

Lessons from launch: help us learn how you track time - hawke
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3133-lessons-from-launch-help-us-learn-how-you-track-time

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Pewpewarrows
I don't understand the comments from people on the blog wanting them to rush
this feature and get it in ASAP. Like they mentioned, you still have Basecamp
Classic. There's nothing forcing you to move to the new Basecamp before they
take the time to get time-tracking right.

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sudonim
I found that surprising too. 37signals presumably are supporting both products
side by side to prevent people from having this reaction. Im not sure if those
people are yelling loud to make sure time tracking gets in to Basecamp Next or
because there are just rude and obnoxious people on the internet.

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breckinloggins
> How and why...

I can't comment on the "how", but the "why" is easier. 37signals is a product
company, and a modern one at that. By "modern" I mean that they do things
differently from traditional product companies. Not tracking time probably
works well for 37signals and many other nimble organizations.

But it doesn't work for everyone.

When I picture a 37signals customer, I tend to picture a company... well...
like 37signals. But Basecamp has a large user base. And it is not homogenous.

Large corporations, smaller traditional companies, freelancers, and
consultants all use your product.

Anyone who bills by the hour needs time tracking.

Anyone who is accountable to a "cost center" needs time tracking.

People who want to improve estimation in a project over time need time
tracking.

Skunkworks "rebel" projects embedded in a larger organization still have to
give cost reports to their superiors. They need time tracking.

Do I need to go on?

I won't fault 37signals for omitting a feature they did not understand, but
they shouldn't have been blindsided by it. It demonstrates an underestimation
of the diversity of their users.

Okay, maybe I will add my thoughts on the "how":

You're 37signals. Don't you like to keep things simple? Why not start with two
input fields on every task:

1\. Estimated time

2\. Actual time

Roll these up in any "aggregate" view of more than one task. A little
"estimate vs actual" sparkline would be cool, too. Provide deeper access via
API so the data can be integrated with existing tools the client has.

My opinion is that would be better than nothing. And it would stay out of the
way.

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xbryanx
I appreciate this post's lack of snark. It's nice to see them responding to a
need that they (37 signals) obviously think is useless, but that their
customers think is important. That's a hard line to draw when creating a tool.

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ROFISH
Why the focus on time tracking? There are plenty of other Basecamp features
I'm sure other people want to be ported too. For example, my company relies on
the Textile writeboards to provide pretty tables and lists. It was much
disheartening to see our carefully constructed pages get devoured into an ugly
mess of unversioned code when moving a project to the new system.

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cantastoria
>...we didn’t anticipate such a strong visceral “no time tracking is a deal
breaker” reaction. This was definitely a blind spot for us.

>...Plain and simple, this is why time tracking isn’t in the initial release
of the all new Basecamp. We simply don’t understand it well enough.

huh?

