A personal page
Ask Petra
Petra writes down what she knows. People join to read it and to ask; she keeps a short list of the people she reads herself.
No selling, no rota, and no score anybody types in by hand. Two lists of people, and the questions they ask.
Show me
The pages and tabs it has
Ask Petra opens on People. It has 7 of the 13 rooms Bisbe can put in a Customers book; the other 6 are not there at all — not greyed out, not teased.
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What needs you
Time-bound. These are decisions and commitments, not reference.
- ◇ not in this template
Today
There is no separate what-needs-you screen. Opening Contacts IS the day's work, so the page you land on is the people themselves.
- ◉ in this template
Queue · Customers
The same Queue as the rail, showing Customers only. Nothing here has been sent.
- ◉ in this template
Tasks
What you said you would do, and by when.
Who you deal with
One noun, two lenses — the record, and the people on it.
- ◉ in this template
Lists
Every list you keep, and what has been happening on it.
- ◉ in this template
People
Everyone on your lists, and how you know them.
- ◇ not in this template
Health
How a list is doing is worked out from what actually happened — people joining, questions arriving — never a score somebody typed in by hand.
What you sell
The money, at three altitudes.
- ◇ not in this template
Catalog & stock
Petra does not sell anything, so there is no catalogue and no stock to keep. What she has instead is the people, and what they are asking.
- ◇ not in this template
Quotes and orders
Nothing is bought here, so there are no quotes and no order book. The thing that arrives is a question.
- ◇ not in this template
Deals
There is nothing being sold, so there is no pipeline to work. What moves is who has joined and who has asked something.
The record
The paper trail and the plumbing. Rarely opened; the reason to trust the rest.
- ◇ not in this template
Visits
Nobody is called on a rota. She writes a catch-up when there is something worth remembering, not because a calendar said so.
- ◉ in this template
Activity
What was done, by whom — including what the app did on your behalf.
- ◉ in this template
Wiring · Contacts
Which of your own systems are connected, and which numbers are still the sample's.
- ◉ in this template
Settings
Who you are signed in as, and what this account can reach.
The words it uses
Every line below is read straight out of the register the app resolves against — change what a list is called in the product and this page changes with it. 95 of these are set per template; these are the ones worth reading side by side.
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| The section in the rail | Lists |
|---|---|
| One record, on its own page | List |
| The counted plural | lists |
| The person who speaks for it | Main person |
| The control that makes a new one | New list |
| The sentence under the heading | Your lists — who is on each one, and what has been happening with them. |
|---|---|
| What the search box says | Search a list or a person |
| The last-thing-that-happened column | Activity |
| …and what that column says when nothing has | Nothing logged yet |
| The how-are-they-doing column | How they are doing |
| The place column | Where |
| The who-looks-after-it column | Who looks after it |
| Day one, before anything is added | No lists yet |
| …and what it tells you to do about it | Start a list for a group of people you want to keep track of. Everyone you add goes on one, and what happens with them shows up here. |
| The headline of the screen you land on | People |
|---|---|
| What the find box says | Find a list or a person |
| When nothing needs a decision | Nothing needs a decision from you right now. |
| The heading over the ones that have drifted | Out of touch for a while |
| The control on each of those rows | Log a catch-up |
| The who-next strip | Who to reach out to |
| The last-time-you-met block | Last time you spoke |
|---|---|
| …when there has not been one | No catch-up written up here yet |
| The things-outstanding block | Things to sort out |
| The rhythm row on a person | Contact |
| The get-ready label | Before you call |
| The way into the record from a person | Open their page |
| The other people alongside them | Others on this list |
| Where a person sits | Which list |
| Putting it away | Archiving this list |
| The people section | People |
|---|---|
| The sentence under it | The people on your lists — who they are and how you know them. |
| What their job column is called | How you know them |
| When nobody has written down how to reach them | directly, and that is fine — most people here you read rather than call. |
What stands down
A template is not a rename. These are the eight pieces of machinery a Customers book can carry, and whether Ask Petra carries them at all. Every mark is a shape and a word — no colour means anything on this page.
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| Selling — a catalogue, quotes and orders, deals, and visits out to a customer | ◇ stands down |
|---|---|
| The trade line on a person — which kind of place they are, which territory, which rep | ◇ stands down |
| A calendar rhythm — “due every N days”, and the rota that comes with it | ◇ stands down |
| A how-they-are-doing score somebody types in by hand | ◇ stands down |
| The footer banners — “Before you call”, “Starting a new list” | ◇ stands down |
| A hand-kept issue list running alongside the real ask thread | ◇ stands down |
| A standing panel for archiving, for a once-ever action | ◇ stands down |
| The “nothing is connected yet” strip, on a work surface | ◇ stands down |
Ask Petra is a made-up company and nobody on these pages is a real person. Nothing here writes and there is nothing to sign into. A walkable world for this template has not been built yet — what you can read here is the template itself: its pages, its words, and what it does without.