What's new in Peerdom 5

Peerdom 5 is a redesign of the whole product rather than a set of added features. Your data is untouched: every map, role, circle, person, project and goal is exactly where you left it. What changed is the way you work with them.

This page walks through what is different, grouped by what you will notice, so you can find your way around on day one.

Nothing needs to be installed or migrated. Peerdom 5 replaces Peerdom 4 for your whole organization in one step.

Where things moved

If you are looking for something you used in Peerdom 4, start here.

Index and Archive are part of Peerdom+. On the free plan, the Map List view and the Directory Roles tab are gone rather than moved, and the Map is the way to browse your structure. See Plans.

Working and Editing: why there are no Save buttons

Peerdom 5 has two modes, and the switch sits at the top of the screen.

• Working is for the day to day: report progress and update values, without changing how anything is set up.
• Editing is for changing the structure itself: roles, circles, projects, goals, fields.

In Editing, there is nothing to save. Click a field, change it, click away: it is stored. This applies to roles, circles, projects, goals, people, custom fields, your profile, and every page in Settings. Add… creates the new item straight away and opens it, ready to name. There is no form to fill in first.

How you know it worked:

• In the editor, the status reads Saving changes… and then Saved. If it reads Couldn’t save. Try again, your change is not stored yet.
• In Settings, the header reads All saved, and each field flashes Saved! as you change it.

Changed your mind? Every change is in the Journal. The restore icon on a change puts that field back the way it was, and Restore all puts back every change in the list.

If you cannot change something you expect to, check the switch at the top. A new map opens in Editing.

A few dialogs still have a Save button, for settings that belong together, such as a billing address or a label’s translations. And actions that cannot be undone, such as deleting something permanently, still ask you to confirm.

Every app works the same way

In Peerdom 4, each app had its own list, its own toolbar and its own editor. In Peerdom 5 they share one design, so once you know one app you know them all.

The app rail replaces the app icons in the top bar. Right-click an app in the rail for View in App Store, to deactivate it, and for App settings where the app has them. Reposition apps… sets their order for everyone.

The same views, wherever they apply:

A familiar toolbar: search or filter, sort, and a count, plus folders and labels in the apps that use them.

Groups are now folders. What Projects, Network and Pages called groups are folders in every app. Each folder has its own address, so you can bookmark it and a reload brings you back inside it.

Labels work everywhere. In Peerdom 4, labels marked projects only. Labels are now shared by the whole organization and live in Settings → Labels. A new label is available in All apps: projects, goals, pages, flows, drafts, contribution, feedback, network, and roles and circles on the map. To keep a label to certain apps, open its scope and pick them. Rename a label, change its color or translate it there, and it changes everywhere it is used.

An app only shows the views that make sense for it. Board appears where there are labels or folders, and read-only apps such as the Journal hide the view switcher.

The map

• Select, then zoom. The first click on a role or circle selects it. A second click zooms to it. The map no longer moves on the first click.
• One right-click menu for roles, circles, project slices and goals.
• Vital signs replaces “Colour map by”. The measures are now read as health: green is healthy, red is at risk. Combined reads all four together, and where the signals disagree strongly the circle turns amber and the panel says Signals conflict.
• Size circles by number of people, or by contribution, to see where the weight of your organization sits.
• Projects with sub-projects show their progress on the map, the way goals do.
• Time travel shows your map as it was in an earlier week. Once an Owner has turned on Provide access to past maps in Settings → Advanced, switch it on from the header and move along the Timeline. Nothing can be edited until you choose Leave time travel.
• Tree view is a real org chart, with the same features as the circle view, and prints with full role and group names.
• The layout chooser moved to Settings → Map, where you can preview a layout before you apply it.

Vital signs come with the Insights app, and time travel with Peerdom+. Purpose reads low until your roles are anchored to missions.

Index: every role in one place

Index is a new app, and the counterpart to the Map: where the Map shows your structure spatially, Index shows it as a register you can search, sort and group by circle. It replaces both the Map List view and the Directory Roles tab.

• Find any role by name without panning the map
• Sort by any column, and choose which columns are shown
• Open a role and edit it with the full Map editor, docked to the side
• Move a role to another circle from a dropdown, without opening the map
• See mirrored roles at a glance: they are marked with a half-filled dot

The Directory now lists people only.

One editor for everything

Roles, circles, projects and goals all open in the same panel. It floats over the Map and docks to the side inside apps.

• A switch in its header moves between the role itself, its Journal (this item’s own history) and, while a vital sign is on, its Vital signs
• Expand to full screen hides everything else, which helps when writing a longer purpose
• Drag its edge to adjust the width. Peerdom remembers it.
• Footer actions: Add…, Move to…, Copy to…, and a ⋯ menu holding Modify fields and Delete

Projects no longer have a page of their own. A project opens in this panel inside the Projects app, and links to old project pages still lead there. Projects also gain:

• Sub-projects: measurable checklist items (done, a percentage, or an amount) that roll up into the project’s progress
• A description field with formatting
• Copy, which duplicates a project with its roles, labels and custom fields, and Move, which relocates it to another circle

Goals are created and edited inline in the Goals app. The goal dialog is gone, and sub-goals, completion and confidence all edit in place.

