1,850
SaaS, Project Management and Business Productivity
Clove
AI Project Management Platform That Plans, Staffs and Schedules Work
Clove is a project management and team collaboration SaaS for US startups, agencies and software teams. Built by THE TISA in four months, it uses the OpenAI API to turn a project brief into milestones, sprints, deadlines, a proposed team and assigned tasks that a manager reviews and approves.
USAMarket
4 MonthsTimeline
3 DevelopersProject Team
SaaS, Project Management and Business ProductivityIndustry
Executive Summary
Clove
- Client
- Lane Snuffer
- Market
- USA
- Industry
- SaaS, Project Management and Business Productivity
- Timeline
- 4 Months
- Team
- Project Team - 3 Developers
- Services
- Generative AI Development, AI Application Development, AI SaaS Development, Custom Software Development
- Technology
- React.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Redux
- Primary Outcome
- 1,850 Monthly Active Users
Verified project metrics
Project Outcomes
Clove gave the client a complete AI-powered SaaS platform for startups, agencies, software teams and larger organizations. Its multi-workspace setup allows several customers to use the same platform without requiring a separate system for each business. The subscription model helps the client generate recurring revenue, and the AI planning features give Clove a clear advantage over basic task tools.
The following platform metrics were measured after launch, across all Clove workspaces.
- 735 Active Team Members.
- 81% Project Completion Rate.
- 1.8 seconds Average Page-Load Time.
- 240 ms Average API Response Time.
Project Overview
Clove is a project management and team collaboration platform for software teams, startups, agencies and growing businesses. It helps teams plan projects, assign tasks, manage sprints and track deadlines in one place. Members can comment on tasks, share files and receive real-time updates.
Work can be organized into tasks, stories, bugs, epics and subtasks. Teams can view their work through Kanban boards, lists, calendars and timelines. Dashboards and reports help managers review workload, sprint progress and upcoming deadlines. The platform also supports multiple projects, teams and user roles.
Clove's AI planning layer, built on the OpenAI API, takes the planning work off project managers. It breaks a project brief into milestones and sprints, draws the workflow as a flowchart, sets realistic deadlines, proposes a team based on skills, assigns tasks and sends smart reminders. Managers review and approve every AI-drafted plan before it goes live.
What We Built
We developed a complete project management and team collaboration SaaS with frontend, backend, REST APIs and a structured database. Our work covered secure login, file management, real-time updates, search, role-based access and responsive screens. Key modules included workspaces, projects, sprints, tasks, Kanban boards, team discussions, notifications and reports. We then integrated the OpenAI API to power six AI features: AI sprint planning and milestone breakdown, automatic flowchart design, automated deadlines, smart reminders, AI task assignment and skill-based team building.
Client Background
Lane Snuffer, a US-based founder, wanted to create a complete project management platform for modern teams. He needed more than a basic task management tool. The platform had to support project managers, developers, designers and other team members through different roles and permissions. It also needed to bring planning, tasks, team communication, progress tracking and reports into one place, and to cut the hours managers spend building plans, assigning work and chasing updates. Clove was designed for startups, agencies and larger businesses with different teams and workflows.
Project Scope
The project included work across the following areas:
- Business requirement analysis
- User journey and workflow planning
- UI/UX design
- Responsive frontend development
- Backend and REST API development
- MySQL database and Redux setup
- Secure login, roles and permissions
- Workspace and project management
- Sprint and backlog management
- Task and issue tracking
- Kanban board development
- Real-time collaboration and activity tracking
- Notifications, search and filters
- Dashboards and reports
- File and document handling
- OpenAI API integration for AI planning, scheduling and staffing
- Member skill profiles and capacity tracking
- Performance, security, testing and deployment
Target Audience
Clove is mainly designed for:
- Startups
- Digital and creative agencies
- Software and product teams
- Operations teams
- Small and medium-sized businesses
- Enterprises with multiple teams and projects
Objectives
The main objectives were to:
- 01Simplify project planning and organization
- 02Keep tasks, priorities and deadlines clear
- 03Improve communication and team collaboration
- 04Support Agile and Scrum workflows
- 05Track project and sprint progress
- 06Manage multiple projects and workspaces
- 07Control team roles and permissions
- 08Provide clear reports
- 09Reduce scattered project information
- 10Use AI to automate project planning, scheduling and task assignment
- 11Support future business growth
Business Challenge
- 01The client needed a complete system to manage project planning, tasks and team communication.
