Genchi vs Standuply

Where they overlap: the thumb check, and planning poker

Some standups end with a quick status check: thumbs up, sideways or down on whether the work is on track. In a Standuply standup, a check like that is just another answer in the team's report. It isn't combined by project, tracked over time or shared beyond the team. Genchi replaces it with a confidence vote on a 1–5 scale, the fist of five SAFe teams use at the end of PI Planning, asked of everyone on every project and turned into a project delivery prediction. SAFe runs the vote openly, once a quarter. Genchi runs it anonymously, on each project's cadence.

Standuply also runs Planning Poker, where everyone votes independently and simultaneously, so no one anchors on the loudest voice. Genchi's vote works on the same principle, but applies it to a different question. Planning poker estimates the work. Genchi's confidence vote predicts the outcome.

What Standuply does well

• The async standup, in text, voice or video, in Slack or Microsoft Teams.
• A full set of agile rituals. Retrospectives on every paid plan, plus backlog refinement, Planning Poker and 360-degree feedback on the Business plan.
• Anonymous surveys. Single-choice survey questions can be made anonymous, with aggregated results.
• Task tracker integration. Jira, Trello, GitHub, Asana and Pivotal, with agile charts and task reports.
• Flexible pricing. Per user, or a flat fee for unlimited users.

Where it differs

• No project status, and no delivery prediction. Standuply collects what people did and plan, and runs estimation, retros and surveys. None of that produces a status for a project, let alone a prediction of whether it will land on time, and nothing rolls up across projects. Producing that is Genchi's whole job: a project delivery prediction for every project, from everyone working on it, side by side across the portfolio.
• Within a team vs across teams. Standuply runs one team's rituals. Genchi is built for what happens between teams. Engineering leaders get a portfolio view of every project, and people doing the work can see how the teams they depend on are doing. A project can span several teams, and one person can work on several projects, so Genchi scores the project, not the team.
• Not systematic across projects. Each standup is configured by its owner, so questions and schedules vary from team to team. Genchi asks the same question, on the same 1–5 scale, for every project.
• No cross-project view. Standuply's reports and charts cover one team's work. Genchi's portfolio shows every project's confidence side by side, with the trend and individual votes behind each card.
• Estimating tasks vs predicting delivery. Planning Poker sizes individual stories before the work starts. Genchi asks, throughout the project, whether the whole goal will land by the deadline.
• Writing, not a click. A standup asks for written, voice or video answers. A Genchi confidence vote is one click.
• Anonymous by design vs by setting. In Standuply, anonymity is a setting on individual survey questions. In Genchi, every vote is anonymous by design, while comments and blockers are attributed so someone can follow up.

Could you use Standuply to run a cross-team confidence vote, grouped by project?

For one team and one project, fairly closely: a recurring anonymous single-choice question, on a 1–5 scale, with aggregated results. For many projects across many teams, it becomes a workaround. You'd set up and maintain a survey for every project, keep audiences current, and combine the results yourself to see projects side by side. Because every survey is set up by its own owner, the question, scale and schedule would drift from project to project, and the signal would never be consistent. Standuply runs agile rituals well. Genchi is built for one job, a consistent project delivery prediction across every project.

What it costs

About the same. At 100 users, Standuply's Team plan is $250 a month, and its Business plan, which adds Planning Poker and backlog refinement, is $450. The free Starter plan covers 3 users. Genchi is free for teams of up to 10, then $2.50 per user per month, billed in blocks of 10: about $250 a month for 100 people. The difference is what you get for it.

Side by side

When to use which

• Use Standuply to run your team's agile rituals: standups, retros, backlog refinement and estimation.
• Use Genchi for a standing project delivery prediction across every project, one leaders can read at a glance and that tells them which teams to leave alone.
• Use both. Standuply runs the team's process. Genchi tells leaders, and the teams that depend on each project, whether the date is still believed.

What Genchi won't do

• Tell you the truth if the whole team is confidently wrong. Genchi measures belief, not reality.
• Work without a clear goal. If people can't say what "done" means, their confidence can't mean much either.
• Work as well without a deadline. Without a date, confidence has less to anchor to, though the trend still shows whether it's rising or falling.
• Tell you why. A falling score shows you where to look. Comments, blockers and a conversation supply the reason.
• Replace your standup or estimation. It asks one question, about each project.

Genchi is our product. Standuply is a well-established agile toolkit, and the two do different jobs.