Results of the Survey to Prioritize Improvements
In order to adjust priorities in our roadmap, a couple of weeks ago we sent a survey to our users so they could tell us which of the improvements we plan to develop seem more interesting.
Some non-negotiable options — due to the positioning of FacileThings as a GTD tool — didn’t appear among the survey options, nor did many other small improvements that we will include when we consider it more convenient. Neither did we include some other changes that will be necessary for technical, legal or business issues.
So, we presented the 12 most requested features and asked them to mark the 3 they consider most interesting. These are the proposed improvements and the percentage of users who have voted each one:
| 1 | Dashboard. It will be a new screen where you will see all the relevant information of the day: the Calendar events for today, important Next Actions, close due dates (projects, goals, delegated tasks), and various notifications. You will also have a tool that will allow you to choose the next action to execute. |
62.07% |
| 2 | Subprojects. It will allow you to decompose complex projects into components and advance each of the parts simultaneously, as if they were independent projects. |
47.68% |
| 3 | Improve the integration with Google Calendar. It will be automatic, bidirectional, and will allow you to use multiple calendars. |
32.98% |
| 4 | Improve the management of Routines and recurring tasks. You will have more frequencies (days of the week, first Monday of each month, etc.), and you will be able to edit a routine from the task itself, and create a new routine from any task. We will add an interface to set energy, time and urgency, and we will allow to attach files to routines. |
29.24% |
| 5 | Improve the management of the Calendar list. You will be able to customize the first day of the week and the dates format, define the duration of the events, view the events grouped by dates. We will also improve the daily, weekly and monthly views, we will allow you to see the elements “hidden” in the Tickler File, and you will be able to handle different time zones. |
25.64% |
| 6 | Project Templates. They will allow you to immediately generate new projects that are usually repeated or similar to others. |
22.34% |
| 7 | Integration with Outlook calendar. In the style of the current integration with Google Calendar. |
18.14% |
| 8 | Gmail integration. We will create a Gmail plugin that will allow you to create tasks in FacileThings without sending emails. |
16.79% |
| 9 | Zapier integration. Zapier is a really powerful tool, which will allow you to connect FacileThings with more than 500 web applications: Trello, Asana, Basecamp, Slack, GMail, Office 365, OneNote, Pocket, Zoho, Evernote Business, Google Drive, several CRMs and databases, etc. |
11.99% |
| 10 | Reports in PDF format. You will be able to print all the information of a project, the tasks lists, and a set of useful reports with all the necessary filters and details. |
11.39% |
| 11 | Google Chrome extension to capture URLs. With a simple click you will be able to capture articles you want to read later, videos you want to see, websites you want to explore deeper, etc. |
10.94% |
| 12 | OneNote integration. You will be able to use OneNote as a capture and reference material tool, in the style of the current integration with Evernote. |
10.79% |
Web Application
The result of the voting has been quite clear:
- There are two options which have been well voted above the rest: A Dashboard to centralize the daily activity, which has been voted by 62% of users, and the possibility of decomposing projects into subprojects, voted by 48% of users.
- Then there are four options that have received between 22% and 32% of votes, three of them related to improvements of existing features (integration of Google Calendar, and management of Routines and Calendar), and a new tool to define project templates.
- The proposals related to new integrations have been the least voted, and are led by the integration with the Outlook calendar, with 18% of voters.
Don’t worry if your votes are in the lower part of the table because, in principle, we intentd to develop all the proposals. I think that throughout this year we will be able to implement at least the seven first improvements.
In addition, we anticipate other developments — not included in the survey — that we will incorporate in our discretion:
- 100% GTD switch (I don’t know how to call it yet). It will be an option that you can activate and deactivate whenever you want. If you activate it, some options that are not totally compatible with GTD will disappear of the application, and you will be forced to work in “pure GTD” mode.
- Project’s Natural Planning. This way of planning projects will allow you to calmly face projects of a certain complexity.
- Mind sweep. Doing a mind sweep will help you start to get organized or regain control when you’ve had a bad run.
Another goal we have for this year is to gradually include a new design in each of the application sections. With this new design we will try to simplify each of the processes, make the application more intuitive, and offer a more orderly, clean and quiet space.
Mobile Application
In the coming days we will publish version 2.2 of the mobile app. We have dismantled the app, changed its entire inner core, and reassembled it. It was a necessary change to solve some memory and synchronization problems as well as to have a robust base to keep on adding functionalities.
Over the next few months we’ll be adding new features and enhancing the existing ones, to make it a completely useful app when you’re out there.
Website
We plan to improve the tutorials, publish new sections that help you solve doubts (FAQs, GTD dictionary, etc.), and improve the localization of content with a search tool and a new classification system.
Other Questions
- We will publish an API for developers. This API already exists, but is private for now. We need to optimize it a bit and prepare the necessary documentation so that it can be easily used.
- We will launch a referral program. If you know someone who you think might find FacileThings useful, you will be able to send them and invitation and both will benefit from the recommendation.
- If we have time, we will try to develop a payment system within FacileThings (we now use Paypal to make payments), which will allow better automation of charges and billing.
- We will also need to spend a few weeks to deal with technical issues. Upgrading versions and libraries in our development framework is always crazy, but it improves the overall performance of the system and leads to new technological opportunities.
4 comments
This is an exciting and well thought list of improvements. I certainly agree with the 2 top priorities, and I am pleasantly surprised that in addition you were working on a tool to help us with the natural planning of projects. I re-read this part from GTD recently and actually mapped it out on a paper so I could actively apply that process to a lot of the project planning I do. Getting a tool that will guide you and help you through this process is great. Also, can't wait for the mobile app back (Android)!
This is an exciting and well thought list of improvements. I certainly agree with the 2 top priorities, and I am pleasantly surprised that in addition you were working on a tool to help us with the natural planning of projects. I re-read this part from GTD recently and actually mapped it out on a paper so I could actively apply that process to a lot of the project planning I do. Getting a tool that will guide you and help you through this process is great. Also, can't wait for the mobile app back (Android)!
Very exciting list of planned features and upgrades. Looking forward to the recreated mobile app. Wonderful. Love this software!
Very exciting list of planned features and upgrades. Looking forward to the recreated mobile app. Wonderful. Love this software!
Ugo, Steve, I'm glad you like our plans. It is ambitious, but I hope we can fulfill most of it ;)
Thanks for your support and encouragement!
Ugo, Steve, I'm glad you like our plans. It is ambitious, but I hope we can fulfill most of it ;)
Thanks for your support and encouragement!
Disappointed that the reporting option didn't get higher on the list, as that was one of my biggies. BUT, overall, I'm very excited with both the list and with the app itself. I'm probably a "GTD App Expert," having tried (and paid for) pretty much everything out there, and so far, Facile Things is living up to my hopes for it. Thanks for the good work!
Disappointed that the reporting option didn't get higher on the list, as that was one of my biggies. BUT, overall, I'm very excited with both the list and with the app itself. I'm probably a "GTD App Expert," having tried (and paid for) pretty much everything out there, and so far, Facile Things is living up to my hopes for it. Thanks for the good work!