I've been building SaaS tools for about two years now and honestly the biggest productivity killer wasn't bad code or missing features. It was switching between apps.
The setup that drove me crazy
For the longest time my workflow looked like this: Jira for tickets, Notion for docs and wikis, Slack for... well everything else. Three tabs minimum open at all times, three different search bars, three sets of notifications.
And look, these are great tools individually. I'm not here to trash them. But the constant context switching was killing my focus. I'd be writing a spec in Notion, need to reference a ticket in Jira, then someone pings me on Slack about that same ticket, and suddenly I've lost 15 minutes just navigating between windows.
The breaking point
The real moment was when I realized my team was duplicating info everywhere. We had the same feature described in a Notion doc AND a Jira epic AND a Slack thread. When something changed, maybe one of those got updated. Maybe.
I spent a whole Friday afternoon just syncing information across tools. That's when I knew something had to change.
What I actually wanted
Pretty simple honestly:
- Tasks and docs in the same place so I don't copy-paste between them
- Real-time collab so I'm not waiting for someone to "finish editing"
- Something that doesn't take 3 months to set up (looking at you, Jira)
- A slash command editor because I've been spoiled by Notion's UX
What I ended up building
So I ended up building Blocpad because nothing quite fit. It's basically kanban boards + a Notion-style editor + real-time presence all in one app. Built it with Next.js and Supabase.
The biggest win? When someone creates a task, the context is RIGHT THERE. The doc, the discussion, the status — same page. No more "let me find that Notion link" or "check the Jira ticket for details."
Stuff I learned along the way
You don't need every feature on day one. We started with just tasks and docs. Added the wiki later. Added integrations even later. Shipped fast, iterated based on what people actually asked for.
Real-time is harder than you think. Supabase Realtime handles a lot but conflict resolution in collaborative editing is a whole rabbit hole. Worth it though — seeing cursors move in real time makes remote work feel less lonely lol.
All-in-one doesn't mean bloated. The temptation is to add everything. We actively resist adding features that don't serve the core workflow. If you need advanced Gantt charts, use a dedicated tool. We're not trying to replace everything, just the daily stuff.
Is it for everyone?
Nah probably not. Big enterprises with 500+ person teams and complex ITSM needs should stick with Jira tbh. But if you're a startup, a small dev team, or a solo founder who's tired of paying for 4 different tools that don't talk to each other... might be worth a look.
We're still early and building in public. Would love to hear how other people handle the multi-tool chaos — or if you've just accepted it as part of life at this point lol.
What's your current stack for project management + docs? Genuinely curious if anyone's found a setup that doesn't involve 5 browser tabs.
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