Origin Story
Since starting my lab, I struggled to find effective management and accountability tools for my lab members and me. I was frustrated to find many well-designed productivity tools for engineers and businesses, but none for the unique needs of academic research labs.
The few options I found didn't seem to be good fits in terms of functionality. And frankly, I feel that science could use more lab tools that care about user experience (major bonus points if you don't have to contact a sales rep for a quote or info on how it works).
A few years ago, I started administering anonymous lab surveys. I learned so much about what lab members wanted — more structured guidance, centralized workspaces, collaboration, help with time management.
Elevator Pitch
Kanobo integrates kanban-style experiment management with electronic lab notebook entries. That's where the name comes from! (kanban+notebook) Kanobo lets you:
Manage projects and experiments across the lab, whether in the lab or stuck at home
Help lab members develop better science habits, communicate with each other, and lead their projects
Consolidate all the lab's data, notebooks, progress and versioned history in one searchable place
Ensure each result can be traced to well documented notebook entries, source data, and experiments.
How is Kanobo different? It comes from my perspective as a principal investigator, with input from lab members. It aims to capture and link the scientific process from first brainstorm to compiled figures. We care about user experience, and we prioritize usability over feature bloat.
