

Interstate (YC S11) Plots Your Development Progress On The Map - tomblomfield
http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/12/yc-funded-interstate-plots-your-development-progress-on-the-map/

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olivercameron
Ever since I saw the Cultured Code status page[1] a few months ago, I have
been wanting this product. I think a lot of companies would benefit from being
more open with their customers about progress.

1\. <http://culturedcode.com/status>

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tomblomfield
Yeah, I really like the ability to make certain sections of the roadmap
public.

Good luck to the Interstate guys!

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timdorr
I'm surprised Github integration isn't on their own roadmap. It would be
killer to mark things as completed via commits and see code activity in one
application.

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sim0n
GitHub integration is now very high on our list of ideas (added it to our
roadmap as per your suggestion -
<http://roadma.ps/8d#road-4e1ca10c8927f6eb50000273>)!

We've already added support to pull in your commit log to your Overview feed
(see: <http://cl.ly/2r2K3N052j0G3w2G2i2O> \- you can enable this via your
roadmap's settings page) and we're now looking at pulling in individual commit
messages and posting them to roads as update messages, etc (like you
suggested).

We're just now trying to decide on the best way to do this :)

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timdorr
Ah, missed that section down the page. Very good!

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flyosity
Some really beautiful, pixel-perfect design across the site and the app. Did
they do it in-house or hire an outside contractor/agency?

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jeffremer
It is very nice looking, well done guys. Though it is strikingly similar to
Lighthouse, at least at first glance: <http://lighthouseapp.com>. Perhaps a
source of inspiration, or just coincidence?

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sim0n
I don't see too much resemblance myself and there was no conscious effort of
mimicking their design but a lot of project management apps do look fairly
similar, UX wise.

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jeffremer
Maybe it's just that I use LH daily, and that bug trackers and project
management apps have only so many possible options for UX - but to me, these
two look more alike than any other combinations I can think of. Not implying
it's a rip off - it just struck me as funny.

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mvid
For some reason I thought they would actually overlay this onto a map, and
that sounded bizarre and cool. Guess not though.

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tortilla
No, I was visualizing the same thing when I read the title.

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sim0n
Haha, sorry if the title mislead you. We didn't pick it ourselves although it
does fit in with our whole 'Interstate' brand and theme which is nice!

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naeem
I've started using Interstate with my team. The core features are great, and
it definitely helps to get organized. The one fundamental problem that I've
found early on with the product, which will be a severe detriment unless they
can find a workaround, is that there isn't much that keeps me coming back. The
only thing that would keep me coming back is a constant stream of updates, but
the way that the system is set-up currently, updates come infrequently enough
that I'm not concerned enough to regularly check it. This might change with a
bigger team and once we get more involved, though. I think one way to improve
is to build some type of real-time collaboration platform to supplement the
core product. That may be too great a pivot, but the ability to actually use
it as a communication suite for my team while building our roadmap is
compelling.

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sim0n
We've got a some new features which will be arriving across the next few
months which will improve the communication aspect of Interstate, among other
things.

As you would expect, keep checking our roadmap for more info on what we're
working on :) (<http://interstateapp.com/roadmap>).

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mkeblx
I've been playing around with it for a week and I really like it so far,
enough to transition everything over from Basecamp.

I really like that I'll be able to incorporate the development progress easily
into an internal status page for our startup. (Actually thinking of doing a
road-based metaphor visualization of the 'interstates'.)

I'm very hesitant to have a publicly visible progress page though, out of
concern that would encourage people to wait to pay until a certain announced
feature was in place. Would at least have to be handled carefully.

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sim0n
First of all, great to hear you're finding the app useful!

We've somewhat surprisingly already heard stories regarding the opposite of
users waiting to pay until a feature is added; where users have actually
joined a site because they noticed a feature which they thought was missing
was actually in the works on the app's roadmap!

I do see and understand the worry that it can be risky for /some/ larger
businesses to share all the inner workings but we haven't yet heard anything
negative back from our users. Also, you aren't required to share everything
that you have planned. If you want to, you can start off by just the
information that you think you think would be great to share with your users,
whatever that may be.

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ethank
Having sub-tasks would be cool that auto-percentaged the completion of a
milestone.

IE: "Wireframes" as a milestone/road, should have stops per wireframe.

Otherwise its way too abstract to use to manage a granular project.

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joshuahays
I'm excited about this project and even more excited that we were able to
utilize it with our startup. I know these guys personally and this is only the
beginning... I promise you.

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hagyma
Well done. Watch out! We are chasing you! :)

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davidwhodge
Congrats guys!

