Finish the workspace in the 7-day demo, not the tool tour

Seven days are free; no card is asked. When time is up, ads appear and the app closes; tasks are not deleted. Subscribe and continue where you left off. So pick a real project on day one. A Friday-night tour of sample data is forgotten. Monday you are still in Trello because you have screens in Ontra, not work.

Not taking a card is a refusal of the “maybe we’ll use it” hold. Ontra wants the work to sit first. If you like it, you pay per seat on Stripe; if not, you talk export — no surprise charge. After lock, the billing page stays open. There is no second setup. You return to the same records.

Day 1: workspace name, timezone, first project, first list, three live tasks. Assignee and due date are not left empty. Day 2: roles. Owner, member, viewer. Role required on the invite. Call two real people; a solo demo does not measure work. Day 3: move live work. The Trello card, the Notion spec, the Slack decision. Leave the old tool read-only.

Day 4: docs tree. Spec, meeting notes, acceptance criteria bind to the task. No wiki island. Day 5: sprint lock. Unfinished work is not deleted; it waits for the next sprint. Weekend reports: effort, delay, close speed. Do not tour empty screens. If the report is empty, the record is not bound. Sunday night the yes/no should come from that report, not from a feature list.

A five-year archive, dead channels, “maybe later” cards, and unnamed spreadsheets do not load in week one. The active sprint, live client work, and this month’s docs are enough. The archive can wait. Do not spend the demo touring history. If a card you move has no owner, it has no owner in Ontra either. The tool does not magically assign; you write it.

Opening every menu is not work either. Saved views, API keys, custom statuses, map pins — that is week-two work. The first seven days bind the record: task, doc, access, sprint, one report. A team lost in the feature maze says “it was complicated” on Sunday night. What is complicated is the unbound record, not the tool.

When time is up the panel closes and billing stays open. Tasks are not deleted for ads. Stripe shows the per-seat price. Do not wait to “pick Enterprise later”; there is one plan, you add a person. Board, docs, sprints, reports, and fine-grained access sit on one plan. What you pay for is the seat.

Do not inflate seats for a future team. Count the people who work this week. A viewer is still a seat. A shared office account is both a security and a billing problem. The seat starts when the invite is accepted. Close it when the internship ends; the price drops that month. To avoid lock panic, put real work on day one — then the decision rests on data, not fear.

Let the decision come from the sitting record, not a slide. Ask: did stand-up get shorter, is the client date on the card, did a new member find the spec, is the report empty? Three yeses and a full report are enough. The “this feature is missing” list is endless; every tool has one. Ontra is built on one record, fine-grained access, and live reports. If those three are not visible in week one, the move is half-done — the product is not missing.

Monday morning: workspace name, timezone, one project, one list. Three cards: in flight, waiting, due this week. Assignee and date not empty. Bind a spec if it exists. Afternoon: old tool read-only. Tuesday: five role templates, two real invites, viewer separate. Wednesday: move the live Trello/Notion/Slack decision. Thursday: docs tree, try a passworded share (then revoke). Friday: sprint lock, delay screen, effort. Weekend: do not tour empty menus; read the report, say yes or no.

This list is not a feature tour. It is a record-binding tour. API keys, ten custom statuses, map pins, form templates are week two. If the first seven days go there, you will say “it was complicated” on Sunday night. What is complicated is unbound work. Do not spend the demo on the archive. Moving five years of cards kills the demo; moving the live sprint births the decision.

A founder touring alone loves every menu and measures no ritual. On Tuesday a second person moves a card, cannot open the spec, asks about access. That friction is the product, not a bug. Because the invite form requires a role, the second person is not admin. On Wednesday run a two-person stand-up: delay list, ten minutes, write the decision on the card. In a solo demo that sentence is never formed.

On lock day do not shop packages from fear. Put Stripe’s seat price, this week’s headcount, and the sitting record side by side. The yes should come from “did the work run?”, not from a feature list. If it did not run, the move is half-done. No card is asked; there is no surprise charge. Subscribe and return to the same records.

Monday 09:00 workspace name and timezone. 09:20 first project, first list. 09:40 three live cards: in flight, waiting, due this week. Assignee and date not empty. 10:00 spec bound. 11:00 old tool read-only. Afternoon is not a feature tour. Tuesday 10:00 five roles, 10:30 two real invites, viewer separate. 14:00 if the second person moves a card and cannot open the spec, a grant is written; admin is not opened. That friction is the measure.

Wednesday live work moves. Trello card, Notion spec, Slack decision. No five-year archive. Thursday docs tree and a passworded share trial — then revoke. Friday sprint lock, delay, effort. Weekend no empty menus: the report produces yes/no. API, ten custom statuses, map pins are week two. The first seven days bind the record. Unbound work births “it was complicated.” What is complicated is not the tool.

No card is asked. At lock the panel closes, billing stays open, data stays. There is no second setup. Stripe seat price, this week’s people, and the sitting record sit side by side. The decision comes from “did the work run?”, not from fear. If it did not, the move is half-done. Do not inflate seats for a future team. A viewer is still a seat. No surprise charge. Subscribe and return to the same records.

Sunday night four questions: did stand-up get shorter, is the client date on the card, did a new member find the spec, is the report empty? Three yeses and a full report are enough. The missing-feature list is endless; every tool has one. Ontra is built on one record, fine-grained access, and live reports. If those three are not visible, do not extend time — finish the binds. The demo is not a showroom. A showroom tour does not pick a tool; a sitting record does.

Do not load a five-year archive in week one. The active sprint, live client work, and this month’s docs are enough. The archive can wait; do not spend the demo touring history.

After lock, billing stays open. Stripe shows the per-seat price. Do not wait to “pick Enterprise later”; there is one plan, you add a person.