JUST LAUNCHED: Just Tell Jo

Hi. I'm Jo, and I have been listening to your stories for years:

The 2am render that ate your weekend. The client who wanted "just one small change" that broke forty linked files. The junior hire who fixed a clash detection problem you'd been fighting for three years, using a workaround they found on a forum you'd never heard of. The software update that quietly renamed a command you'd used since 2011, and the two hours you lost figuring out where it went.

You've been telling these stories to each other for as long as CAD has existed. It’s my job to write them down!

Cadalyst has spent 45+ years telling you what software actually does to your workflow — not just what the press release says it does. Just Tell Jo is the next chapter of that: instead of us telling you, you tell us. The funny ones. The scary ones. The full-body-cringe "oh no" ones you still think about at 3am for no reason. The clever fix nobody taught you, that you figured out because you had to.

I'm not interested in your name, your firm, or anything that could get you in trouble with your boss. I mask the details and I’ll the story. What I want is the truth of it — what actually happened, what it actually felt like, and what you'd tell the next person walking into the same mess.

Here's how it works: I'll put a topic in front of you — something like "the workaround nobody taught you" or "the update that broke everything" — and I'll ask a few questions to get you talking. You don't need to share a polished essay. You don't need to be a writer. You just need five honest minutes and the story that's been sitting in your head anyway.

Then I'll do what I do: collect your stories, protect you, and combine them into a fun story for the rest of your cohort. Some issues will make you laugh. Some will make you wince in recognition. All of them will be real.

So — got a story? A near-miss, a workaround, a disaster, a small triumph nobody clapped for at the time?

Our first question? Tell us about the “upgrade that you put off too long.”

Are you 3 versions behind and telling yourself, “It’s fine?” Or did you finally pull the trigger and it was a relief or a disaster? What did the wait cost you? Or what did it cost you to finally move? 

 TELL US  MORE OF YOUR STORIES! 

Click any link below to submit your story:

• The day I became IT (and nobody told me)
• How I actually decide what to buy
• Where my files actually live (and why that should scare you a bit)
• Letting AI into the workflow, without losing the plot
• Training the team without a training department
• What I wish I'd asked the vendor
• Security when you're the whole security department
• The standard nobody wrote down
• Has AI made you better at the work — or just faster?