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Hi indie hackers 👋…

by Tom
https://todotracker.io

Hi indie hackers 👋,

I've been working hard on TODO Tracker a tool to help developers move //TODO out of comments and to our Dashboard, which provides powerful metrics and an intuitive editor. Once you link a GitHub account and repositories, TODO Tracker will remind you about TODOs whenever you open a pull request that modifies a file linked to one so you keep the context you already have while writing maintainable code ✔️.

It's still a work in progress but it's finally in a state with it's most basic functionality that I think feedback from all of you could add a lot of value 🔎.

All feedback is welcome but if you need a couple questions to get you started:

  1. Is the landing page intuitive? I'm not sure it represents the fact that you need a GitHub account to link at the moment.

  2. If you're a developer/product manager/scrum master: Do you think this tool could provide value to your organization?

  3. What's the hardest part about keeping a code base clean? How do you know when the right time to 'pay' for your technical debt is?

Thanks for your help! 💞

https://todotracker.io

#startup #product-feedback-request #landing-page-feedback #idea-validation #saas #feedback #entrepreneurship

Tom's avatarTom
submitted this linkon February 27, 2019
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  1. 3

    Great idea Tom, I would love to use it. I would love to see it having integration with tools like Jira, Asana, Podio, etc.
    Most of our work is tracked and managed in one of those tools and a lot of dashboarding happens there. Jira gives tools like setting limits on number of items in technical debt and raising flags to all the stakeholders who are following the progress.

    Signup can be made easier, by signing up with Github/Google. Would like to avoid having a new password
    Testimonials during Signup, feel a bit distracting (probably it's just me)

    Link with Github: Are you sure you want to allow this to happen without the user being logged in ? Or does linking also create an account for the user?

    Footer: Missing; would make it a little more visually clean

    No credit card required: I don't see any plans yet. Probably would be nice if you can have one.

    Security: Would like to know how you would handle the code once it's linked. Might be a future task, but would like to be sure that the service I'm using takes care of security of my codebase.

    Thanks for building a cool tool. Good luck!

    kailash's avatar kailash
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    8 years ago
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    1. 1

      Hey Kailash!

      Wow! Really appreciate all the great feedback, I can't begin to tell you how helpful all of this is. I have a few followup questions comments if you find yourself with a minute...

      1. As far as 3rd party integrations - What do you imagine the Integration with these services looks like? When a JIRA ticket get's marked as technical debt it automatically gets pulled into our dashboard (or similar)?

      2. SSO - I agree that the email/password signup isn't ideal and is probably stopping a lot of people from signing up. I should probably at least add a Google signup. I think this is going to be at the top of the backlog before doing a 'wider release'.

      3. Testimonials - I think you're probably right about the testimonials, there's no real reason to distract people at this point. Once I have some feedback from real users I'll definitely move it to the landing page :)

      4. Call to Action Button - I actually just changed to the 'Link To GitHub' button from a 'Start Tracking Today' button that points to Sign Up based off other feedback in this thread and I think it makes sense. Right now it's the easiest way to commit, and after they add the TODO Tracker app, it redirects them straight to Sign Up. Permissions in the app are based solely off of GitHub permissions right now as well, so even if I don't have an account if I add the integration to a repository through GitHub, other contributors to the repository would be able to use TODO Tracker. Do you think it makes sense with a little more context, mostly just that it's completely separate from having account but once you're linked you'll probably create one?

      5. Footer & Subscription Plans are definitely in the works, I just got the landing page put together and was excited to get some eyes on it. What do you think plans should look like? Right now I'm planning on scaling them based on a number of repositories with the most basic tier allowing unlimited public repositories and either 1-3 private repositories, the second tier allowing ~10 private repositories and the 3rd tier allowing unlimited private repos. Thoughts on that tentative plan? I'm extremely open to feedback on this one!

