The Story
I noticed that successful people often use physical Kaizen boards with sticky notes for planning. The method works great, but it has problems: not portable, gets messy, and you lose your data when you move the board.
So I decided to digitize it.
What is Kaizen Planning?
Kaizen (改善) means "continuous improvement" in Japanese. The Kaizen board method helps organize tasks by:
- ⏱️ Time needed: 5 min, 30 min, 1+ hour
- 🎯 Life areas: Work, health, learning, personal, etc.
This creates a visual map of your day/week based on available time and priorities.
My Solution: Digital Kaizen Planner
Live MVP: https://kaizen-planner-mvp.vercel.app/
What it does:
- Organize tasks by time and life categories
- Drag-and-drop interface
- Visual planning workflow
Current limitations (it's an MVP!):
- 💻 Desktop only (not mobile-optimized yet)
- 🔄 No data persistence (resets on refresh)
- ⚠️ Still rough around the edges
Tech Stack
- Frontend: Next.js 15, React 19, Tailwind CSS
- Database: Turso (edge SQLite)
- ORM: Drizzle
- Deployment: Vercel
- Auth: Better Auth
What I Learned
- Start simple: I focused on core workflow first
- Get feedback early: Even without data persistence, people can test the concept
- MVP = Minimum Viable Product: It doesn't need to be perfect, just functional enough to validate the idea
What's Next?
I'm looking for feedback! Specifically:
- Would you use this if it saved your data?
- What's the #1 feature that's missing?
- How does this compare to your current planning method?
Try it here: https://kaizen-planner-mvp.vercel.app/
There's a feedback survey built into the app. Your input will directly shape v1.0!
Questions for the Dev Community
- Have you ever built something inspired by an offline method?
- What's your approach to MVP development – how minimal is "minimal"?
- Any advice on adding real-time sync and data persistence to an MVP like this?
Thanks for reading! 🙏
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