Simple isn’t fewer features. It’s fewer kinds of things.
Most work tools start out clean and end up as a pile of to-do lists, events, chats and deals that barely talk to each other. Since 2011, Planfix has been built on the opposite idea: a few universal elements that combine into whatever system your company needs.
01 The trouble with “simple”
“Simple” is the favorite word of everyone who builds CRM, BPM and project tools. We used it too — until we noticed it means different things to different people.
“Simple system,” “simple interface,” “simple features” — it all sounds great. So what’s wrong with “simple”?
02 The usual story
How a simple tool becomes a sand castle.
The simplicity is impressive at first
A clean data model — project → task → comment, or lead → contact → deal — and a calm interface with plenty of white space. The creators use it themselves, then open it up to everyone.
Some time goes by
“Why tasks and not to-do lists? Add to-dos and I’ll never need another app — I’ll even invite my friends.”
Fair enough — to-do lists matter. A new section appears.
And then…
“You don’t have events! We need a calendar for client meetings and debriefs.”
Also reasonable. Another element, another section.
And another…
“We need discussions!” “Forums!” “Blogs!” “Make a chat!” “We need news!”
The creators either fend off these requests or keep adding new sections to the system.
Then the demands only grow
“I want to attach chat messages to a project!” “Add a way to turn to-dos into tasks!” “Why can’t I schedule an event for a deal on the shared calendar?!?!”
And this is where the castle starts to crumble — its towers were never built for this kind of integration.
03 Two dead ends
There are usually two ways to react. Both lead nowhere.
Stay a single cell
Guard your sacred simplicity and refuse new features. The product stays clean — and too small for real work.
Grow into a dinosaur
Say yes to every request. You get a megasystem of loosely connected blocks — a dinosaur that doesn’t notice another dinosaur biting off its tail.
The tools we reviewed ranged from too few features to crushing complexity, and most were drifting toward complexity. That’s neither good nor bad — it’s the standard evolution, from single-cell organisms to dinosaurs. Staying at the single-cell stage while everything around you grows takes rare willpower.
So most tools end up with an arbitrary collection of parts — that have more in common than not.
Group work: blogs, discussions, chats, email. Sales: contacts, leads, deals, a funnel. Tasks: projects, milestones, comments, events. Personal planning: to-do lists, meetings, schedules.
04 Look closer
It’s the same thing under different names.
To-do. A task you assign to yourself.
A task is a universal Object for everything we work on: to-dos, emails, deals and so on.
Event. An object with a date and time.
A meeting is one too, with a place and participants.
Comment. Still just a comment.
Whether it’s left on a blog, in a chat or in an email.
So why build a separate element for each — and then struggle to connect them?
Our philosophy, in one sentence
We give you the ability to build a management system for your whole company — using a limited set of elements.
05 Four elements
Four elements. One of them is the core.
Object. Takes any shape, like clay.
Shape it into a task, a meeting, a deal or a news post. Each one gets its own fields, statuses, automations and buttons — you set them up yourself.
Project. What people gather around.
Brings tasks, deals, meetings and other objects together around one goal.
Data tag. Flows through the work — and adds up.
What you track as the work goes on: revenue, expenses, time spent. Each entry stays with its object, and reports add it all up.
Action. You don’t see the wind — you see what it moves.
“Information atoms” that record every change to an object: a comment, a file, a new due date or assignee, a data tag. You always see who did what, and when.
To-do lists, events, deals, news aren’t new elements. They’re these four, mixed in different proportions.
06 In practice
Asked for a new element, we ask: why can’t this be an object?
A new element?
Comments · Files · Reminders — built in
How do we price the new plan?
Comments · Files · Reminders — built in
The office is closed on Friday
Comments · Files · Reminders — built in
Acme Corp — annual plan
Comments · Files · Reminders — built in
The idea takes some getting used to. Most systems don’t work this way, so at first it’s hard to accept that objects replace the usual building blocks.
On naming
We used to say Task where we now say Object. But “object” sounds more universal, so today a Task is just one kind of Object.
Deals, meetings, contracts — add the objects you need and build a management system that fits you.
Four elements.
Your whole company.
Build the system your team needs — not the one someone else’s feature list forces on you.
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