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?* > * > * > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ > > Open Source Applications Foundation "Design" mailing list > http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/design > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Open Source Applications Foundation "Design" mailing list http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/design
