As part of my developer relations work at Retool, I want to understand how you "regulars" plan and execute Retool projects of non-trivial size.
Do you write a technical specification or implementation plan? What's a format that has worked well for you?
Would you use an app or interface that helped you organize and plan your dependencies like data sources, authentication, API specifications, queries, and which Retool features to use? Do you collaborate with others enough that sharing access to this kind of document or app would helpful?
Do you prefer to hack and slash your way to completion without a plan?
In any case, what's missing for you in your Retool project planning toolbox?
Most of my projects are definitely not "enterprise-size", and I mostly work alone so no collaboration needed.
However, something I would find really helpful is a place where I can write down the list of data, functionalities, APIs, etc that an app needs to have, possibly with a checkbox functionality (like a todo) that tracks how far along the app is. I could use this when taking notes with the client and add them there directly. It would also make me accountable as the state would not be 100% done until all functionalities ,data connections, etc are marked as done.
I’m always looking for better ways to document what I’m building. I generally start out with a broad strokes plan of what the app will entail and data sources. Usually it’s a whiteboard or in a notebook that eventually gets translated to a document. It would be helpful if I could create the document, and then modify/enhance as I go within Retool. In particular, having a clear sense of dependencies and reusable components and how they are deployed would be great.
I'm a prodcut designer and use Retool to build applications so maybe I'm not a "regular". I follow a prodcut design process just like I would with any other software. Wireframes, Database Design, Sitemap, User flows and so forth. Then I just build the product according to the design specifications. I'm currently builing an ERP for a client thats over 100 screens.