Re: What's the 'pony in the product'?

Yes 3 bullet points sounds about right :)

There's something we need to get across that speaks to people who are  
perhaps usually allergic to the idea of a task manager or project  
manager.

As in, Chandler is the anti-task manager, task manager. In the same  
way GTD is the anti-time management, time management system.

+ Don't spend a lot of time organizing yourself. Just dump what  
you're working on into Chandler.
+ Chandler helps you make progress and keep track of your work with  
Triage Status, custom alarms and the Calendar.
+ Work together as a group and manage group and personal work from a  
single place.

Mimi

On Dec 18, 2007, at 8:35 PM, Andre Mueninghoff wrote:

> My first late-night thoughts...the Chandler suite would benefit from a
> summary "so-what", a simply stated "raison d'etre" in three bullet
> points...a first shot at leveraging Mimi's pony/horse in the product
> thoughts:
>
> The "So-What" of Chandler
> -Capture and triage information into a flexible, adaptable system
> -Focus on what is important Now
> -Integrate your personal and collaborative (team) work-flows
>
> Andre
>
> Mimi Yin wrote:
>> Last week I wrote to the design list that we needed an  
>> articulation of
>> 'the pony in the
>> product': http://lists.osafoundation.org/pipermail/design/2007- 
>> December/008115.html
>>
>>
>> Basically, it's back to the good ole elevator pitch. What's the
>> problem we're trying to solve and how are we solving it and why do we
>> think it's better than the competition.
>>
>> We had some good guesses when we launched Preview, but it's taken
>> really using the app for the last few months for some of us to really
>> 'get it'.
>>
>> Here's a first pass at trying to articulate the pony. My hope is that
>> this will help us formulate a crisp pitch that is compelling to our
>> target audience. As I said in a past last email, I think part of the
>> problem is that as product-builders, we have a clinical understanding
>> of the problem that emphasizes how we *solve* the problem, rather  
>> than
>> the symptoms of the problem itself. Users on the other hand,
>> understand the symptoms. "Items in multiple collections" isn't
>> compelling unless it is presented as a solution to a problem people
>> can relate to. So here is an attempt to present Chandler and what it
>> does in the context of problems people can relate to.
>>
>> CAVEAT: This is not intended to be landing page copy. This is simply
>> an articulation of what Chandler is, so that we're all on the same
>> page about what needs to be expressed in demos and other marketing
>> material. Unfortunately, my pony turned into a horse, so suggestions
>> about how to make this more succinct would be helpful.
>>
>> NOTE: A number of the concepts discussed below are our interpretation
>> of "the spirit of GTD". I think it'd be worth identifying what they
>> are so that we can talk about it clearly and consistently. (e.g.  
>> Don't
>> over-organize. Don't over-plan. Make sure you allow yourself to do a
>> free-form dump so you get everything out of your head.)
>>
>> Mimi
>>
>> =====
>>
>> THE PROBLEM
>> You get bits of information from emails, more emails, IM chats,
>> hallway conversations, post-it notes left on your desk, more  
>> email. At
>> the end of the day, where's the source of truth? Where exactly are we
>> having dinner? at what time? What are we supposed to bring? What's  
>> the
>> agenda for the meeting exactly? Where's the final packing list? Not
>> only do you need a 'source of truth' for yourself, you need it for  
>> all
>> the different groups of people you coordinate, work, live, need to  
>> get
>> through life with.
>>
>> *So you need a *trusted* system that can be your personal *source of
>> truth*. The groups you work with need a *trusted* system that can be
>> their *shared source of truth*. There are lots out there...why can't
>> people seem to stick to any?*
>>
>> *I - THE PROBLEM WITH TASK MANAGERS TODAY: STRUCTURE GETS IN THE WAY*
>>
>> To wrap their head around what they have to do, people always start
>> out by making a list/outline of all their projects and all their
>> tasks. This 'structure it in order to get a grip on it' approach to
>> task management has its deficits:
>>
>> 1. The structure itself locks out possibilities that don't fit into
>> that structure. Have something random you need to follow up on that
>> doesn't fit into your structure? Doesn't get written down. That's
>> trivial, petty, you think to yourself. Besides, I don't know where  
>> I'd
>> put it in this outline. I'll just keep track of it in my head.
>>
>> 2. As soon as new information comes to light, your outline gets  
>> out of
>> date as you struggle to fit today's information into yesterday's  
>> list.
>>
>> 3. Lists and outlines don't allow you to focus on *just the stuff you
>> need to attend to NOW*. Instead you see everything that's not-done,
>> and a lot of it is stuff you're only hypothesizing you'll need to do.
>>
>> 4. Lists and outlines don't scale to hold and keep track of the
>> disconnected ideas and thoughts you have that eventually coalesce  
>> into
>> the 'work' you need to do. So even if you have a way to manage your
>> *tasks* (aka *list of stuff you need to do*), you still have nowhere
>> to store and manage all the stuff that constitutes the *substance* of
>> those tasks. In that sense, task management seems like a lot of
>> 'meta-work', busywork that doesn't actually help you manage the work
>> you're actually doing.
>>
>> 5. Lists and outlines presume that you do things in a given order.
>> First I will do this, then I will do that. In reality, we noodle on
>> lots of things, all the time, at the *same* time. Coming up with  
>> ideas
