
New productivity software startups - notlukesky
https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2019/9/27/new-productivity
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rolleiflex
I worry this is going to end up with a Cambrian explosion of tools that don’t
interoperate with each other. This is the main side effect - anything that can
be made into a business productivity app will be made into a business
productivity app whether it makes sense or not.

For example - Facebook made itself into a productivity app, called Facebook at
Work. It’s not great, but they use it. Notepad, Excel, literally anything that
is a good ‘single-player’ experience will eventually end up one, either built
by a third party, or if they’re smart and act fast, their own. It’s not a bad
thing, it’s just probably better to let things shake down on their own for a
while. We’re just now getting the social aspect of work right, after a decade
of Google Plus grade attempts.

(Disclosure being, with some irony, is that I make a Reddit as an engineer
productivity app at [https://aether.app](https://aether.app), so I have some
personal experience with this proliferation.)

~~~
enkarta
This “Cambrian explosion” is exactly what we’re trying to help with at
Monolist ([https://monolist.co](https://monolist.co)).

The number of tools used daily is growing, which is in one way beneficial for
the worker since they get a better and more specialized tool to do their work.
However, it increases fragmentation and the chances of missed work.

Email is the most common solution, but that has its own downsides and seems to
be used less and less for daily work. We think the solution is an ever-
updating and fully synchronized “command center” for everything across every
app you may be using.

~~~
Waterluvian
I think instead of another tool to wrangle too many tools is as you already
headed off: email.

Gmail already reminds me of stuff like emails I didn't respond to. I've set up
some filters and scripts to do more like create a triage queue for PRs and
such.

~~~
enkarta
Email does indeed catch and notify you of most things, and Gmail is getting
smarter every day. The one major downfall, though, is that it's stale: the
minute you receive an email it's out of date, and if anything requires
additional emails to send updates.

It's also those "filters and scripts" you've set up to create your own triage
queue that we're trying to replace. The average user should not have to write
scripts to receive and process their work in an efficient manner. That's what
we're trying to solve at Monolist!

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jedberg
> There’s an old joke that every Unix function became an internet company

Yes! I remember that. I worked at Sendmail at the time (a unix function that
became an internet company) and we joked about starting a sister company
called Syslog.

Given how many logging companies have sprung up since, maybe that wasn't such
a bad idea!

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starpilot
I've been using Onshape and it's INCREDIBLE. It is a fully featured CAD
package with assemblies, revision control, constraints etc. It makes Google
SketchUp look like Notepad. I'm just using the free version (requires your
files be public) but it's VERY much like SolidWorks. It's really an
achievement in web app development.

~~~
benedictevans
The founders also created Solidworks ;)

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radva42
I think one of the reasons for this explosion in new productivity tools we are
seeing is the remarkable progress the web platform has made in recent years. I
know web developers complain about the rapid speed web technologies are
moving, but I personally am amazed by what's possible today. True, it's hard
to keep up with everything, but I can't wait to see what will come out of
WebComponents and WebAssembly.

Also putting all software in the browser doesn't necessary mean that the users
have to give up control over their software and data. Maybe there's a middle
ground by making it easy for the end users to run their own software in the
browser. At least this is an idea I've been working on for quite some time - a
self-hosted visual (no-code) software builder called FormBeaver[0] that let's
users build and host their own custom database software without any code.
Currently the users need to download it and run the App Builder on their own
machine for it to work, but I'm hopeful that in the near future it would be
possible to put it entirely in the browser thanks to WebAssembly. The one
thing that's missing in the browser right now is an SQL database. I haven't
found a way to run SQL in the browser.

