

Show HN: Lean Specs - Simple project specifications and estimates - pytrin
http://www.leanspecs.com/

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oliwarner
Sorry but what about this is "Show HN"? You're not _showing_ anything!

This seems to be a fairly common thing on HN - have half an idea, do a bit of
webdesign and create a email-submission form.

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pytrin
We're showing a product we're about to launch in a couple of weeks and are
looking for feedback and to hear what the HN crowd thinks about this kind of
service.

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andyjohnson0
There needs to be _something_ for us to give feedback _on_.

I hope that your launch goes well.

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pytrin
Thank you :)

We hoped to get some feedback from people using current tools before we
launch, and we're getting some already, so that's great.

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borneo
So now that you obliviously recieved your own spec from some HN commenters..
(I wanted at least screenshots man!)

What would be an example of current tools people are using for drafting tech
specs beyond a word processor? What software is similar to yours / competition
/ etc?

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Nicolas___
This is an ok home page.

Your idea could be very good or very bad, depending on how your service works.
But right now, there is no way to tell because it shows nothing at all.

You basically asked for some feedback on the content of some <title> tags.

~~~
pytrin
We want feedback from people who are building specifications with current
tools, to help us make some decisions on the final featureset of the product.
We wish we could show screenshots, but the interface currently is
functionality only without design :(

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josephfung
Like the title, but was disappointed.

Coming up with a spec format that clients will like has always been a fairly
easy problem to solve - as well the spec is usually worked on once the project
has been awarded, so isn't even part of the sales process. As well it's hard
to improve the writing + sharing experience of Word + Email or Google Docs +
Sharing.

The attention to estimating is nice, and will save freelancers or less
experienced teams time, but is only really useful to teams that do contract
and custom work.

I was hoping for more of a focus on the collaborative work that comes out of
writing specs: more around the commenting/editing/workflow. When working on a
spec (either internal or external) change requests or modifications are
important, as are interdependencies and change tracking.

Your product title made me think "GitHub for Specs" and it doesn't seam you're
going that way. Shame.

~~~
adambenayoun
Joseph - thanks a lot for the feedback. We're at the stage that we're looking
for feedback from other individuals and see how they are experiencing the pain
we've experienced in the past.

We intend on reading every single feedback left on our form and here and
discuss how we can better serve our potential users.

By the way - I loved the "github for specs" :)

~~~
josephfung
No problem. Good luck with the new service.

Oh yeah - thinking back to consulting work - something that let me "make a
beautiful spec and share it" would have felt like a one-time-use service.
Subscribe for a month, make a spec, take the learnings and add it to my own
Word template.

The problem I mentioned (collaborative spec maintenance) is something that I
know I'd pay for as a subscription - specifically because it helps me manage
something for the ongoing health of our products. It becomes more core.

The only downside is that a solution more aligned to infrastructure costs (as
I have suggested) can't command as high a price premium as something that is
aligned to revenue (i.e. help me rationalize/explain higher estimates to
customers).

~~~
adambenayoun
We're not planning on stopping at "make a beautiful spec and share it" - we
are building a tool that ease the pain of writing and collaborating on specs -
with your clients and/or team.

Your feedback however is very valuable - since the product is still in its
infancy (heck we haven't launched yet) and knowing we love to iterate a lot
and based on real world findings - this is this kind of feedback that will
help us shape the product.

So again - thanks a lot!

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ams6110
Something to help format and present specifications to a client would likely
be something I would be interested in trying.

However basing estimates on "industry averages" is probably about as bad an
idea as letting your manager estimate your work for you.

As Joel Spolsky has said in at least one article[1]: _Only the programmer who
is going to do the work can figure out what steps they will need to take to
implement that feature. And only the programmer can estimate how long each one
will take._

Industry averages might be usable at some level as a sanity check, but
honestly most software that is more complex than very basic CRUD is not going
to conform to any "averages" for purposes of estimating.

[1] <http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000245.html>

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mattyfo
Nothing to see here but I am curious to see what this team has come up with.
As a UX Architect/Product Manager it's a tough game staying on top of client
requests, clarifying them and then handing them off for development. I think
the challenge is having something that meets the needs of everyone but is
flexible enough to adjust for unforeseen work, new requirements and shifting
priorities.

~~~
adambenayoun
Matt, Thanks a lot for the feedback - we know there's a huge pain for everyone
involved in the specification stage.

I personally wrote so many spec documents and price proposals in my life and I
can tell you that it was the part I enjoyed the least in the project.
(Althought extremely crucial for its success).

I hope we can solve this pain and make this a better experience for everyone
involved.

~~~
mattyfo
For sure, when you launch the beta let me know and I'll give you my honest
feedback. I might even be able to use it on a project but will have to take a
look at the product first.

~~~
adambenayoun
Great! We'll make sure to post a url on hacker news once we go live.
Alternatively if you want to be notified - make sure to leave your email on
<http://www.leanspecs.com>

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binarysolo
Like the project idea, but like others have said, there's nothing much to show
for right now.

I understand what you're trying to do -- outsourcing requirements for your MVP
before invest more time -- but seriously, call a spade a spade... (This is
probably more Ask HN than Show HN.)

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rglover
Bummer. I've been thinking of a strategy to reform this exact process for my
business, but there's nothing I can do here (yet). ETA?

~~~
adambenayoun
rglove - we hope we'll be able to launch this product within 3-4 weeks top.
Leave your email and feedback and we'll make sure to send you an email once
we're live.

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jimparkins
Ironic? That your website touting"lean" has a MVP that is too minimal?

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d0m
I really like the social media share buttons. Are these custom made?

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pytrin
Yes, custom buttons who fetch the counters through the various (unofficial)
APIs for each service. We'll be releasing a set of those on Github soon

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mapleoin
They're also a bit broken: <http://i.imgur.com/D916w.png>

I have a recent Firefox with what seems like bigger fonts than you were
expecting.

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adambenayoun
Thanks for catching that - we'll try to see if we can address that issue.