>> and questions, remembering one more thing to add to that list,
>> spouting fully formed introductory paragraphs to the dreaded year-end
>> summary, scheduling a meeting, coming up with an agenda for that
>> meeting, writing meeting notes for last week's meeting...
>>
>> *CHANDLER'S SOLUTION*
>>
>> *1. Chandler doesn't start with a project outline. Chandler starts  
>> out
>> with a dumping ground for *stuff*.*
>> Dump everything out of your head into Chandler no matter how poorly
>> thought through, trivial or seemingly irrelevant. Don't worry about
>> what it is, when it needs to get done by, or what project it pertains
>> to. Don't worry about where it belongs. It doesn't need to be a task
>> or a meeting. Random thoughts are welcome. Anything that's taking up
>> space in your head is welcome. Chandler isn't so much a task manager
>> or a calendar as a mental *stuff* manager that helps you turn *stuff*
>> into concrete, actionable, useful things like tasks, events, lists  
>> and
>> messages.
>>
>> *2. Chandler takes a don't over-organize, iterative approach to
>> organization.*
>> Once you've gotten past the 'dumping' stage, Chandler helps you work
>> your way through the pile with some out-of the box organizational
>> affordances that help you process and make progress on the things you
>> need to do bit-by-bit.
>>
>> Chandler's organizational affordances are lightweight: (*)
>> + Decide whether you want to deal with something NOW or LATER.
>> + Create collections of items
>> + Add items to Task lists and Calendars
>> + Assign alarms
>>
>> Also, don't worry about regretting tomorrow how you chose to organize
>> stuff today. Organization in Chandler is flexible so it never grows
>> stale. Structure is 'additive' in Chandler so that there's never any
>> 'opportunity cost' to organizing your data in a particular way.
>> - Creating an event on my 'Family' calendar shouldn't preclude me  
>> from
>> seeing it in my 'Personal' calendar.
>> - Tracking milestones on your calendar shouldn't preclude you from
>> tracking them on your Task list as well.
>>
>> (*) Eventually, we would like to support more sophisticated
>> organizational tools because sometimes, you just need to be that
>> organized:
>> + Clusters: A way to thread items together
>> + Tags and user-defined attributes
>> + Smart, user-defined views
>>
>> However, this functionality will be added in a way that is in keeping
>> with Chandler's minimalist and flexible approach.
>>
>> *3. Chandler distinguishes between Not-Done and Needs to be Done so
>> that you can focus on what you need to deal with NOW without losing
>> track of the stuff you eventually need to deal with LATER.* You can
>> assign alarms and/or add items to the calendar and they will
>> automatically pop back into NOW. It's kind of like being able to time
>> when you receive a reminder email from yourself.
>>
>> *4. Chandler isn't just for keeping track of what you need to do.  
>> It's
>> for *doing* what you need to do. In this way, Chandler isn't so  
>> much a
>> 'task manager' as a 'work manager'. *Unlike lists and outlines, each
>> task you enter into Chandler is a discrete information item with it's
>> own notes field. So your task item to 'Collect quotes for the
>> presentation' **becomes** the list of quotes itself as you collect
>> them in the Notes field over time. (This idea isn't easily  
>> discernible
>> today. Adding support for a Document or Resource Kind would help
>> highlight this aspect of Chandler.)
>>
>> *5. Chandler presumes that you're working on multiple things *at the
>> same time, all of the time*.* Chandler isn't about listing out the
>> order in which you're going to do things and then automatically
>> telling you what you need to do next because the reality is, even the
>> best laid plans are laid to waste by the constant stream of 'new
>> information' we receive. Instead, you pick at-will what you want /
>> need / can't help but focus on right NOW and work on them  
>> simultaneously.
>>
>> *II - THE PROBLEM WITH COLLABORATION TOOLS TODAY: WHETHER IT'S A WIKI
>> OR SHAREPOINT, COLLABORATION TOOLS ARE NEVER INTEGRATED WITH PERSONAL
>> TASK MANAGEMENT TOOLS. (WHICH IS WHY EMAIL IS STILL THE INFORMATION
>> MANAGER OF CHOICE, IT'S THE ONE SOLUTION THAT INTEGRATES THE TWO)*
>>
>> *Now Chandler integrates personal and shared information manager  
>> too! *
>> + You have equal access to personal *and* shared information in a
>> single application.
>> + The same notes, tasks and events can appear in both shared and
>> personal collections so your personal 'source of truth' stays in sync
>> with the 'group's source of truth'.
>>
>> *III - THE PROBLEM WITH A LOT OF SOFTWARE TOOLS IS THAT THEY'RE NOT
>> AVAILABLE / ACCESSIBLE FROM EVERYWHERE*
>> + Chandler is cross-platform: Windows, Linux and Mac. Install it at
>> home and at work. Collaborate with others even if they're on a
>> different operating system.
>> + You don't need everybody in your group to use Chandler to enable
>> collaboration. Send others to view and edit shared collections in the
>> web browser instead. They don't even need to sign up for an account.
>> + Chandler allows you to access your own data via the web browser.
>> + Chandler doesn't assume that everyone you need to work with can or
>> will use Chandler, which is why you can also collaborate on notes,
>> tasks and events via email.
>>
>> + Chandler is working on ways to get data onto mobile devices.
>>
>> ===
>>
>> Elevator pitch: *Stuff manager for organized chaos? Work manager for
>> organized chaos? Project information manager for organized chaos?  
>> Task
>> manager for organized chaos?*
>> *
>> *
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> ---
>>
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