plae

The Brief

RedLight and other software consulting companies need modern tools for managing their work logs. This includes being able to perform time-tracking while enabling both collaboration between teams and solo ventures like freelancing and supporting scenarios like subcontracting and customized pricing per team member.

The heterogeneous nature of these scenarios dictates that whatever the solution is, it needs to adjust to many different needs of differently sized companies that want to use it. However, it must be simple to use and easy to integrate with modern tools of task management & office communication.

Strategy

Creating a time tracking/management tool that stands out from the competition but focuses on software development teams that need to collaborate remotely. On top of that, it should support a wide range of functionalities like customized pricing per team member, position, or project, allowing for full customization on project setup. It should also be simple to use as a company or as a freelancer working for many companies at the same time.

Result

Plae is now available as a web app in an open beta version. It currently integrates with Slack, GitHub, and your own terminal. Teams and freelancers are now using plae to track the time they spend on developing new products.

My role in creating plae

Product Manager

plae was initially planned to be developed as an internal tool for RedLight. My role in creating this product was specifically to be able to spin plae not only for RedLight’s use but for a business tool that other companies could rely on.

This meant doing user research with several different types of users with very different roles like developers, designers, accountants, and CEOs to figure out what were the main challenges for time tracking, reporting, and invoicing a time & materials project.

With strict prioritization and planning made by me, plae kept adding features up to 2019 that are still used today by many companies in their daily workflows.

I’m very proud to say that this time tracking platform is still a key tool for the organizations who have onboarded plae’s private beta release.

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