A few months back I was given access to a local start-up teams Hackpad, and I was just blown away. I had heard of Hackpad before that, but I was comfortable with Google Docs, and couldn’t see a reason to swtich.

Seeing how this team used Hackpad to keep the ENTIRE team organized, I was sold. I couldn’t wait to implement it with my next team. This of course isn’t easy to do with an existing team. Most teams are resistent to changing tools, especially the non-technical team members. I understand the resistance.  Besides having to export all the current content, it can be a drain on a team lead or CTO to retrain and educate some of the other individuals on a team, so often the team continues to use “what we have used from the start.

A great tool is worth the effort and if you believe in it as a leader of a team, you need to work with your team to get all of them to buy in and commit to it’s use. Without exception. Consistency is important, and members of the team will often fall back on what they are used to. It’s to be expected, but be firm, and get everyone on the same page as quickly as possible.

I am researching the Meteor framework for a new project, and I was giddy to find the Meteor team using hackpad, and having it open to the public. That was exciting to find.

Check it out here:

https://meteor.hackpad.com/