- 02Project information was spread across spreadsheets, emails, messaging apps and separate tools. This made updates difficult to find, priorities unclear and responsibilities harder to track.
- 03Project managers also had to check task progress, sprint status, deadlines and team workload manually.
- 04Turning a client brief into milestones, deadlines and a staffed team took hours of manual planning, and hand-set deadlines rarely matched the team's real capacity.
- 05Software teams needed a simple way to manage epics, stories, bugs, subtasks, sprints, backlogs, Kanban boards and release plans.
- 06Different users also required separate access based on their roles and responsibilities.
- 07The main challenge was to bring planning, collaboration, task tracking, real-time updates, reporting and AI-assisted planning into one secure platform.
Our Solution
We built Clove as a single workspace for project planning, task management and team communication. Teams can create workspaces and projects, define workflows, assign tasks, set priorities and manage deadlines in one place. Software teams can organize work into epics, stories, bugs, subtasks, sprints and backlogs. Kanban boards and sprint tools help them plan work and track progress clearly. We integrated the OpenAI API as a planning engine behind Clove's own backend. A manager enters a project brief, and Clove drafts the milestones, sprints, workflow chart, deadlines, team and task assignments. OpenAI interprets the brief, while Clove's code checks permissions, calculates dates and capacity, and saves changes only after the manager approves. Real-time updates keep assignments, comments, task changes and notifications visible to the team. Project managers can review task progress, sprint status and team workload through dashboards and reports. Role-based permissions give administrators, project managers and team members access based on their responsibilities.
Before → After
Project Management Improvements
Before
Project details were spread across different tools.
After
Projects, tasks and discussions are managed in one place.
Before
Managers built every project plan and set every deadline by hand.
After
AI drafts milestones, sprints and deadlines from a project brief, and managers review and approve.
Before
Work was assigned from memory, and the same people were overloaded.
After
AI assigns tasks and proposes teams based on skills, workload and availability.
Before
Teams relied on spreadsheets for task tracking.
After
Tasks are organized through boards, lists and sprints.
Before
Updates were shared through long email or chat threads.
After
Comments and updates stay connected to the related task.
Before
Managers had to collect progress manually.
After
Dashboards show project, sprint and task progress, and smart reminders flag real risks.
Before
Task ownership and priorities were often unclear.
After
Each task includes an owner, priority, status and due date.
Before
Access was difficult to control across teams.
After
Role-based permissions manage workspace and project access.
- Before: Past project changes were hard to track.. After: Activity logs keep a record of important actions.
- Before: Teams followed separate workflows.. After: Custom statuses and boards support different ways of working.
Delivery ownership
THE TISA's Role
Product Strategy
Discovery
UX/UI Design
AI Architecture
Frontend Engineering
Mobile Development
Integrations
QA
Key Features
Clove includes the following key features:
03AI Planning and Scheduling
01
AI Planning and Scheduling
- AI sprint planning and milestone breakdown from a project brief
- Automatic flowchart design of phases and dependencies
- Automated deadlines based on estimates, dependencies and capacity
- AI task assignment by skills, workload and availability
- Skill-based team building with skill-gap alerts
- Smart reminders that escalate only real risks
- Multiple workspaces and projects
- Project templates and custom statuses
- Member invitations and project access
- Tasks, epics, stories, bugs and subtasks
- Sprint planning, backlogs and active sprint tracking
- Priorities, due dates and task dependencies
- Drag-and-drop Kanban boards
- Project timelines and calendars
- Task sorting and filters
- Comments, mentions and team discussions
- File sharing and announcements
- Real-time project updates
- Role-based access
- Workspace and project permissions
- Admin controls
- Real-time and email notifications
- Assignment and deadline alerts
- Global search and saved filters
- Project and sprint progress
- Team workload
- Burndown and velocity reports
- Task, file and user activity history
- Audit logs, including AI-suggested and approved changes
- Workflow rules and automatic status updates
- Mobile-friendly screens
- Clear dashboards and navigation
Development Process
We started by understanding how different teams manage projects from setup to completion. The team studied user roles, task types, sprint workflows, communication needs and reporting requirements. We then planned the user flow, including workspace access, project creation, task assignment, sprint planning, team updates, report review and role-based permissions.
