"Micromanagement" and "Time Poor" - 2 concerns that scream out when I look at this product.
RescueTime did a fantastic job at removing the "time poor" component for keeping track of where you spend your time, hence living up to its name.<p>Having worked in the corporate world and in start-ups I can tell you now that most corporate clients already have a time sheet system that is a pain in the a<i></i>. Employees spend at least 30mins or so a day writing everything they did throughout the day and billing their time where appropriate.<p>When it comes to getting management feedback for each task you did, again managers are time poor having to deal with more then 1 person in their team + their own tasks from higher management. Hence why performance reviews between you and manager occur every quarter / 6 months / annually and only focus on the high level picture - the stuff that counts - the outcomes / results.<p>Micromanagement is another issue; no one likes to jot down every action they did. What "matters" is always the end result not the bits in the middle. I.e. taking a client for coffee spending 2 hours out of the office is a step to a potential sale (building rapport). At the end of the day, the sale is what will count on your performance agreement not the coffee break. My manager doesn't want to know that I went to coffee with a client unless I managed to get a sale.<p>I'm sure some of you would have heard this before but the best workers are those where management give them what they need to do their job and let them do it without micromanaging their time. How and when they do it doesn't matter, all that matters is the end results (outcomes).
I like the idea and initial basic implementation. I can see a lot of potential.<p>The name has problems, though. First, it seems a bit defensive: "Look, I did work!" Second, it looks/sounds a little like 'idiotwork'.<p>There are tons of themes and word fragments to work with for 'team microblogging of work tasks with metrics', so I think with a little effort you could have a very memorable, meaningful name.<p>Good luck!
I'm Shawn, one of the ididwork.com founders. We'd like to know what you think about the service. Please leave any feedback here or email us at feedback [at] ididwork (dot) com.
Minor details, but<p>- I don't want to watch video at work, so I can not see the demo video. There is no other information on the website on how it works.<p>- I can not sign up instantly either, because I can not access my home email address from work. I don't want to sign up with my work email address.<p>Bottom line: my instant curiosity can not be satisfied. If it wasn't an YC company, I would have forgotten all about it by the time I got home. Since it is YC, there is a faint chance I might remember it and actually check it out in the evening.
Voted up. The exact idea I hyped to everyone (and wrote on my name tag) at YCombinator's Startup School and reception in April, so I know it has potential. And registered at Dynadot 3 days ago, the domain registrar I introduced News.YC to this Spring. ;) So, at least you got one vote :). And I know other founders of existing YC companies loved the idea as well.<p>Good thing that of the two YCombinator founders who were there at the reception, I only talked to Trevor about the idea, and not PG--otherwise I would be pretty upset! Oh well, I'm actually going back to college this Fall per PG's new advice to finish college--after following the old advice to drop out of college--so that's fine that somebody made this. (Had I applied to the summer round, I would have probably been rejected, given that an app like this takes 5 people to make.) The implementation looks good! Good luck!<p>Obviously, I'm not particularly excited to hear this news, since I was thinking about this idea every day, but on the other hand, it will make it easier when my app launches since it would have been previously demonstrated as a proven idea by somebody else.
I like it, but I'm skeptical when TechCrunch says "it will eliminate the need for status meetings". Face-to-face still offers lots of advantages: you can ask questions in real time, you can read body language, and you have have quicker discussions. ididwork is a supplement (a pretty good one too!), but not a replacement.
so for all the people who upvoted that "tired of Techcrunch, want direct links instead" story, let's take a new habit :<p>direct link : <a href="http://www.ididwork.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ididwork.com/</a>
This may be the workout log I've been looking for. I've been wanting a web app that will let me easily enter, e.g., "went for a run", and then allow me to view a graph of my workout history (i.e., how many workouts I've done).
I read once on 37 Signals that they have a twitter like "what are you doing?" status page so that the team lead doesn't have to ask this all the time.<p>I really expceted this to be a "what are you doing" kinda app rather than a "what have you done" one. To me (I'm sure people will disagree, np) it's easier to write down a task when you start it, or when you are in the middle of it, than when you end it. And that way it's easier to track interruptions, etc.
I don't know if this exists in the states, but I know in Canada tech companies can submit credits for hours their employees log as R&D (it's a pretty loose definition). At many of the large companies that is the main reason they use timesheets.<p>If this exists here in the US and were integrated into ididwork somehow it might be a great way to get adoption from managers.
Vaguely like 'Stuff To Do', which I ended up open sourcing because I just didn't see the demand in that space. Of course theirs is prettier (lots prettier), and more professional looking. Still, I wonder about making money in that space - it's quite crowded, and there is probably a lot of competition from "good enough" solutions.
I'm thinking we might use it on our small, decentralised (across two continents) agile team, since we always have a bit of a headache keeping each other up to date on what we've done.<p>Don't focus too much on the manager-review aspect, imho. This could be very useful as a simple communication tool, without any management reviews.
I really like the idea. There is a definitely a need for something like this. I'm curious to know if you plan on adding any sort of communication aspects (along the lines of built in chat, messages, possibly video chat, etc.)?
Bookmarklet incoming? Or, better yet, a Quicksilver plugin? Looks great but it's the kind of thing that I'd only use if it's easy to get information into, ala Twitter.