Introducing Rough.app

For the last year, George Czabania and I have been building something cool, and today is the day we're finally going to start talking about it.

You can find it at rough.app.

If you'd like to know more about why we started this project, read on.

I've been working in software engineering for the last decade, but my real passion is people. Engaged, passionate people are exceedingly rare. With great people you can build incredible things.

I've also been working remotely for the last decade, waiting for the software we use to finally fix the huge glaring problem with remote work. It never has.

Ask anyone who's worked remotely for a long time what the biggest problem is. It's loneliness. You don't connect with people in the same way you did when you were in the office. You miss those little coffee catch-ups, or the after-work drinks, or the small moments in between tasks when you would talk to your colleagues about nothing at all.

But those moments had another purpose. Now and then they would spark an insight. Perhaps you would realize a pain point that someone in another department has. Maybe you would connect a few comments together to form a new perspective on an upcoming project. Maybe you would realize a huge new opportunity.

It was through those moments that great products were born.

These are the moments I've always wanted to see when I'm building a product. The only way to truly capture them though, is to engage everyone across a company in a way that makes them feel safe to share their thoughts. That's a really hard problem. But it's a problem we want to see solved, so we're doing it ourselves.

It goes against all conventional startup wisdom to make a product designed to be used by every single person in an organization.

So yeah... Rough is a Product Management app designed to be used by everyone in an organization.

Rough captures soft stuff. The thoughts, feelings and opinions that happen around your company about your product. An engineer spots a cool new piece of tech; a PM realizes something new from discovery; a salesperson encounters a different sort of prospect.

Rough connects those people together, and brings them into the projects that they're most passionate about.

It's this journey, taking raw thoughts and moving them slowly towards actions for your company that builds cohesive teams and innovative products.

Right now, we're taking this journey ourselves. We want to hear your thoughts and feelings about our product.

Engaged, passionate people are exceedingly rare, but they shouldn't be. Engaging the people we work with, and building their passion should be easy, even remotely.

Come say hi, we'd love to hear from you.