Next, we designed a simple interface for managing projects and daily tasks. We created layouts for dashboards, projects, Kanban boards, tasks, sprints, team settings and AI plan review. The design also focused on easy navigation, clear forms, useful filters, progress indicators and responsive screens.
After finalizing the design, we moved to development. First, we built the frontend using React.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS and Redux. Next, we developed the backend services and REST APIs using Node.js and Express.js. These handled authentication, projects, tasks, sprints, files, permissions, notifications and reports. MySQL was used to store and organize the data.
During development, we created a Kanban board with drag-and-drop support. When a card moves to another column, its status updates automatically. The change is saved and shown to authorized team members.
We used Socket.IO to show live updates without refreshing the page. Users could instantly see task changes, assignments, comments, notifications and project activity.
We integrated the OpenAI API into a server-side planning service. The service sends only permitted project data, uses Structured Outputs so every response follows a fixed schema, and validates each plan in code for dependencies, valid members, permissions and capacity. Deadlines are calculated by Clove's scheduling logic, and nothing is saved until a manager reviews and approves the AI-drafted plan.
After the main features were completed, we tested Clove across different user roles, workflows, devices and screen sizes. Testing covered login, permissions, project setup, task management, sprint workflows, AI planning output, search, notifications, reports and error handling. We also checked security and performance before deployment.
Technical Challenges
Technology Stack
- React.js
- TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS
- Redux
- Node.js
- Express.js
- MySQL
- OpenAI API
- REST APIs
- Kanban Boards
- Socket.IO
- Real-Time Collaboration
Why These Technologies?
- React.js. To build interactive dashboards, task views and reusable interface components.
- TypeScript. To keep the code organized and reduce development errors.
- Tailwind CSS. To create consistent and responsive screens.
- Redux. To manage shared projects, tasks and user data across different pages.
- Node.js. To handle backend operations, project workflows and the AI planning service.
- Express.js. To organize backend routes and build REST APIs.
- MySQL. To store project, team, skill and task records in a structured format.
- OpenAI API. To interpret project briefs and draft structured plans, skills and reminders, using Structured Outputs for reliable, schema-based responses.
- REST APIs. To connect the frontend, backend services and AI planning service.
- Kanban Boards. To support visual task management through drag-and-drop workflows.
- Socket.IO. To show task updates, comments and notifications in real time.
- Real-Time Collaboration. To keep team members informed about project changes without refreshing the page.
