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Bench — Rapid fire meetings to get shit done
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Stowe Boyd
I like what I see in [bench]. Will have to try with a coworker.
What about Slack integration?
I'd also need/want text annotation, not just drawing on images.
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@stoweboyd thank you! Let us know your thoughts once you try it out with your friend - would love to hear what you think so we can make [bench] even better!
Slack integration is coming really soon!
@stoweboyd text annotations are coming - writing with mouse is driving us crazy too :) Have you tried screenshot/screenshare plugin to chrome? It's a powerhouse during meetings.
@stoweboyd this chrome is 1 click instal - Pick screenshot tool from right menu. That's all.
This is an area that's important to me as a future remote worker. Tools and services that enable remote team collaboration are going to become more and more vital as the trend for companies to allow and even encourage employees to work remotely increases. We need tools like Bench to push collaboration and lower the potential costs of going remote. All the best with the launch 🚀
@fredrivett we are already there. [bench] team is spread across Los Angeles, Poland, Estonia and New Zealand. We are working remotely for years and decided to create a better tool for us. Good luck with your future remote work Fred.
@augenblick75 congrats on the launch - great to see that you're enabling remote workers around the world!
Interested to try it out! One thing that isn't immediately clear though is whether what's shared is recorded or saved at all? (The mention of the secret link makes me feel it's not)
@afhill Yes, you are right Andrea. We need to do a better job explaining how secure the service is. The whole connection between users and server is encrypted. The only way to access your bench is with the link. If you don't want others to have access to your bench any more you can 'reset' the bench. It will kick them out and change bench URL to a completely new one.
Also the whole voice communication is peer to peer, it's not going through our servers at all - no recording there.
And finally when you delete file from your bench or delete bench the content is erased from our servers. There is no way to recover it, even if that was a formula for converting coal into gold :D
On the other hand we are working on the recording feature so users can record their conversation for a future reference.
@afhill a couple people have mentioned that isn't clear, so we'll bring that into our messaging. Your [bench] a permanent space for your files and conversation. The only way anything disappears is if you delete it. Glad you had a play and got deep enough into the product to ask this question. Let me know if you want to jump into a deeper demo and I can show you some of the more advanced (and waaaaaay cooler features).
Feel like I can't stress enough the clarity of the UX here. 'We all point, to avoid lengthy descriptions' as a headline on the website really says a lot. We frequently forget something like this when we're transferring real world human behavior to digital design. I think your awareness of things like this will really drive you guys forward and accelerate your growth.
Truly seamless & intuitive as well :). Any plans to share your design thinking in more detail with Medium/Blog posts, etc?
@leftearpod you made my day Jake. As the UX people we almost never get appreciated. When UX work is done correctly nobody notices it, they just use the product. I plan on posting on our design/product philosophy in the near future. Thanks for the encouragement. Cheers!
As a remote worker, I was looking for this kind of whiteboard app for a long time.
You should just update your video to make it a bit more clear :)
Good job !
@elieslama Thanks Élie. Would love to hear what you think we should include in there so we can get it updated soon.
@levibostian you are right, our video sucks big time. My first time recording. Please forgive my lack of talent and give it a try with your team. It will change the way you work, I guarantee :)
@augenblick75 @levibostian Dude, I LOVE the video. Real people talking to each other is a great way to demo the product. I'm sure you'll change it in the future, but just thought I'd let you guys know. I'm signing up for the 1.99 promo you guys have going right now. Product Hunt is the best thing ever, I swear.
I agree the video is not the best BUT I think that's an interesting product and tagline... I feel like a more appropriate one would be like "Sandbox (or Whiteboard) for collaborative meetings" 🤔
@as_austin thanks for the input Austin. The massage is still challenging to us even at this stage.
This is an amazing tool that will IMHO become a staple for many teams @entrepreter. Love how, by default, there is no camera. So many tools have video by default and it just takes up resources and bandwidth. This is the interactive version of slack....on 'roids. :)
@abe_storey really appreciated your time on the demo. Loved how you understood we were a complement to slack users. Something that can give you an edge in collaboration. :)
@abe_storey @entrepreter I love when people pick up on the notion that cameras are distracting in 98% of collaboration meetings. [bench] is about stuff you need to discuss not about people faces.
Thanks for the comprehensive demo @enterpreter - it's one I'm adding to my PH Startup Tools Collection and recommending to my generals!
@osakasaul Thanks for the epic feedback session, your insights into your world are invaluable, and I really respect how open you were in where [bench] fits and doesn't Thanks for the extra support and encouragement!
Nice work team. Looks awesome, great idea and solid execution. Will add this to the 'made in new zealand' group too :)
@1greigcranfield Awesome! Thanks for the kind words Greig. Would be awesome to be part of your collection.
