Floating-pointer shares their experience building Outlook add-ins integrated with Azure DevOps (ADO) and TFS. The post discusses transitioning legacy COM-based tools to modern platforms and seeks advice regarding market potential and advertising approaches.

Background and Experience

Floating-pointer brings over 15 years of experience working with Azure DevOps (ADO) and its predecessor, Team Foundation Server (TFS). In the past, they have developed Outlook add-ins enabling teams to create and link work items directly from emails to ADO or TFS. This integration eliminates the need for users to switch between tools, streamlining workflows for diverse teams. The legacy versions of these add-ins were built with COM technology, supporting both ADO and TFS environments, and have been adopted globally, including by Fortune 100 and public sector organizations.

Transition to Modern Platforms

Currently, Floating-pointer is developing a new version of the Outlook add-in compatible with New Outlook for Mac, Windows, and the Web. This re-architecture is necessary since COM technology is becoming obsolete and legacy solutions will likely become unsupported soon.

Market Uncertainty

Despite a history of customer renewals and usage by prominent organizations, the author expresses concerns about whether the market for such integrations remains viable. They are unsure of the current or future demand, especially given changes in both Outlook platforms and work management tools.

Seeking Advice

Floating-pointer is specifically looking for insights into:

  • The size of the market for Outlook-to-ADO integrations
  • Effective advertising strategies for niche software products
  • Approaches to gauge and reach the target audience beyond the existing loyal customer base

The author believes in the value of these integrations, as evidenced by customer renewals, but wants to ensure the effort to update and market the product is well-placed.

Product References

Additional context and discussion can be found on the original Reddit post: Should I build for ADO?

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