30 days from idea to launch sounds pretty cool :) How did you prioritize which features had to be included for the launch & which will be scheduled for later releases? And what's your tech stack? Did you use a lot of open source software & libraries or other services to finish it that fast?
@3x14159265 We wanted to keep it as lean as possible from the beginning.We have a certain vision in our minds, but we try to postpone as many features as possible. We wait until users ask for them and we have that feeling that the core product is stable enough to support additional features.
We sat down to define the MVP at the beginning of January. This included the matrix view, the task dialog, the archive and payment. I think this was important, especially to reach our goal to launch on Feb 1, 2016.
Additionally we got a lot of feedback from the beginning. We've onboarded the first user after two days, although we felt the product wasn't quite ready yet. But Verena (and other users) gave us powerful insights on what they needed and what they did not need.
But seriously we were amazed on how fast we were building Samu too. I hope this helps :-)
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@3x14159265 Thanks for your feedback! As Valentin answered your first question I will continue with the tech stack.
The backend is a Ruby on Rails application using PostgreSQL as database. For now its hosted on a Digitalocean instance but we are planing to migrate to Heroku. The frontend is completely written in react and communicates with the backend via a internal api.
I do have a lot of experience (nearly 10 years) in Ruby on Rails and frontend development. Valentin was also amazing fast with doing the layout as well as marketing. This and a lot of work till the morning made it possible ;)
I hope this answers your question.
@neuling2k and I are super excited to be on ProductHunt. Thanks @knoddecee for hunting us!
We've used a lot of task and to-do tools over the years - from simple to-do lists to complex project management tools - but it never felt right. We always kept losing focus and therefore productivity as the project grew. That's why we built Samu. A simple to-do app based on the Eisenhower Matrix, a time management technique used by presidents, business leaders and celebrities.
We love it and we hope you too!
You can read more about the process of building Samu on https://medium.com/@samuapp/idea...
@valscholz@neuling2k@knoddecee@samuapp Wow, this looks right up my alley. I love the fact that you can set difficulty measures for each task. I am using Wunderlist right now and I am currently a student and part-time worker. Why would you recommend me switching from Wunderlist?
Hi @johnstokman, we've built Samu to help us managing our time. We've been huge fan of the Eisenhower matrix, but didn't find any tool that allows us to use it. Samu gives you a clear overview of tasks you should do today, delegate or schedule for later. It even tells you which tasks you shouldn't do at all. This helps us to stay productive and focused :-) Nevertheless Wunderlist is a great tool.
@ianmikutel Hi Ian, we're currently developing mobile apps for iOS & Android. We plan to release them this summer
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@valscholz congrats on the launch - Samu looks beautiful! Aside from the gorgeous UI, what differentiates Samu from creating a Trello board with the four buckets as lists?
@marketplicity Hi Chris, thank you very much. We're more focused on time management (and prioritizing tasks) than Trello. We've already started to add Smart Actions to Samu (e.g. move tasks with a due date of today in to "Do Today") and will continue to add more over the next weeks (e.g. delegate a tasks).
Additionally we think that our Focus List separates us from the rest. We'll release a big update for it this week and it will further boost productivity.
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Hi Valentin! Tried it and really liked it, it's very easy to use. I think it's great you went for the Eisenhower Matrix. In your blogpost you wrote that you had someone to pay for it very quickly - what potential do you guys see on the long run (what's the long run in your case)? What's your vision in general? And did you already get some investors interest? Congratulations for the design, I love the cat Background :)
@elisabeth_woditschka Thanks for your amazing feedback! 😺
Ultimately we see Samu as that personal assistant that manages your day (time) efficiently. We spend too much time working on non-important, but urgent tasks resulting in less time for what really matters. Samu focuses exactly on this topic by helping you to prioritize your tasks and automizing daily processes. The result is a huge improvement in your work-life balance.
Although certain time management techniques exists for decades it's still not widely adopted due to lack of tools. As work-life balance has been an popular topic lately and it will be even more important in the future we think that this will be a huge market over the next 5 years.
We've been contacted by some investors and had great conversations, but we're not looking for any investment at the moment. We want to continue growing Samu until we reach a point where we think investment helps us to accelerate growth (some call it product/market fit).
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@valscholz sounds great, congratulations for the positive feedback you got, and also investors interest ;) hope your story continues as good as until now, keep me updated ;)
Great to see Samu on here. Helped me process my work a lot better the last few weeks. Like the focus on a simple interface with limited but stable features. Props for the fluorescent look.
Would work best for me as a browser plugin that makes this appear on every new screen.
Love the bucket structure, especially "delegate" always makes me think if there's a smarter way of getting my stuff done. However, my team feels committed to Asana. Any plans for integrating Samu with other project management tools? GitHub might also be an interesting candidate.
@oliverlukesch Thanks for pointing that out. We've have some amazing things planned for Delegate and it will definitely change the way you manage tasks.
As for integrating with other task management tools. It's something that crossed our mind and we definitely won't close this topic. We see Samu as the top layer that helps you to manage your day (and time). So integrating task management tools might make sense.
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@valscholz Samu = top layer, nice. Like the thought, curious how you'll realize it.
I really like your lean approach of building things with a strong product focus. To be honest, I use Wunderlist on a daily basis and it works okay-ish for my tasks, but what I really love is that it works cross-platform: Widget on my home screen, native app on my Mac – effortless sync. What do you think might be coming next for Samu?
@_bernhard That's a great question! We've planned to roll out mobile apps over the next few months, but we want to focus first on our core product. It still lacks some basic features, but we're optimistic that we can add them in the next few weeks.
I'm curios - do you use iOS, Android or even Windows Phone?
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