There are several collaboration platforms out there. Some good, some not so good. Hive Flux aims to help with project management, while focusing on the people and what they are doing at a given time. I talked with Bruno Figueiredo, Founder of Hive Flux , to find out more about it.
What is HiveFlux and how did the idea come about?
HiveFlux is an app that helps companies work better by making it visible what everyone’s doing.
The idea came about when I was contracting in big digital agencies in London. It was really hard to be kept in the loop inside big teams and to make it worse we had to fill in weekly time-sheets (which were dreadful) reporting absolutely everything we had done to the Project Manager, but not to the team.
Over time I’ve tried dozens of task managers and I quickly got overwhelmed with the sheer number of tasks derailing. Moreover, most of them are for individual use. The main problem is that we set tasks in one day that are easily accomplishable within the timeframe we have at the moment, but new tasks always pop up and push that initial date aside. So I wanted something that would let me plan out my days without bugging me too much when I’m overdue. And I wanted something where the people I collaborate with could see my tasks – and why not enabling me to see theirs?
One problem I was quickly faced with is that in traditional task managers tasks are binary. Tasks can either be not done yet or completed and I needed something for the in-between. Kanban is very popular nowadays because it shows what’s being worked on at the moment, but they often sit on cork-boards and are not collaborative in nature, since they’re tied to a physical location. So I thought: why not have a play button to track the time I’m spending on each task while at the same time broadcasting what I’m working on to my team? That’s when I started to design HiveFlux.
There seem to be some points of contact with Basecamp. How do you differentiate?
There aren’t many points of contact yet. Yes, it lets you manage projects and loop in clients, but we don’t have a project centric approach. HiveFlux is people-centred.
The problem I see with most project management apps is that it’s project focused. But in a company environment most people work on 2 or 3 different projects at the same time, so sometimes you might be assigning tasks to them without realizing the implications they’re having on the other projects they’re assigned to.
Also, in most tools it’s pretty hard to see an overview of what everyone is working on; you can see your workload, but not everyone else’s. In HiveFlux you can see what everyone is working on across all projects in a unified view, and live.
Who will be the ideal users of this platform?
Any group of people trying to accomplish something together. It seems broad, but HiveFlux was designed to provide minimal friction in getting people together, and stay on top of things. It’s built on radical transparency, which I admit may seem scary for some people at first but in the end its value to the team will be unmatched.
What levels of membership will there be?
Basically we’re offering four levels, free to start off, one for small groups, one for larger groups and an unlimited level. We want everyone to be able to use HiveFlux, so every plan has unlimited users.
How can collaborative tools improve the work of teams?
Until recently, people used to work in the same room but often didn’t know what the others in their team were doing. Points of contact were limited.
Nowadays, teams work across different rooms or in entirely different places, and that becomes a productivity issue and a management problem.
Sometimes we know what our colleague is going to do but we only know he did it after he’s finished. HiveFlux solves these problems by providing tools that communicate to all what’s being done in realtime. That minimizes interruptions and puts everyone on the same track. It’s radically more transparent and we think will help anyone work better.
Hive Flux is in private beta. If you want to give it a try visit https://www.hiveflux.com/ and sign up to get an invite.
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