Tangent

Overview

Tangent was a business workflow application built to solve real operational needs -- tracking time off, managing resources, and automating the repetitive business processes that eat up hours when done manually.

Born from firsthand experience managing teams and operations, Tangent addressed the gap between heavyweight enterprise tools (too complex, too expensive) and spreadsheets (too fragile, too manual).

Features

• Time-off management -- Request, approve, and track employee PTO with calendar integration
• Asset lifecycle management -- Track equipment from procurement through assignment to retirement
• Automated workflow routing -- Approval chains that route requests to the right people without manual forwarding
• Reporting and analytics -- Dashboards for utilization, availability, and resource allocation

Technical Stack

Built with a modern JavaScript stack:

• Frontend: React with component-based UI
• Backend: Node.js with Express
• Database: PostgreSQL for relational data
• Auth: Role-based access control

Status

Developed 2016-2019. The core concepts -- automated workflows, asset tracking, approval routing -- evolved into the workflow automation now running on the Elitebench platform through tools like n8n and Windmill.

The lessons from building Tangent directly informed how I approach automation today: start with the actual pain point, build the simplest thing that works, then iterate.