      6. Security - As of right now we're storing your encrypted access token once it's been generated in our database and serving it back to you upon login and then it's passed along with requests (and is not being logged). Before any access is given, the token is being verified and access to that repository is checked through GitHub's API. I would be open to an opt-out on saving your token in the database if you think that would be something intriguing to users, as long as they understand they would need to re-authenticate GitHub with TODO Tracker after every login on a new computer (or after login tokens expire, etc.). I understand that read-only access to source code isn't something that's going to be taken lightly by anyone and am happy to do whatever it takes to meet the needs of our current and future users!

      I hope the wall of text isn't too intimidating, I feel like you really hit the nail on the head with the direction TODO Tracker is headed / needs to head and would love to get some more feedback from you when you have the time if you want to setup a call!

      Thanks for checking the app out,
      Tom

      Tom's avatar Tom
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      8 years ago
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      1. 1

        Glad I didn't sound all stupid :). Please find below responses.

        1. I would like todotracker to push to Jira than readinig from Jira. Reason being I would like to reduce my time moving around apps and like them to be centralized in one place.
          For ex: If todotracker, flags a todo, apart from commenting on github I can choose it to create a ticket on a given board in Jira or tag the commit to an existing jira ticket

        2. SSO 👍

        3. Sounds good. I guess with sufficient signups it's easier to form a consensus.

        4. Disclaimer: I might be glaringly wrong, but putting it out there.
          Personally, I believe trial or free should be limited with time until you have that kind of cash to throw on doing unlimited stuff. Reason being free usage can cripple the product and requires a lot more planning from engineering point on how you can help scale load b/w free and paid users. Having been there, it wasn't pretty at all and the changes to pricing can't be made fast.
          Free tier: 1 repository (30 days)
          Tier 2: 5 repositories
          Tier 3: unlimited

        You would want the majority of sales in Tier 3. A little more detailed breakdown of statistics of github can be found here: https://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/github-pricing-page-teardown

        Now be aware that the pricing should be extensible. Like if you want to factor integrations with tools, then you can go crazy on the number of repositories per account and upsell on integrations.
        I'm sure you guys have a lot more insight into it that I can vomit here, I hope I made sense so far.

        1. For the majority, I don't see an issue. Make sure to be GDPR compliant as the customers who are using your product might have limitations on their end to be compliant with all the products they use. However, can go down in priority on your backlog. Not a show stopper.

        Feel free to connect with me https://www.linkedin.com/in/kailashnathreddy/. I'm more than happy to get on a call to explain in detail further if need be :)

        Good luck ✌️

        kailash's avatar kailash
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        8 years ago
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  2. 3

    Regarding the landing page, I would advise to make the font less contrast in "Hey Tom" section and collapse "Hi there" section by default as it hides "Communicate Without the Code" section.

    ResizePixel's avatar ResizePixel
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    8 years ago
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    1. 1

      I see.. I added Drift yesterday and you're right it does cover up one of the major selling points I'm trying to cover! I'll take a look at that this evening.

      Thanks!

      Tom's avatar Tom
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      8 years ago
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  3. 2

    Hi Tom! How about changing CTA button text to "Link with GitHub" or something similar?

    neiljett's avatar neiljett
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    8 years ago
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    1. 2

      Went ahead and implemented the change you suggested on TODO Tracker if you want to check it out 😄

      Tom's avatar Tom
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      8 years ago
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      1. 1

        You've just shown me what a difference acting on someone's advice could make 🤗

        I just want to help you more!

        Adding more spacing around H1 and other messages on the page makes them easier to read. Don't worry about keeping it above the fold 😉

        neiljett's avatar neiljett
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        8 years ago
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    2. 1

      Hey Neil, I really like that idea. I noticed even users that do sign up have a hard time actually getting through the linking process so getting that out of the way first may make the most sense! I would go ahead and link it to our GitHub App Page which links back to the registration page after they integrate!

      Thanks for the feedback!

      Tom's avatar Tom
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      8 years ago
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      1. 1

        This comment was deleted 8 years ago

        Tom's avatar Tom
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        8 years ago