that go through my head…

> I used to use backpack from 37signals, but ended up favoring my Moleskine. Would you be interested in doing a video testimonial for 73primenumbers.com ? :-)

Did you make that site? Thank you, thank you, thank you.

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, please do yourself a favour - http://73primenumbers.com.

Re: WorkFlowy (YC S10) launches a better way to organize your brain

#112

Post by jessep »

px wrote: post #92
wheels wrote: post #10

Annoyance from the homepage: I don't want to have to watch a video to figure out what you do. Watching a video for me is one step of engagement after I've figured out if I have some basic interest. If I can't establish that immediately, I'll just close the window. Videos can be great for more in depth info, but why not use the space taken up by "A better way to think" (which says nothing) to give a one-line descripti…

Just to offer another data point: I almost never watch videos but was interested enough to do so in this case. It was brief and offered enough to convince me that this might be my go-to application for managing my projects and tasks. After playing with it for a few minutes, I am excited by its simplicity and ease of use. I've bounced around from Google docs to omni outliner to paper and pencil with just about everyth…

Nice, thanks for the positive feedback! I hope it continues to be helpful.

Re: WorkFlowy (YC S10) launches a better way to organize your brain

#113

Post by jessep »

haploid wrote: post #101
jessep wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll set up Facebook Connect for those that don't want to register directly. Reason we don't have anonymous demo page yet is that it would take significant work to get the data to port to your actual account if you choose to sign up. It'd be a bad thing for someone to spend 10 minutes entering data into the demo and then lose it on signing up. We actually had that before and it was a problem. We want to do this, but…

Why would anyone using a demo page be under the illusion that they would be able to save their data? To wit: It's a demo page. I agree with the above sentiment that not offering a means of trying the product out before registering is a blocker for many, many people( myself included ).

One bit of data: seems like we've had a conversion rate approaching 50%, so we're definitely doing well.

Re: WorkFlowy (YC S10) launches a better way to organize your brain

#114

Post by jessep »

CognitiveLens wrote: post #72
jessep wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll set up Facebook Connect for those that don't want to register directly. Reason we don't have anonymous demo page yet is that it would take significant work to get the data to port to your actual account if you choose to sign up. It'd be a bad thing for someone to spend 10 minutes entering data into the demo and then lose it on signing up. We actually had that before and it was a problem. We want to do this, but…

One compromise would be to have the instructions/intro entered into a demo page that people could interact with but not save - it would encourage exploration of the interface without encouraging/requiring people to enter their own info. TaskPaper for Mac does something like this in an appealing way, and has almost the same interface as WorkFlowy.

Yeah, that's a good idea. We messed around with that, but didn't quite get it right. People got too engrossed in that and never really got around to creating their own stuff. The jury is out on it, though. We're definitely not happy with our onboarding process as it currently stands.

Re: WorkFlowy (YC S10) launches a better way to organize your brain

#115

Post by chrisgoodrich »

eof wrote: post #108
chrisgoodrich wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope that you don't sacrifice the simplicity here. Instead of actual fields or clickable options for setting tags and due dates, let me type them in and then display them as needed. something like: look into alternatives for GTD due 12/1/2010 [work, gtd]

Taking syntax like that is definitely cool. I was thinking though of just being able to hover a node and get teensy widgets

Maybe both? I like the idea of being able to quickly type out what I need.

Re: WorkFlowy (YC S10) launches a better way to organize your brain

#116

Post by jessep »

crocowhile wrote: post #51
middlegeek wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would respectfully say just the opposite. In a 45 second video, they showed the product, I saw someone using it who already knew how to use it and I had no more commitment than clicking "play". In my book, they got it exactly right.

Having a video is a good option but shouldn't be the only one. See how dropbox is doing it.

Dropbox.com is pretty much a blank page with a video in the middle and a massive signup button. At the bottom there are links to the blog and whatnot. Is that what you mean?

We technically don't have a blog or any additional info yet, so we can't exactly link to that stuff. A few sentences of additional text we can and will do though.

Re: WorkFlowy (YC S10) launches a better way to organize your brain

#118

Post by jessep »

palish wrote: post #94

Very nice! I really want to attach screenshots to items. I'm going to use Workflowy while programming... whenever I notice a small tsak (such as refactoring a hack, reformatting some code, etc), then I'll add it as a Workflowy item. But rather than type out an item description, it would be way easier for me to simply screenshot the code. (I do alt-printscreen, paste into MSPaint, save to dropbox, copy public link.) O…

Nice. Yeah, attachments & embeds are going to be cool. So, sounds like for you just linking to an image plus previewing it in the display will be enough?

Sounds like you wouldn't want us to let you upload the image to our site, right?

Re: WorkFlowy (YC S10) launches a better way to organize your brain

#119

Post by jessep »

durga wrote: post #99

Awesome. WorkFly almost mimics how I currently organize my things to do. Eschewing fancy stuff, I simply make a long indented list and cross things out as they get done. Having that capability in a browser based application is neat. Now I do like long lists, but could I have the capability to make multiple lists? I don't want to put my personal to-do's on the same list as my work to-do.

Hi durga. Your last question is interesting, because in WorkFlowy there's not really a difference between a list and an item in a list, because both can have infinite items underneath them. It does seem to confuse people, though, so we're going to make the icons at the top level into "document" icons and see if that helps clear things up. Might slightly change the behavior too, unclear.

Re: WorkFlowy (YC S10) launches a better way to organize your brain

#120

Post by ihodes »

naner wrote: post #79
Maro wrote: post #19

Is this a good space to compete in? There are zillions of sites like it, it's really easy to duplicate, and hard to make money off of? Nevertheless, best of luck to you.

I don't mean to be cynical but honestly to me this space is an analog to self-help books. Todo/notes/productivity apps probably can hook people for a few weeks but beyond that I imagine most people won't put forth the effort to keep up with it.

Me and a few other people use Things.

I hear Omni has a good business going, as well.

Simplenote, Evernote, & friends seem to be doing alright.

There's always room for something better.

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