It's about time docs were easy to use, flexible, and actually smart. We designed Input to have the simplicity of writing in a doc, but combined with some of the most powerful features of project management, so remote teams can get more done.
Hi everyone!
Jeff here — I'm really excited to share Input with you today.
We're a 100% remote team that's been working for the past few months to build the next great way to get things done: a flexible, easy-to-use smart doc designed for distributed teams. We heard over and over how existing tools are too complex and bogged down with features, but that docs are too simplistic and just not designed for collaboration. So, we created Input to have the simplicity of writing in a doc, but with some of the most powerful features of project management. Our goal is to have built something simple, beautiful and easy-to-use, that helps you instantly get full visibility on the context of any project and why decisions were made. You can use Input with your team, but you can even use it personally to jot down ideas, keep track of to-dos, and plenty more. Plus, Input is 100% free.
We're eager to hear what you think, and constantly iterating based on the feedback that we hear. Let us know your comments, and we'll do our best to respond asap!
@jeffrey_wong UI is very nice! Just signed up to test drive it. Two things I noticed: The shortcuts in the menu show the Command symbol. Folks using Windows or other OSes, you might have to change this appropriately.
It might be good to get the New Folder button in the bottom right to become a floating button when you close the side bar - just a thought!
@jeffrey_wong@saia Totally. I use PC as well--super easy to tweak the shortcuts. Good catch. As for the new folder and UI, we're going to be updating that as well. We're already styling some updates to make it easier to create, share, and collaborate. I'll send you some screenshots. Would love your feedback. Thanks!!
Been following your product, and I think there's a real need for better tools in this space! One suggestion I have is to focus on good organisation of the docs (keeping it simple, but powerful, just like your doc editing experience) - making it easy to say constantly push meeting notes in, or rather frequent documents and making it easy to find it later, etc. Google Docs is so bad here (slow, many kinds of folders, weird sorting, etc.).
@slomchinskiy Yes. 100%. There are so many advantages of a windows version. At the moment, we're focusing our energy on the core experience, and then we'll ship the windows version.
I've tried to sign-up using Google and only got a blank page.
But it seems the process went through successfully as I'm able to sing-in now (using the same google account)
It just looked weird... (don't know if bug or some issue on my side)
Anyway, the project looks nice! Well done.
@daryllman Heya, great question. To give you context, Input is in working progress, so we're looking for feedback. We're a fan of notion/gdocs and use them as well—what they do is amazing. At the moment, Input is focused on creating quick notes that can evolve and become shared task lists between you and your team (with little to no learning curve). We're going to be building more features to support more use cases, but we're starting very simple.
And thanks for the compliment. Really appreciate it. :)
@jeffrey_wong I see! Yes I agree. Google Docs and Notion is definitely not perfect, and more innovation is needed in this space! I think there's great potential! I'll try using Input and come back if I find any interesting use cases I can personally find! All the Best!
@sguergachi That's THE question. I'm glad you asked it, because it's the one we've discussed the most.
This space is suuuper saturated with the best of the old and the new-new. Everyone's fighting for a piece of the action. At the moment, Google Docs and Dropbox Paper is probably superior in every way—and just to throw in some other names, Roam Research, Notion, Coda, Apple Notes, Word, Slite, Evernote, Craft, Notejoy, Taskade, Hugo, Fellow, Dona, Clover, Mymind... Each one has their own strengths, and we're not out to compete with them directly. In fact, I admire most of them (and some of which I use daily).
We are taking steps to build a more inspiring space, starting with a collaborative note. The first step was to build the editor with some basic functionality like task management. Our goal is to have this note act as something that can always be on between you and your team—a shared space, that makes you feel closer. We're inspired by products like figma and discord, and we have a couple of things in the pipeline to deliver on the promise of collaboration. Before we build those features, we felt it was valuable to open it up to more people (like you) to get feedback.
For now, try using Input to jot stuff down with your team, assign them to each other quickly, and turn it into a shared task list (that you can check off and comment). It's how we've been using it, and it's fast.
@jeffrey_wong@matvey_gramovich Heya, great question—I love that you mention Miro. I really appreciate the work they've done at Miro. They're actually solving a very similar problem, but executed differently. Their version is through a shared whiteboard/canvas. We felt that a note/document with shared tasklists is a more natural place to start. As we continue building, our product and miro will diverge further.
And thank you!
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