171–178 of 178 posts
Do you have a demo video or demo I can try before signing up?
Apart from the little video on the landing page, I made a voiced over demo video for our launch on product hunt the other day that shows off a lot of the core stuff: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/kitemaker-2
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May I ask why you want to switch out of zendesk ? I'm reluctant to use it where I am (we have so many badly integrated third party software already...) but some people are pushing a lot for it.
We have modest needs from a ticketing system, no desire for customer chat - just email to ticket workflow. Zendesk works, but is a bit oversized for our ticketing needs (and slightly overpriced, perhaps - but not by an order of magnitude, so to speak). We have a lot of history in our zendesk - and some of our customers are acquainted with the workflow. I would probably not introduce zendesk as a new tool, but I do no…
As to whether or not this is a Jira alternative the key points are: * made for managers, not engineers * app marketplace * self-hosting If one of the three is missing, it's not really a Jira alternative.
Thanks for the feedback! An app marketplace is something we absolutely aspire to. Our API is a modest start in that direction. Self-hosting is very interesting and something we hadn't thought much about but all the feedback here on HN has really gotten us thinking. Also interesting in light of the fact that Jira is pulling back from its own on prem offerings. Regarding being for managers vs. engineers, we're very muc…
I don't use it as I would a regular issue tracker. I tend to make bigger work items and then let the item evolve as a kind of document.
I start by articulating what needs doing. Then it evolves into a problem statement and a plan. And finally I document choices and write a bit about how something was done.
This way I end up with something that is actually useful later.
(When I Get A Lot Of Spare Time (hah!) I would really like to make something that'll use the API to extract work-items by certain criteria and autogenerate a sort of "hacker's handbook" for projects so you can share key documentation that both describes how something works, but also the journey there)
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Apart from the little video on the landing page, I made a voiced over demo video for our launch on product hunt the other day that shows off a lot of the core stuff: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/kitemaker-2
It would really be handy to have some more videos showing the use of the product. I can't really grasp how it works from the small GIFs on the home page.
We were also thinking of chunking up that gif with clear captions so it's obvious what you should be seeing at each stage.
Have been using Kitemaker for a few months now, and it is really lovely. I don't use it as I would a regular issue tracker. I tend to make bigger work items and then let the item evolve as a kind of document. I start by articulating what needs doing. Then it evolves into a problem statement and a plan. And finally I document choices and write a bit about how something was done. This way I end up with something that i…
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I'm not sure everyone would agree with you that "made for managers, not engineers" is a positive in the Jira column. I'd really like, as an engineer, to be able to use work tracking software that helped me and my manager do our jobs effectively.
It's neither positive nor negative. That is it depends on one's point of view. We're talking about company wide project management where engineers are on the bottom. Engineer's workflow is usually quite simple and limited to assigned issues. They'll never be happy with Jira UI as it's indeed, um, crappy but something like a CLI app using standard REST API with zsh completion may be enough to make most of them happy.…
But we've also talked to many, many teams that use a relatively vanilla install of Jira just because it's what people are used to doing ("no one ever got fired for picking Jira"). In quite a number of cases, we've convinced these teams to switch to Kitemaker. As we mature the product, improve our developer offering and build out our ecosystem, we're confident we'll convince even more.
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It's neither positive nor negative. That is it depends on one's point of view. We're talking about company wide project management where engineers are on the bottom. Engineer's workflow is usually quite simple and limited to assigned issues. They'll never be happy with Jira UI as it's indeed, um, crappy but something like a CLI app using standard REST API with zsh completion may be enough to make most of them happy.…
I think you probably have a valid point that many companies have invested a lot in customizing and tweaking their Jira installs and then built a lot of value on top of that customized and tweaked Jira installation, and convincing those companies could be a real challenge. But we've also talked to many, many teams that use a relatively vanilla install of Jira just because it's what people are used to doing ("no one ev…
Jira is all over, sometimes customized and tweaked, but we could be convinced to switch. Jira licensing has become a big problem.
For security reasons, we have dozens of little disconnected networks. Each one needs a separate server with a separate license, purchased separately. All software updates have to come via physical media, typically a DVD-R. That's way too many enterprise licenses to purchase.
It's like that with all types of software. If we want Ubuntu updates, we mirror the entire Ubuntu repository onto physical media and then carry that into the room. The physical media is then destroyed, even if it is a hard drive. You're not getting info out of that room.
Usually we want to deploy on a plain Ubuntu box. Sometimes we might use VMWare.
Network speeds are normally fast, but sometimes a whole-network VPN (not browser based, not on a workstation) connects sites that are 1000 miles apart. Be sure to always test your software with high network latency.