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Brian Pensinger
This is a tough one. When I saw it, I was super excited that our family could stay more organized and in such a visually pleasing way. Then I installed the app. Half of the features are premium-only and you cannot remove them (at the time I used it) from your dashboard. The other big issue for me was the price point. There is no way I can justify spending $14.99/mo for my wife and I. If this was $4.99/mo, it would be a no-brainer, take my money. $9.99/mo would be a tough sell but I would consider it. Especially if they added Google Calendar support, which is also a disappointing non-feature for me. The UI and the idea is great. And I think if they dropped the price and gave the free users a little more freedom to remain free without constant reminder they aren't on premium, this would be a winner.
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@phostercreative Hi Brain, thanks for your feedback. please keep in mind this subscription price is for the whole family (can be up to 8 people- parents, kids, grandparents, caregiver, etc).
@mjcole100 @phostercreative I'd have to agree the price is too high. It's more than a Netflix account, and that's for a whole family. I tried the product and ditched it after seeing the price.
@streetvisuals @mjcole100 @phostercreative Same here. I got pretty excited when I saw the app. But I won't use it at all right now. Too less free options, and the pricing is waaaaay too high.
@phostercreative This was also the reason why I tossed it. Most (if not all) of these features are available as part of other apps (Todoist, GCal, Telegram, etc) and to pay $15/mo to bring them all together is a bit much for me. I'd be happier seeing a $4.99/mo for 2 users and bump it up ($1/per) from there or something. $0.02
I agree with the comments about the pricing. It needs to be more fluid as family sizes are all different. Also the ability to "switch families" (like switching teams in Slack) would be great as a family isn't just blood relations but also maybe the family of your partner, that wouldn't necessarily want to be mixed with your own family. Also there's little mention of security. If my family and I are going to be sharing sensitive, personal information in this space, there needs to be an assurance of high security. End-to-end encryption, files encrypted on servers, pin/Touch ID, etc etc. Also if "caregivers" can be added their should be admin rights to a family member/s to limit levels of access to certain parts of the app. That could also go along the lines of non-blood family members; levels of inclusion which is a normal thing to consider when sharing information.
Overall it's a great concept but I'll wait for 2.0 when you consider these functions. Good luck!
I think this is really neat and a problem that needs solving.
I do think this is a bit too intense of an interface. I've started using Slack with my wife to organize our home - finances, travel, services like our cleaner, our dog, memories, etc. We had a text message thread that was gigabytes in size on each of our phones, which became unmanageable and unsearchable. I believe simpler is better here.
@jasonlbaptiste Thanks for your comment! I've used Slack with my family as well. I think the biggest challenge is Slack will not be used outside the tech space. Mainstream families who have smartphones, etc but who are not savvy to put it all together. Also, we've really thought about families from the ground up. Thanks!
@mjcole100 I came back to add - i DONT think Slack is the answer here. I'm sure you'll get investors and folks saying - well why not use Slack. It's okay, but there needs to be something specific for this use case. I think you're on to something, congrats on the launch!
@jasonlbaptiste 100% agree. On top of your thoughts, I think any true family management app needs to come with some sort of permissions levels that scales the UX/UI based on the level.
Use case? I have a 7yr old and 3 yr old. Like most 3 yr olds, even the youngest is fluent enough to do basic tasks on an iPad, but they're never going to decipher this apps UI. It would be nice to be able to silo certain functionality wrapped in a simpler UI so that younger kids can still interact with it (i.e. , like one huge screen, with just a task and a big "Done" button, or maybe even the option to record video for kids who can't read yet).
I made this exact app back in 2012 when I lived at home with my parents and released it on the App Store for free. You could have as many families and family members as you wanted. My parents are divorced, so I had to have the versatility. Seeing all of these family organizers popping up now, I might re-release it. I may have been too early at the time, but I learned early on that where moms might care, kids don't, and in fact, won't use it no matter what their parents try to do. I ended up taking it down due to overall lack of interest. I'm happy to share my learning with you @mjcole100, if you're interested. I wish you guys best of luck, particularly at your price point. But again, you never know, since moms are your target demographic, there could be a real hidden opportunity, apart from what Cozi, Squarehub, Family Organizer, and even Slack have to offer
@zaccoffman you can use FamilyInSafe =) There are free locations, unlimited to-do lists with smart places. For example you can create reminder with shopping list and you will be notified when you are near walking near groceries shop.
@mjcole100 @zaccoffman Is it next month yet? :) I've been checking in every week to see if it's available yet.
We use Slack in my family and will continue to use it for one simple reason: integration.
Picnic forces me to start using new tools for stuff I've been doing for years, Slack simply integrates. For example, we have over 1000 recipes in Evernite, we keep family docs in google drive and use google calendar for scheduling. I am not going to drop all of these well established services and move years of data to a startup that may or may not be around next year when I can simply connect Slack to my existing data and call it a day.
Nice thought, it's hard to think one would pay for location sharing when you could get it for free with Life360! www.life360.com
Do you really still release products for iOS only that rely on network effects (my WHOLE family being able to install)? The "Stay organized across all your devices" claim is really not well chosen either. Fail.
@randolf Sometimes you can only choose one device to start with. I've also seen families usually stick to the same devices - android or iPhone. App is well done too... a bit much to proclaim "Fail".
@randolf Android will be available next month. We are excited to get it on that platform soon
@randolf Do you really stomp around the internet proclaiming other people's products and ideas "Fail?"
I think you can do better man.
You can criticize with the intention to improve, not just boldly state that you're smart/right/knew it.
"Do you really" is a terrible way to open a criticism. It opens with insult before even making the point, automatically making the reader defensive.
I hope my criticism of your criticism helps you make more positive and effective contributions to this community.
@mackflavelle OK, points noted. I just wanted to express, that I understand the whole lean startup, release early philosophy, but these days pretty much all families / friends / environments I know are not pure iOS ecosystems anymore, as Android has at least a few devices in most micro-networks / families...
This is such a great idea, with school and work time can be mismanaged so easily. This app looks like a great work around that. Look forward to checking that out.
With school and work it can sometimes be hard to manage everything with a family. But this application looks like it could be a good solution. When you have a family being efficient as possible is such a big part of life!
Surprised that there is no mention of pricing on the site. The closest is when you go to sign-up, it shows a "promo-code" which would indicate that it is a paid service. From the other comments, one can see that the price is quite high!
Thanks for all the comments and feedback! Android will be available next month and the web version is available at www.picniic.com (apart of paid membership) at the moment.
like the idea. Using family google calendar already, among with whatsapp group. I was contemplating about a separate slack domain, but this app looks more convenient for the family use-case. Unfortunately Apple only. Would be more enthusiastic about a web version.
@margaret_hutchins Hi Margaret, Slack is designed for businesses not families, we've taken a unique approach that really addresses family's pain points
@mjcole100 Is the app still live? I'm trying too download from India and can't seem to find it.
I love this idea, but how is it different from the others like - Remember the milk etc.?
@osayilasisi Hi Osayi, Ive spent a lot of time looking at the market and we've built a unique family management platform that brings all your activities, data into one place. We have done 3 integrations with other services and will do more. I hope you have a chance to look at it!
This looks very cool. However, I would like to try it and I don't have an iPhone...