Marketplace Partner Spotlight: HeroCoders

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For this month's partner spotlight, we're featuring HeroCoders, a Platinum Marketplace Partner! We caught up with Jacek Jaroczyński, co-founder and co-CEO, about how HeroCoders comes up with ideas for apps, their secret to success, and more.

The Herocoders team at a company retreat in Athens

Atlassian: What's your role at HeroCoders?

Jacek: I’m a co-founder and co-CEO. I also serve as the PM for our main product – Issue Checklist for Jira.

Atlassian: How does your team come up with ideas for new apps?

Jacek: We support creativity. We run quarterly, in-house hackathons where people can team up to work on pet projects. There’s a wide range of projects - everything from tackling a nagging piece of technical debt to building something silly as a way to try out Forge. Sometimes hackathons end up with a proof of concept for a new app.

Our team is also allowed to use up to 20% of their time to work on pet projects. This has been a great way to incubate new apps. Once we have an MVP, we put it on the Marketplace as a free app and see what happens.

We’ve also gleaned ideas from the Atlassian community, as well as from feedback from our customers. We love solving their problems.

Last, but not least, we try to analyze every problem we face, and every spark of an idea that pops into our minds. Some of them come from nowhere while sipping coffee, having conversation, or even when taking a shower. It is important not to ignore them. Pausing and giving these spontaneous ideas more thought is what makes successful entrepreneurs.

Atlassian: What do you think has been the secret to your success so far? 

Jacek: I’d say our success comes from several things. We’ve worked hard, stayed focused, listened to customers and watched the market carefully. We’ve also put a lot of effort into making our apps exceptional - they combine really simple UI with access to deeper functionality, which is not easy to achieve.

Our most successful apps provide a steady income stream that allows us to experiment, grow our portfolio, hire new people, etc. However, we don’t rush beyond what we’re ready for or able to afford in the present moment. That gives us stability.

Atlassian: Tell us about your most popular app. What problem were you trying to solve for customers when you created it?  

Jacek: Issue Checklist for Jira provides an easy, organized way to breakdown the things that need to be done on an issue. It’s quicker and lighter than using subtasks, and it’s embedded into the issue so users have it right there next to the description and comments. It’s a great fit for agile processes like Definition of Done and Acceptance Criteria.

Customers love it for the polished interface (the free version has over 30,000 installs). Some users don’t even realize they’re in a third-party app – they think the checklist is part of Jira. They also love it for simplicity. The checklist is ready to use right after installing with no configuration required.

However, there are configuration options available to control how the checklist behaves, and advanced features like automation, workflow integrations, an API, etc. A simple, intuitive UI, with deeper functionality available when you need is a signature characteristic of our apps.

Customers can upgrade from Free to Pro without losing any data or download the pro version from the start. We’re also developing an Enterprise version for customers who need even more functionality.

Issue Checklist for Jira

Atlassian: What’s next for you?

Jacek: We merged with Okapya, the makers of Checklist for Jira, in 2021. As the final step in that merger, we’re developing an Enterprise cloud app that unites the features of Issue Checklist for Jira Pro and Checklist for Jira. We anticipate releasing it in late spring/early summer.

Beyond that, we are explorers. We won’t stop looking for something new.

To learn more about HeroCoders, check out their Atlassian Marketplace listings – and don’t forget to comment and let us know what your favorite app of theirs is!

[Ulrich Kuhnhardt _IzymesCo_]

Thanks for sharing - I often felt like using a checklist in an issue when Jira subtasks seem a bit too heavy. ( Or does the checklist app create sub-tasks behind the scenes?)

[Adaeze_Jude_HEROCODERS]

Hi @Ulrich Kuhnhardt _IzymesCo_ ,

The Checklist App doesn't generate sub-tasks; rather, it allows you to compile a list of smaller tasks that must be accomplished in order to address a primary Issue. While creating sub-tasks could be excessive for certain tasks, the Issue Checklist feature enables you to address these minor tasks without having to create sub-tasks.