Genchi vs Steady (formerly Status Hero)
Steady, formerly Status Hero, describes itself as the human-agent teamwork OS. When it renamed in 2024, it said it had become "bigger than status," and it's now a coordination platform for people and AI agents: async check-ins, goals with regular status updates, and AI reports. Genchi does a more specific job. It gives engineering leaders a project delivery prediction from the people doing the work: an anonymous, 1-click confidence vote from everyone on the project, combined by project and tracked over time. Steady tells you where the goal owner says things stand. Genchi tells you what the whole team expects to happen.
What Steady does well
- Async standups. Smart Check-ins collect plans, progress and blockers asynchronously, with AI drafting each update from connected tools.
- Goals across teams. Goal Stories nest goals and prompt regular updates with a written summary, progress and a status of On track, At risk or Off track.
- Automated reporting. Echoes deliver scheduled AI reports, such as sprint summaries, 1:1 prep and off-track goals.
- Team analytics. Insights track participation, blockers, goal progress, activity and mood over time.
- Deep integrations. Jira, Linear, Asana, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, calendars, Slack and Microsoft Teams.
- MCP server. AI assistants and coding agents can read and write check-ins, goals and updates.
- Enterprise-ready. SOC 2 Type 2, plus SSO, SAML and SCIM.
- Unlimited users. You pay for usage, not seats.
Where it differs
- The whole team's view, not the owner's. A Steady goal update records a status set by whoever posts it, usually the goal owner. It's one person's forecast, from the person accountable for the date. Genchi asks everyone working on the project, independently, and combines their votes. Independent judgments from the people closest to the work tend to beat a single forecast, because individual errors cancel out. Does asking the team actually work? →
- A 1–5 read, not a three-step status. A goal update is On track, At risk or Off track, and moving from one to the next is a visible step, so goals tend to stay green until it's too late. Genchi's 1–5 vote separates "definitely yes" from "I think so," "not sure" from "I think not," and "definitely not." That's a more accurate read, and with votes from everyone, one low vote among high ones shows up long before a status would change. Why projects stay green →
- The confidence trend, not just the latest status. Steady trends how teams are working: participation, blockers, goal progress and mood. Genchi trends what the team expects, charting each project's confidence vote by vote over time. The direction is often more revealing than any single reading. Why is a trend more useful than a status? →
- Easier to write, not easier to say. Steady makes updates much easier to produce. But check-ins and goal updates are named, so bad news costs the person delivering it just as much as before. In Genchi, every vote is anonymous by design, while comments and blockers are attributed so someone can follow up.
- Activity isn't expectation. Check-ins attach what your tools recorded, which tells you what happened, not what the team expects next. A busy week of pull requests can look healthy on a project that's heading for a miss.
- Both show a portfolio, from different inputs. Steady's Goal Stories show nested goals with a status and percent complete, refreshed when each owner posts, typically every few weeks. Genchi's portfolio shows every project's confidence from everyone working on it, refreshed at each project's cadence, with the trend and individual votes behind each card.
- AI assistants see the prediction, not just the data. Genchi's MCP connector is published in the OpenAI directory and renders the portfolio and confidence views as interactive visuals inside Claude, ChatGPT and Grok.
- Writing, not a click. Even an AI-drafted check-in is something to review and post. A Genchi confidence vote is one click, at whatever cadence the project runs.
- Broad vs specific. Steady covers standups, goals, digests, analytics and AI agents. Genchi does one specific job.
What it costs
The two are priced differently. Steady sells usage credits: every check-in, goal update and AI report delivered to each person uses credits. Steady's own pricing estimator puts a 100-person organization, as 14 teams of 7 with one goal per team and one AI report per person, at about 16,000 credits a month. That falls in its $750-a-month plan. Using fewer AI reports costs less, and more goals or check-ins cost more. Genchi charges per user, whatever the cadence: it's free for teams of up to 10, and larger teams pay $2.50 per user per month, billed in blocks of 10, which comes to about $250 a month for 100 people.
Side by side
| Steady | Genchi | |
|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | What did people do and plan, and where does the goal stand? | Will we achieve the goal by the deadline? |
| Source of the signal | Each person's check-in and tool activity; goal status from whoever posts the update | Everyone working on the project |
| Direction | Check-ins and activity look back; the goal status is one person's forecast | Forward-looking by design |
| Effort per person | A written check-in, AI-drafted, to review and post | One click, about two seconds |
| Consistency | Consistent format; the goal status reflects one person's judgment | The same question on the same scale, every time |
| Independence | Named updates | Each vote anonymous and cast independently |
| Scale | On track, At risk, Off track | 1–5, from everyone |
| Trend | Team analytics: participation, blockers, goal progress, mood | Each project's confidence, vote by vote, over time |
| Unit scored | People and teams through daily check-ins; goals through status updates | A project, from one vote per person per project |
| Output | Check-ins, goal updates, digests, AI reports | Score, trend and individual votes, across a color-coded portfolio |
| Who sees it | Teams and stakeholders, via digests and chat | Leaders and the team, including teams that depend on the project |
| Price | Usage credits; Steady's estimator puts 100 people at about $750/month | Per user, any cadence. Free up to 10; about $250/month for 100 people. |
When to use which
- Use Steady to replace standups and coordinate goals, with written context, AI summaries and broad integrations.
- Use Genchi for a standing project delivery prediction from the whole team, one leaders can read at a glance and that tells them which teams to leave alone.
- Use both. Steady tells you the story of the week, and Genchi tells you whether the date is still believed. When a goal in Steady shows On track and confidence in Genchi is falling, that's the watermelon, measured.
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 written updates. It asks one question, about each project.
Genchi is our product. Steady is a well-built coordination platform, and the two do different jobs.
See what the whole team expects
Set up a project, invite the team, and your first confidence vote goes out tomorrow.
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