[0] [https://www.formbeaver.com](https://www.formbeaver.com)

~~~
BjoernKW
> The one thing that's missing in the browser right now is an SQL database. I
> haven't found a way to run SQL in the browser.

Actually, there's a way:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_SQL_Database](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_SQL_Database)
(see [https://caniuse.com/#search=websql](https://caniuse.com/#search=websql)
for browser support)

You can see a live example with SheetJS here:
[https://sheetjs.com/sexql/](https://sheetjs.com/sexql/)

Unfortunately, Web SQL Database has been deprecated in favour of IndexedDB,
which in my opinion is no real replacement because it's a NoSQL database
that's nowhere near as powerful in terms of the queries you can run with it.

However, the deprecation is understandable from a browser vendor's point of
view. Maintaining and developing a browser is difficult enough as it is.
Having to maintain an RDBMS adds a lot of complexity on top of that for what's
probably a marginal use case for most users.

That said, it might be possible to integrate SQLite by using browser
extensions. That of course depends on the users' willingness to install a
browser extension in order to run your software builder.

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hunterloftis
I'm curious how the author's definition of "presentation software" might
differ from mine:

> from a stand-alone PC application that saves files to a file share into a
> new collaboration-first web application. (I would really like someone to do
> this for presentations)

I consider that market fairly saturated: Google Slides, Prezi, slides.com...

~~~
benedictevans
I would like version control, tracking and sign-off per side, common central
library (change this slide and it changes everywhere - good luck doing that
with OLE)... I want workflow.

Using Slides etc is like moving from Excel to Sheets instead of moving to
Everlaw or Salesforce - there's no change in the workflow. Slides is just a
light-weight copy of Powerpoint, 'but on the web!'.

~~~
shreyshrey
Not necessarily for presentations. We are working on a new work-sharing and
communication platform for professionals that offers document versioning ,
tracking, workflow and e-signature
([https://airsend.io/](https://airsend.io/)). From our customer development
interviews we have found out that the "work context" is the most important
thing.

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golover721
Is there anything in the backend arena that a small business couldn’t do with
an excel spreadsheet?

~~~
1123581321
Yes, 1) be irresistibly fun to use, 2) prevent users from doing the wrong
thing, 3) be an aspirational purchase.

That might sound like I’m making fun of productivity software, but I’m
not—-now that instant communication is a commodity,
organizational/productivity software has value mostly because it’s a self-
limiting tool that shapes how we think and interact so we can do what we were
already capable of doing.

~~~
LifeIsBio
#2, and this comment in general, is a great point.

I recently wrote my first piece of productivity software, which I use
everyday. The main benefit I get out of it is reminding myself, “This
structure is how I want to think about things.”

The unlimited freedom of a spreadsheet comes with downsides, at least for me.

~~~
npo9
I keep a few emacs tables and template files for doing creative workflows.
It’s easy to learn (once you bought into the eco system), fast to create
(measured in minutes instead of hours or days), easy to use, and easy to
modify.

The big downside to emacs for productivity is that it’s less easy to share.

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matchagaucho
How many people prefer the desktop Slack app over the web interface?

I suspect many people are going to "rediscover" native desktop clients that
are connected.

Microsoft is the dark horse here. Office is more than a bunch of productivity
apps. It's an established platform.

~~~
hvidgaard
Let's not get ahead of our self. The Slack desktop "app" is a repackaged
browser running an SPA. That is the antithesis of a native desktop app.

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tucros
I've worked in ediscovery software for years. Everlaw is definitely an up and
coming player with an attractive interface, but no serious law firms/in house
counsel have been using spreadsheets to conduct reviews for, oh, two decades
at least

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welanes
> _There’s clearly a point in the life of any company where you should move
> from the list you made in a spreadsheet to the richer tools you can make in
> coolproductivityapp.io_

Now _there 's_ a snazzy domain name (that, alas, was already taken).

But I was able to yoink the almost as catchy
[http://coolproductivityapp.com](http://coolproductivityapp.com).

Hey VCs, where you at? ;)

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greggh
I don't know how I got anything done before Monday.com. I am dead serious to.
I failed to even keep to do lists up to date in anything else.

~~~
theflyinghorse
Do you use it as an individual? As in just for organizing your own personal
tasks and todos?

~~~
joshspankit
Also my question

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lkrubner
Slightly off topic, but there is some overlap between productivity and
usability so some of you might be interested in my write up 10 important
usability tools:

[http://smashcompany.com/top_10_usability_testing_tools/](http://smashcompany.com/top_10_usability_testing_tools/)

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echelon
Frame.io looks fantastic for collaborative video editing.

I've been waiting for a lot of this to move into the browser so the workhorse
server machines can do all the heavy lifting.

I want to build a similar product for speedy, automated editing, and a head's
up for dailies and on-set editing.

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MentallyRetired
Nice article. Sad to see Timelinr not mentioned, though.

