I have to question the premise of such a service. The statements in the "Why Sunsama?" section are comically grandiose. I sincerely doubt that people who are "struggling to keep up" are hindered primarily by poor scheduling or, if they are, that they will listen to reminders coming from yet-another piece of software or that the software will magically know how best to prioritize tasks. Based on these claims, I would easily toss this product in the "snake oil" category of products and services which promise to make my life awesome but which, at best, might make a marginal improvement. If there is more to the software, awesome, but that should be front-and-center because as it stands I see no real value proposition.
Launch HN: Sunsama (YC W19) – Daily Planner for Busy People
31–40 of 70 posts
Re: Launch HN: Sunsama (YC W19) – Daily Planner for Busy People
#32I have to question the premise of such a service. The statements in the "Why Sunsama?" section are comically grandiose. I sincerely doubt that people who are "struggling to keep up" are hindered primarily by poor scheduling or, if they are, that they will listen to reminders coming from yet-another piece of software or that the software will magically know how best to prioritize tasks. Based on these claims, I would…
Thanks for being so frank. Perhaps that section needs to be re-written since Sunsama doesn't do reminders or use any sort of any algorithm to prioritize your tasks. Instead, we provide a guided daily planning workflow that nudges the user to make good decisions about what to do. In fact, one thing we feel strongly about is that you will make a better decision about what to work on than an algorithm.
Re: Launch HN: Sunsama (YC W19) – Daily Planner for Busy People
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for that feedback. We put that in place so that folks weren't surprised after using it that Sunsama doesn't have a free tier since people assume that all productivity tools have a free version. If you just change your answer, you can proceed!
Yes, but the sale shouldn't end because I just said no. There should be room left for me to be delighted by the product, such that I convert into a paying user. Instead, I feel alienated and not at all interested in trying it in the future.
This is confusing, you said in your original comment that you were filtered out because you said you wouldn't consider paying for the product, now you say you might if the product delighted you.
So which is it? Why are you alienated by a product that says "we're not for you" if you have no interest in being a paying customer?
Re: Launch HN: Sunsama (YC W19) – Daily Planner for Busy People
#34Did not appreciate being forced to answer survey questions and then find out at the end this only works with Google calendar. Borderline dark pattern move...
We put this in place so that folks aren't going through the entire product onboarding which takes several minutes only to find out later there's no way to add an Outlook calendar.
>> only to find out later there's no way to add an Outlook calendar.
I haven't even looked at it but seeing this in the comments means I can't use it. Many (most?) of your target "elite professionals" are running Outlook in the enterprise.
Re: Launch HN: Sunsama (YC W19) – Daily Planner for Busy People
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but the sale shouldn't end because I just said no. There should be room left for me to be delighted by the product, such that I convert into a paying user. Instead, I feel alienated and not at all interested in trying it in the future.
This is confusing, you said in your original comment that you were filtered out because you said you wouldn't consider paying for the product, now you say you might if the product delighted you. So which is it? Why are you alienated by a product that says "we're not for you" if you have no interest in being a paying customer?
Not OP but I had a similar emotional reaction when getting to that point of the survey. It's not logical... on reflection I think it has to do with the sense of los of autonomy. The survey wants me to say that I'd be willing to spend money on it before I can try it, but I want to try it before I decide if I'm willing to spend money.
I think it could be solved for stubborn people like me if the survey got to that point and said "okay, if you're sure, you can still click here to request access but after 14 days you won't be able to continue to use it without signing up. We think you'll be persuaded!" -- or whatnot.
Seems fair enough that people should be able to try the free trial without having to agree that they're theoretically willing to pay 20/mo
Re: Launch HN: Sunsama (YC W19) – Daily Planner for Busy People
#36We have been using Sunsama for quite some time. It's great to manage your to-do's or bite-sized tasks. I heartily recommend giving it a shot!
It's good to have something that forces you to plan your day every morning, so you only take on things that you can do. Being able to see what others are up to is also nice, but I don't use that functionality.
edit: /s/hardly/heartily
Re: Launch HN: Sunsama (YC W19) – Daily Planner for Busy People
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
We put this in place so that folks aren't going through the entire product onboarding which takes several minutes only to find out later there's no way to add an Outlook calendar.
>> only to find out later there's no way to add an Outlook calendar. I haven't even looked at it but seeing this in the comments means I can't use it. Many (most?) of your target "elite professionals" are running Outlook in the enterprise.
That's true and one of the reasons we're keen to add an Outlook integration ASAP. We're a tiny team of five so building an integration with Google and Outlook from the get go wasn't feasible.
Re: Launch HN: Sunsama (YC W19) – Daily Planner for Busy People
#38I've not felt the need for an integration between my todo list and other tools like Github / Gmail / Calendar / Jira.
I manage fine with just making notes on a monthly, weekly and daily level. To populate my todo lists, I review the other systems manually.
Rolling over unfinished work to the next day is as simple as copy+paste though that can be run as a cron job daily
Re: Launch HN: Sunsama (YC W19) – Daily Planner for Busy People
#39Did not appreciate being forced to answer survey questions and then find out at the end this only works with Google calendar. Borderline dark pattern move...
They do say on the homepage that it syncs with your Google calendar... But yes, perhaps it could be more prominent?
Re: Launch HN: Sunsama (YC W19) – Daily Planner for Busy People
#40> for elite professionals This is not a beginning of a beautiful friendship. It's like saying "we are an X for really good people only", which leaves one to decide if they are brazen enough to consider themselves really good and try this wonder X or just accept the reality of being somewhat OK and move on. Perhaps you are trying to be selective with whom you want to accept as clients and this is meant to be a filter,…
I wanted to say exactly the same thing!
I need to schedule stuff, but I am not elite or anything. Is there a market niche for my identity? ;)