Project Management Meets Modern Art: Inside todo.space's Project Management Tool for Remote Teams

"The best SaaS products aren't just about features—they're about philosophy."

With the SaaS space getting crowded, it's always refreshing to find a product built around a genuine methodology. Enter todo.space, a project management tool that's as much about mindset as it is about checking things off your to-do list.

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with todo.space co-founder Arseny Kostenko. As a seasoned project manager myself, I expected to learn about the features that separated Arseny's product from others I've used. Instead, I found myself on a journey through the very essence of effective project management, all cleverly woven into the fabric of todo.space.

Arseny's passion is evident in every aspect of todo.space. Each feature, design choice, and workflow tells a story of deep thought and genuine care for the craft of project management. Buckle up, fellow productivity enthusiasts, because we're about to dive into a world where software meets philosophy, and task lists become an art form. 🚀📊

From Code to Collaboration: Arseny's Journey

Arseny's story is like many others - a software engineer who got frustrated enough with a problem that they set out to fix it. In this case, the problem was just about everything involved with the typical project management process. Arseny and co-founder Oleksii Golubinskyi were tired of the traditional project management dichotomy of choosing between chaos and anarchy... or countless meetings and chasing people for updates. They set out to build a tool that brings order to chaos without any of the creativity-limiting bloat.

Simplicity: The Ultimate Sophistication

I hopped into todo.space to kick the tires before my call with Arseny, and I'm not going to lie, I was kind of shocked by what I perceived as limitations. I immediately tried to add too many tasks in parallel, and the app wouldn't let me. I looked for where I could create my custom status options, and there isn't one. I went to assign the first task in my project to myself and discovered that this too was impossible. I made a mental note to ask Arseny when these features would be coming, but instead of a release date, Arseny dropped some PM truth-bombs on me that almost left me speechless.

Arseny does not believe that having dozens of status options is helpful in a PM tool. At the end of the day, things are done, or they are not done. If they aren't done, the only real question is if someone is working on it or not, right?

"For us, it's pretty much the world of statuses: it's either in the backlog, somebody is working on it, or it's done. The rest are just thought experiments for no apparent reason."

Likewise, not allowing you to take on too much at once is a design choice that Arseny and Oleksii stand behind 100%. Their approach is built on a deep understanding of behavioral psychology, gamification, and managing cognitive load. (For anyone interested in learning more, one of the books that influenced Arseny’s approach is Actionable Gamification)

There's an obvious trend here, right? Todo.space doesn't just manage tasks: it manages human nature. Instead of guilt-tripping you with too many due dates, it encourages breaking down Goliath tasks into David-sized chunks. Instead of dividing your attention and focusing on what's ahead (more than is necessary), todo.space encourages you to focus on the most important things right in front of you. It's the project management version of teaching you to just put one foot in front of the other.

"I've really struggled to find completed epics in a lot of companies. And that's depressing as an engineer or anybody, actually. You want to have that sense of accomplishment that you've completed the thing."

Show Me the Money: The COGS Calculator

Todo.space has a time tracking tool that doesn't require a timesheet. How? It simply tracks when you start and stop working on tasks and calculates both your time spent and even a Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). This is critical information for software startups, service companies, and agencies, yet very few tools allow you to calculate this easily.

"No service business can actually tell you their cost of goods sold. It's crazy! We know when tasks start and end, so why not automate this?"

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Trust Fall: Empowering Remote Teams

In the spirit of true remote work culture, todo.space champions team autonomy. No more micromanagement nightmares or unbalanced workloads. It's a product for doers, and its design takes it as a given that team members will grab a new task when they finish the one they are on. These concepts aren't foreign to remote teams; great remote-first culture always requires trust.

"Designed for taking pride in your work"

"You cannot assign tasks to people in todo.space. Manually assigning tasks to people is prone to creating unbalanced workload distribution and bottlenecks. The role of a manager is not to tell people what to do but to communicate goals and objectives. Let the team own the backlog and take pride in their work. todo.space automatically "assigns" tasks to people who start working on them and un-assigns if they were returned to the backlog."

That's not the only way Arseny is striving to empower his users though. Todo.space also has gamification features, a fun artistic vibe, and is designed to try to get you into a flow state at work.

This philosophy aligns perfectly with what we preach at Remotivated: empower your remote teams, and watch the magic happen.

Artistic Vibes

Todo.space breaks the mold with colorful interfaces and illustrations that had me double-checking I had reached the correct website at first. Their marketing website is colorful and features an animated character jamming out to music. You can also choose custom color themes for your dashboard and each project. This is all pretty unusual for project management tools, which tend to reserve the colors for the glaring red of past due dates. At first, I was even a little bit thrown by it. As with everything else, it makes perfect sense when Arseny explains:

"People love illustrations. They provide a refreshing break from the mundane black-and-white interfaces of typical project management tools. I was specifically looking for Ukrainian illustrators due to my historical reasons and connection to Ukraine, and I found Masha Shango. She has amazing work. As I scrolled through her Instagram, I found an illustration of a girl listening to music with her headphones on, dancing. I thought, "This is the feeling. This is the feeling that a person should have when they're working on something. They should be in the zone. They should flow through things and be excited and happy." That's what inspired the first illustration you see on the landing page."

The Future is Bright (and Efficiently Managed)

Todo.space is on a mission to make project management for software development agencies smoother than a well-oiled Git merge. From project estimates to real-time tracking, they're aiming to help people build amazing things without all the accompanying stress. They have found particular traction with software development agencies and small startups (think 2-10 people). Even if you don't find yourself in that demographic, you might gain a new perspective on project management from trying todo.space out, I certainly have. SaaS tools that challenge the way you approach your work are a great way to push yourself out of your comfort zone and find new ways of approaching problem solving. Todo.space does this by bringing a lot of the wisdom of the development community to the project management space.

Arseny and Oleksii also welcome visitors to their Slack workspace, so if you want to pick up some project management wisdom, check it out!

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We love showcasing tools that are built by remote teams for remote teams. If that sounds like you, we'd love to learn more! Email hello@remotivated.com telling us how you are helping the remote community!

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