Formatting without Markdown

In Peerdom 4, bold text, a link or a list meant typing Markdown into a plain text field. Peerdom 5 has a visual editor: select the text and use the Formatting toolbar for bold, italic, headings, lists, checklists, quotes, links and tables. What you see is what everyone else reads.

It is used for purposes, accountabilities and other role and circle fields, text custom fields, profiles, pages and flow steps. Expand for focused writing gives a longer text the whole screen.

Prefer Markdown? Switch any field to its source with Switch to Markdown source, or make it your default in Settings → Preferences → Text editing. Everything you wrote in Markdown before is kept and shows formatted.

People and profiles

• Your profile is edited where you read it: name, photo, quote and custom fields. Contribution is edited on the role card itself.
• Roles show as cards in their circles’ colors. Roles, salary, journal, projects, goals and feedback each have their own tab. The profile works on mobile.
• Privacy is stated in words: Only you or Everyone. Opening something private shows who owns it, with a Request access button that notifies them.
• My organizations, the screen that lists every organization you belong to, shows each one’s plan and keeps archived organizations on a separate tab.

Finding and keeping things

One search field answers everywhere, with one list of results. When what you type reads like a description rather than a name, Peerdom offers Search by description, which finds roles and circles by what they do. “Who handles invoices?” finds the role even if “invoice” is not in its name.

Archive gathers everything archived across the organization in one place, replacing the “Archived items” list in each app. It is part of Peerdom+ rather than an app in the App Store, and appears in the app rail once something has been archived.

• Archived roles and groups, projects, goals, drafts, pages and flows appear together, newest first
• Filter by kind
• Put back restores an item to where it came from
• Delete forever permanently removes a project, goal or flow, after a confirmation
• Empty archive clears the archive at once

Archive holds single items. Archiving your whole organization is a different action, for Owners only: see Archive & Delete.

Bringing your organization over is new too. With Import organization data, you can move circles, roles and people from another tool, or bring your documents over and let Peerdom read the structure out of them.

Two new apps

Flows

Turn recurring work into repeatable, guided processes. Map a process as steps and hand-offs, say which roles are involved in each step, and follow where every flow stands on a board. The Flows layer draws the steps over the roles involved on the map.

Proposals

Suggest changes to roles and groups, reviewed before they go live. Anyone can propose a change to a role or group, with a reason, and without needing edit rights. Editors and Owners accept or decline at their own pace, and every proposal leaves a trail.

Both are in the App Store and can be added to any Peerdom+ organization.

Your first digital colleagues: the Translator and the Librarian

Digital colleagues are Peerdom’s own agents. Each joins your map with a role and takes over work people used to do by hand, and a person on your team stays responsible for it. Two launch with Peerdom 5. The Translator translates your whole map into every language you work in, then keeps every edit translated. When someone changes what a text means, Peerdom asks whether the other languages should follow. The Librarian answers questions about any role or group, from your map and the documents you attach to it.

Owners hire them in the App Store, under Digital colleagues. Each is CHF 2 per paid seat per month, billed with Peerdom+. Meet the digital colleagues.

Look and feel

• Peerdom has a new look, with a new typeface and icons throughout.
• Dark mode: choose Light, Dark or Auto, which matches your device.
• Accent color: pick your own from eight.
• These live in Settings → Preferences → Appearance, and every member can now set their own preferences.
• Search settings filters the settings navigation.

Plans: what Peerdom+ includes

Free is the live map for an organization of up to 10 members: your structure and roles, shared with a link.

Peerdom+ is everything in Free, plus:

• As many people as you need on the map
• Index, Insights, Journal, Missions and Network, included at no extra cost
• Time travel through your map’s history
• Archive for everything archived across the organization
• Search by description
• Every custom field type: image, list, link and relationship fields, as well as text
• Any other app in the App Store, including the new Flows and Proposals
• Support included

The free plan still gives you your live organization map and the people you invite to explore it. What it no longer has is a list of all your roles: Index replaces both the Map List view and the Directory Roles tab, and Index is part of Peerdom+. If your organization is on the free plan, browse your structure on the Map, or see what upgrading adds.

If you already pay for Insights separately, it becomes part of Peerdom+. From your next renewal you pay nothing for it, and there is nothing you need to do.

Buying and changing your plan happens inside Peerdom now. Adding an app is one confirmation, and when a trial ends, an Owner can Continue with the free plan without contacting us.

What has not changed

• Your map, roles, circles, people, projects, goals, pages and history
• Access rights and permission levels
• SSO and directory sync
• Your API keys, webhooks and integrations
• Custom fields and their values
• Your organization’s terminology: if you call circles “teams”, Peerdom 5 still calls them teams