xTiles Likes to Keep it Simple, Visual, and Consensual. But What’s the Story?
Let’s cast light on the team and tale behind the tool that aims to make your life easier
After unveiling xTiles’ core values — simplicity, visualization, and consensus — we paused for a second and thought: What if instead of jumping straight to our top features we were to tell you more about who we are and how our values came about? The answer was unanimous: “let’s do it.”
And so, without further ado.
From wrong to right
Proudly global, the xTiles core team is based in Ukraine, one of the leading IT hubs and home to big industry names such as Grammarly and Reface.
The team gathers a wide array of professionals under its roof: from developers, marketers, and economists to social scientists, designers, and even electromechanics. We know what you are thinking: That is one hell of dissimilar backgrounds! You certainly got us there. Yet, this is one of the reasons why we are developing xTiles:
All of us faced a common plight in our professional careers: a lack of a tool that would provide a well-organized, easy-to-use, visual space to arrange ideas easily.
Over the years, we have tried out many tools: from old school ones like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Pages to hip ones like Notion, Miro, and Figma. Despite certain advantages, none of them seemed to keep things simple.
“People yearn for easy solutions. No one wants to waste time on complexities and miscommunication. And that is something I have been dealing with in the past ten years. I decided to fix that,” says Max, xTiles’ CEO and evangelist.
With 23 years of experience in successful software development, he laid out the basic pre-requirement for making a new productivity tool: it must be as simple as possible. Instead of offering users a myriad of features to choose from, he decided to develop a product with a squeaky-clean, distraction-free interface: “Every day, we process tons of data that comes in all shapes and sizes. We are engulfed by informational chaos. But do we need to be?”
“No, we don’t.”
The idea of developing an ultra-simple tool immediately struck a chord with the rest of the team, both old and new.
“I recognized the product’s value from the outset. It gives a lot of freedom in terms of use,” notes Kate, xTiles’ Lead Generator.
With simplicity becoming the first core value, the next challenge was to ensure that the tool’s interface caters to it. In other words, that information does not turn into a mess on our screens. Since humans are visual creatures, we had to settle on several attributes that would seamlessly merge simplicity and visualization.
“We had been discussing the visualization issue for a while. Then one time, Max pinged us a Figma link and asked what if we were to opt for a canvas?” says xTiles’ Business Developer Andrew, who has always dreamed of a product that would combine the best of the Apple Note, Miro, Trello, and Notion worlds.
After several tests, the team chose canvas and cards as built-in features. Together, the two create the big picture of the information displayed on the screen simultaneously, taking visualization — xTiles’ second core value — to an entirely new level.
“The bird’s-eye view mode trumps the traditional A4 format. I have never understood why people think that tools need to be ultra-sophisticated. You don’t take a plane to pop to the local grocery store, do you? So, why complicate it?” emphasizes Bogdan, xTiles’ growth team member.
While xTiles has been seeking to make a simple and visual product for personal use, it has also aimed to improve communication. The pandemic, which forced our team, alongside millions of others, to go remote, played a role. For a horizontal startup such as xTiles, this meant only one thing: It is time to finalize the years-old idea to create a collaborative space that would be equally fit for synchronous and asynchronous teams.
“I am a simple guy who values having everyone on board, which is why I am working on this product. It has already improved our internal communication a lot, becoming a single go-to source,” says Vitalik, xTiles’ CTO.
The team is using it for project planning, presentations, brainstorming/meeting notes, task setting, content collecting, personal notes, and more. Some of the use cases, however, are more peculiar than others. xTiles’ content manager, Lesia, still reminiscent of the years spent in academia and the plight of systemizing data for it to make sense, uses the tool for creating themes.
Meanwhile, Misha and Artem, Senior Front End Developers, like to plan their family trips abroad with it: “Everyone in the family uses cards to fill out the info they need. It saves a lot of time.”
Do others agree?
What makes our team exhilarated is that we are not the only ones who think that xTiles is solving real-life problems. To date, we have interviewed over 300 people worldwide, including students completing their academic degrees, freelancers, product owners, project managers, and many others.
The feedback turned out to be overwhelmingly positive: over 95% of the respondents saw the product’s value the way we did. They described it as simple, clear-cut, ‘aha-effectish’, well-organized, and more.
Now that the product has been developed, we are happy to share it with others and “make everyone’s life an iota easier.” That is what xTiles’ Project Manager Anthony likes to say.
“Simplicity attracts users who are tired from the ultra-complicated modern interfaces. Visualization embellishes dull pieces of information without compromising clarity. Consensus is just the natural outcome of the two,” adds Max.
The team couldn’t agree more.
Ready to make your life easier? Follow the link and start using xTiles.
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