

Ask HN: What SAAS PM tool can help me out? - trienthusiast

Hi !
I run a medium product review blog that reviews approximately 100 products a year across a team of 10 testers.<p>I want a software to help me streamline&#x2F;track the process.<p>Basically I would like to<p>-  keep the details of the testers (names, addresses, general info, history)<p>- keep the details of the companies (people&#x2F;email addresses)<p>- keep track of what products each company is about to release this year with a release date<p>- track each product across the review cycle (requested from company, shipped to reviewer, test in progress, review received, review entered on site, review published)<p>It would obviously be amazing if all the steps could be assigned to a person and documents attached and reports run (ie on what a tester has on his pipeline, what products are in the &quot;released but not shipped yet&quot; status) etc.<p>I started using Trello which is OK, but does not do all I need<p>Thank you all for the suggestions!
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matt_s
This sounds like it is right in the middle of not really a PM tool and not
really a CRM tool. You want to track and forecast work and don't have varying
tasks per item.

Maybe Basecamp? I have never used it but it sounds like it could be used in
that way. At the day job many years ago we used something from Replicon that
was time tracking based to forecast. Never got traction at work though because
nobody liked tracking time since these were internal projects and salary based
people at a big company.

Models could be:

\- Company: has_many :people, has_many :products

\- People: name, email, address, notes, type:tester|customer

\- Products: name, desc, release date, links, notes

\- Reviews: product_id, tester assigned, status, notes, links, attachments,
etc.

It doesn't sound terribly hard to build, although it sounds like you might be
sub-contracting your testing? If that is the case, you may want some financial
aspect tracked like if they are paid by hour, by review, etc.

This gets complex if you have differing permissions, for instance if a tester
can only see their own work or if customers can login and view status or
collaborate (upload collaterals, contact tester).

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trienthusiast
Yes, that's really where i am: there's nothing (apparently) like that and I
would have to build it myself in maybe something like zoho creator... but it
would definitely take (me) a while. Especially if I want to add notes between
testers, email notifications and the like.

I wouldn't be too bothered by time tracking etc, but I would like at any given
status to know where a product is, what's on each testers pipeline and so on.

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akg_67
Are you willing to write detailed specifications for your requirements? How
much would you pay for a solution that fits all your requirements? Do you
believe other businesses may have similar problem like yours?

If someone built a solution to your requirements, will you be the first
'public' customer and 'endorse' the product? Will you commit to be a customer
for certain duration?

You may get the idea of where I am going with this line of questioning. You
have a real existing problem to solve and the solution to this problem may be
start of a business for someone else.

If none of existing solution meet your needs, Reach out to your local
freelance and entrepreneurial community and see if someone has interested in
building a business providing solution to your problem.

A business idea that comes with defined requirements, a customer, and revenue
stream is an attractive combination.

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logicman
You should check out Brightpod.com - might be what you are looking for. It's
got the best of Basecamp and Trello.

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charlieirish
asana? [https://asana.com/](https://asana.com/)

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trienthusiast
the problem I have with Asana, the tool below etc that they are all focused on
projects.

I would like something based on "objects".

Ie the products are objects that can be moved across owners (ie from a brand
to a tester, from the tester to the site) and the "owners" be objects with
properties (contact info, addresses etc...).

Trello does something similar, but the "Cards" are not interlinked... it's a
good Excel Sheet, but not a database (no relationships between tables).

Does it make sense? Do you think I have to have it developed specifically for
me? There must be something similar out there...

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sunilkumarc
You can use Wrike. [http://www.wrike.com](http://www.wrike.com)

Using Wrike you can schedule, prioritize, discuss and track progress in real
time.

~~~
trienthusiast
hi thanks for your answer.

I think this would have the same issue i have with Asana/Basecamp... project
management but I don't really have project, I have items to move across owners

