3 min read
Copy last week first
Before you design a planning tool, check how much of today is the same as last week.
Most planning tools are built for a blank page. Most planners never start from one.
What the spreadsheet knew
At Haulpoint, dispatchers kept a tab for every weekday. Monday's plan started as a copy of last Monday's. The product had no idea this was how the job worked, so it made people rebuild the day from scratch.
Before you sketch a planner, ask for last week's plan and today's. Put them side by side. Count what changed.
The cheapest feature
The most loved thing we shipped that year was a copy of last week. It took two days to build. Everything else on the board exists to handle the 1 in 5 routes that are different.