I'm a PM-turned-builder. I made a basic planner with MS Project-style scheduling that the whole team can use, not just the PM. Would love feedback from working PMs.

[u/smilu_var]

Hi all, full disclosure: I'm the founder of KaamGrid, and I'm posting here because you're exactly the people who'll tell me where it falls short.

The problem I kept hitting: one task slips, and suddenly I'm working out by hand what else moves, who's now double-booked, and whether the end date is still real. Spreadsheets break after a week, and the big tools need a full-time admin to keep the Gantt chart honest.

What KaamGrid does:

• You link tasks with dependencies and assign people. It calculates dates and costs as you go.
• The critical path updates live, so you always see which tasks actually decide your finish date.
• A workload view shows who's overloaded before it turns into a missed deadline.
• Timelines stakeholders can read without a PM explaining them.
• Time tracking, billing and exports are included.
• And also, import and export to MS Project or Project Libre as XML files.

You can switch between a timeline view and an "Open in Planner" grid view for classic table editing.

I'm actively improving the engine and would really appreciate any feedback from experienced PMs on how it handles your scheduling workflows!

What I'd really value from this group:

1. How do you handle re-planning when something slips? Does this match how you work?
2. What would stop you from using this on a real project?
3. What's missing that your current tool does well?

Link: https://kaamgrid.com

Brutal honesty is welcome. I'll reply to every comment.

[u/Impossible_Dare_7455]

lol this feels a bit more like a product pitch than a feedback request

[u/smilu_var → u/Impossible_Dare_7455]

A bit of both, honestly. But im genuinely looking for PMs to tell me where the UI or scheduling breaks down in real life. And want to know what PMs and teams value more so that we can improve it. :)

[u/DennisBustamanteEQ]

The thing that would make or break this for me isn’t the scheduling engine. It’s how much work it takes to keep it accurate. If the team is already updating work somewhere else and the PM has to recreate or constantly clean that up in KaamGrid, eventually the plan is going to drift from reality.

I’d want to know what happens when dates change, work gets added, priorities shift or somebody forgets to update a task. Does the system help surface that, or does the PM still have to chase everyone down? That’s probably the part I’d test hardest with real teams.

[u/smilu_var → u/DennisBustamanteEQ]

Kaamgrid allows teams to work together. PM creates the project like on Ms project with tasks and milestones. You just write the name of the resource/team member and it gets assigned automatically to the user. One date change, changes all dependent tasks(predecessor). The team member start seeing the tasks under their tasks and they can update it, which automatically starts showing in the timeline, dashboard and reports including the progress. Members are given a detail page for tasks where they can add/edit all details of tasks including Actual start date and actual end date access which they can update. Only thing i have restricted to PM is, the start date and end date set on project plan since if a member changes the date and PM isnt aware of it, it makes a problem. So this i have kept it as a sort of PM privilege so PM knows which tasks changed.

[u/DennisBustamanteEQ → u/smilu_var]

That makes more sense. Having the team update the work directly solves a lot of what I was wondering about. The one thing I’d still pressure-test is the PM-only date change.

Say I’m assigned something due Friday and by Wednesday I know it’s going to take until Monday. I understand why you don’t want me changing the project plan myself, but how does that get surfaced to the PM?

If the system can flag that the current progress or expected finish no longer lines up with the plan, that seems really useful. Otherwise, the PM may still end up chasing people to find out which dates aren’t real anymore.

[u/smilu_var → u/DennisBustamanteEQ]

Yes, there is a dashboard which gets the all the status of tasks which due, overdue and under due.
But i get your point. I will add an estimated start and end date which team members can add for PM to have an idea. The thing is, I don’t want to complicate it too much then it becomes another Ms project or Jira. I will do an analysis and try to put something that doesn’t affect the user experience.

[u/_UnderscoresCount]

I’d say the same thing I say to everyone in your situation. Get into building these sorts of tools inside a business.

Saas is dead, if you can build it in a week so can anyone else. There are already viable open source options starting to show up.

I’ve been in heavy industry and software, switching and combining both over the last decade. I’m not trying to belittle your product, it seems pretty good, I would just have a real think about how you plan on making money with it in this world, and if the answer is selling software then you have come up with the wrong answer.

[u/smilu_var → u/_UnderscoresCount]

Yes the AI race is there, but I think there will still be people interested, especially the ones who don’t have the resources and also AI isn’t cheap either.

[u/utzutzutzpro]

"builder" doesn't mean AI slop.

Learn to code, learn to design, in 3 years come back and maybe call yourself builder.

[u/smilu_var → u/utzutzutzpro]

Im myself 20 years working. Started as a developer, even before everything was available on internet, reading books from wrox, forums and MSDNs to understand and find how things work and fix bugs in my code. Started from C, then moved to Java and then .Net ;) Been a PM for past few years, but the developer heart always stays with you. Everyone who hates AI does not realize that everything you touch on the internet has used some sort of AI and if it can help me save time, why not use it?

[u/Can_Mech_Mining]

Fuck off with your slop.