Crow's Nest

The backbone of the app is starting to shape. I managed to craft a reactive prototype of a workload distribution solution.

Getting the distribution right due to quantized (rounded) precision (the prototype is working with quarter hours, but this will be customizable) was challenging, but the groundwork is done.

The scheduler will take a date range, an amount of hours and a workload type (hill, valley, increasing, decreasing) and allot time automatically, ensuring that time is optimally distributed along the date range.

I published a blog post summarizing the main pain point I was experiencing (Hidden Overbookings) and laying out how I think to provide remedy.

I got a bunch of encouraging nods from people I’ve shared this with. That, of course, still doesn’t mean that there’s a real demand here, but I’ll go on spreading the word and listen.

https://www.crowsnestapp.com/product/2020/08/30/hidden-overbookings-freelancers-fast-lane-to-burn-out/

As a first MVP, I chose to whip up a landing page that explains the concept and includes a call to action.

I used whimsical to generate a first set of wireframes (https://whimsical.com/K8w8UPCiWpTS5wW96anwBT) and set up a Mailchimp audience to store incoming email subscriptions.

The logo was designed using canva.com, but then refined in a vector graphics tool.

So far I'm quite satisfied - 9 potential users subscribed in the first 10 days. A static page isn't really descriptive though, that's why I'm going to add a short video at the earliest time possible.