My aha moment was when I installed the Chrome plugin and shared a live browser (screenshot) within Bench. I think this capability needs to be more apparent because it opens up to a lot more things than just Images + Text. And the word "Screenshot" doesn't imply that it's "live" - I thought I literally had to take a bunch of still images to put onto bench to discuss (though it does do that). Maybe consider renaming it "Screenshare" vs "Screenshot."
@entrepreter @webjoe I can't see the chrome plugin mentioned anywhere :/
Did the demo the other day with @entrepreter great product endless ways to use it. Gave some feedback hope to see it and kudos!
I like the idea, the shared desktop concept seems like it simplifies a lot of things. I can see this being a great tool to use with Design and UX at my company, hangouts is a painful way to review wireframes. What I'm trying to think through is how this could be used with the mobile developers I work with. Right now we use hangouts a lot because one of us is running the code locally and we share our screen to show the other person/people how things are working in the app, like to show how to replicate a bug. I wish there was some way to do it here, run the code in [bench] so everyone could interact with the app and have a discussion around it. Is your team looking at solutions for what I'm describing?
Also, will there be a mobile version? It would be sweet to screenshot something and then open up the app to start a meeting and interact with the screenshot.
@esleysvanas there is definitely a way to do this with the screensharing in [bench]. But having multiple people interact on a single screenshare is not possible yet. But it's come up over and over again, especially today, so it will likely be a high priority when we reassess our roadmap. Thanks for the awesome feedback and encouragement!
@entrepreter Is screensharing in this current version? I was playing around with it and didn't see it. I'm excited about being able to interact with code!
@esleysvanas Yea, definitely. Want me to show you a demo? Just hop on with me quickly: https://app.usebench.com/D4Z0OUB7A
@augenblick75 Perfect timing! I was just looking for something beside Skype. I was not able to understand from the main page if we can call up any application to work on within Bench. Or, if we are limited to typepad, images and what can be pulled from Google Drive, Trello and the other integrations you show. Are there limitations or is it limitless?
@tjwise_ "All good things come to those who wait" :) No, not any application yet. For the time being only images and PDFs (+streaming) are working in our MVP. Integrations allow to get files from those sources without downloading them to your computer first. Support for office files (google docs etc) is in the making.
This is cool. Just signed up :)
I usually use Google Docs to discuss idea with my team in Singapore and Vietnam. Google Docs works well with text but not so much with graphic. But what I like about using Google Docs is asynchronous communication.
We are in different timezone and speak different native language. We need time to think and elaborate idea. We need time to give quality feedback. That's why we do not use Skype.
I will try to see if this works for international team like us :)
@kzynakamura thanks for jumping on a demo with me Kazuya.
Things got a little wild on this bench. But loved the creativity from Ryun. :)
Things got a little wild on this bench. But loved the creativity from Ryun. :)
This tool is awesome and I totally recommend it. It's better than Hangouts and Skype combined. I've been using it with my team for a couple of weeks and it works flawlessly! Just start using it and you'll fall in love!
@damiansam Karolina says: Glad to hear you liked it since we last talked and it's really making a difference to your team.
@damiansam we keep asking ourselves every single week how we managed to work without bench before :)
"Rapid fire meetings to get shit done" - depends on the sheet you are doing, anyway it has to be helpful.
@entrepreter it looks like $1,99 a month until you scroll to find its $1.99 a month. The difference there is huge! :)
@augenblick75 @entrepreter Hope that helps. I just know that one character changed my opinion immensely. You guys rock!
This. Is. AMAZING! I've been working remotely with a distributed team of developers, designers, and PMs across the U.S. and Latin America for over 4 years and this is by far the best online collaboration tool I've seen. It's just a completely different experience. Congrats to the team.
p.s. Did find myself looking for a way to share video but I understand it's probably unnecessary if you are actually trying to get work done.
@ginoferrand Thanks for the love. You are totally right on cameras - they would be distracting from content on the bench. It was one of the earliest decisions while building bench not to have them. On the other note we have a screensharing/tabsharing/screenshots with the chrome plugin.
@augenblick75 Yea, I figured you left out video on purpose, after thinking about it. I did install the extension and have been using the screensharing function. Although I prefer to use screenshots because it seems the pointer isn't seen on screensharing.
@ginoferrand can you join Justin on this bench now to double check that pointe screensharing issue
https://app.usebench.com/D4Z0OUB7A
I haven't used skype for business in the last three months. Let me tell you why...
There's just something different about [bench]. Hard to explain. But shit just gets done on Bench.
I've done thousands of skype calls (I've sold to companies all around the world from little old New Zealand.) Skype was my home for the last 36 months.
But for getting things done with my team, when we're not in the same room together, well [bench] has completely changed the game for me.
I've never been challenged to work so accountably. I've never been so focused in meetings. I've never been so productive with a group of people I've never even met before.
And that's the thing with [bench]. Other than Mike, Tom and Adam, none of us have even met each other. But our meetings are like best friends every day. Best friends...who get shit done together.