Design Decisions
The design made project details easy to find and manage. Important decisions included:
- Role-based dashboards
- Clear workspace navigation
- Project summary cards
- Drag-and-drop Kanban boards
- Simple task forms and detail panels
- AI plan review screen with edit, remove and approve controls
- Priority and status labels
- Search and filter controls
- Sprint progress and workload views
- Activity timelines
- Responsive project screens
- Clear notifications and error messages
SEO Work
SEO was applied only to Clove's public pages. Private workspaces, projects and team records were kept out of search results. The work included:
- SEO-friendly URLs, page titles and meta descriptions
- Clear heading structure
- Relevant project management keywords
- Agile and Scrum landing pages
- Internal linking
- Image alt text
- FAQ structured data and Open Graph tags
- Canonical tags, XML sitemap and robots.txt
- Noindex rules for private areas
- Mobile and page-speed improvements
Performance Optimization
Performance work included:
- React component and Redux state optimization
- Lazy loading and route-based code splitting
- Reduced unnecessary API calls
- MySQL query optimization and database indexing
- Pagination for large task and activity lists
- Debounced search
- Kanban board performance improvements
- Real-time event optimization
- Timeouts, retry limits and idempotent saves for AI requests
- Caching for frequently used data
- Optimized asset loading
Security
Clove handles private project, team and business data, so strong security was required. Security measures included:
- Secure user login
- JWT authentication
- Password hashing
- Protected routes and REST APIs
- Role-based access
- Workspace and project permissions
- Request validation and input sanitization
- API rate limiting
- Secure session handling
- Controlled file access
- Server-side OpenAI calls, with API keys never exposed to the browser
- Permission checks and workspace scoping before any data is sent to OpenAI
- Manager approval before AI-drafted changes are saved
- Activity and audit logs
Architecture Diagram
Results
For Project Managers
- 01Project managers can plan work, assign tasks and track deadlines in one place.
- 02AI drafts project plans, deadlines and task assignments, so managers review and approve instead of building plans from scratch.
For Agencies and Clients
- 01Agencies can keep client projects organized and share clear updates on work and delivery.
- 02AI-generated project flowcharts give clients a clear view of phases, hand-offs and progress.
Visual Identity
Clove visual identity
CClove
Inter / similar modern sans-serifAa
Clove
Color
- #05040801Primary Black5 4 8
- #0F091B02Deep Black15 9 27
- #08111A03Dark Navy8 17 26
- #211B3704Dark Purple33 27 55
- #6D4FD305Primary Purple109 79 211
- #866BE106Soft Purple134 107 225
- #5D4F8E07Muted Lavender93 79 142
- #C8CBD608Light Gray200 203 214
- #FFFFFF09Pure White255 255 255
Type
- 01 · Primary4 weights
Inter / similar modern sans-serif
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789- Bold
- Semibold
- Medium
- Regular
Client Testimonial
Before Clove, managing daily work and team updates through different tools was difficult. We needed one platform that could handle the complete workflow and support different team roles. Team TISA worked on Clove according to our requirements. They stayed in touch throughout the project and handled every change properly. Clove has made it easier for our team to manage daily work and stay updated. We appreciate the work done by Team TISA.
Lane SnufferFounder, Clove
Future Scalability
Clove can be expanded with:
- 01
AI project summaries and client status reports
- 02
Risk and delay prediction
- 03
Natural-language search across projects
- 04
Time tracking and timesheets
- 05
Billing, invoicing and project budgeting
- 06
Client portals
- 07
CRM integration
- 08
GitHub and GitLab integration
- 09
Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google Calendar integration
- 10
Custom workflow automation
- 11
Resource and portfolio management
- 12
Approval workflows and custom reports
Lessons Learned
While building Clove, we learned a few important lessons:
- 01
Workflows and permissions need clear planning from the start.
- 02
Kanban boards must stay smooth as task lists grow.
- 03
Search and filters become more important in larger projects.
- 04
Real-time updates should only reach relevant users.
- 05
AI works best when it drafts and the application decides: let the model interpret briefs, and let code calculate dates, capacity and access.
- 06
AI suggestions need a clear review step so managers stay in control.
- 07
Mobile screens need a simpler task layout.
- 08
Future integrations are easier to add when planned early.
Conclusion
Clove gives teams a simpler way to manage projects, tasks and communication, and its OpenAI-powered planning layer takes the busywork out of planning, scheduling and staffing. It keeps responsibilities, deadlines and progress clear for both team members and project managers. For the client, the platform provides a strong, AI-ready base for serving different teams and expanding the product as business needs grow.
Building Something Similar?
Talk with THE TISA about the architecture, timeline, team, and technology required for your project.