One of the challenges of running a small creative business is managing not just the client work, but also the internal products, half-developed ideas, experiments, things waiting for the right moment and things that probably need to be abandoned but never quite are.
Most project management tools are excellent at helping you organise the tasks inside a project. They are far less useful when the question is not “what needs doing next on this project?” but rather “across everything I could be working on right now, what actually deserves my attention?”
That was the original reason I built Project Command Centre.
Where it started
It began as a way to bring all my projects and ideas into one place, give them some structure and create a clearer picture of what was active, what had stalled and what still had enough value to keep.
By pulling together work that had previously been scattered across Notion, Trello, Google Docs, ChatGPT and other tools, I could score each project against things like effort, risk, strategic fit and commercial potential, then compare ideas that would otherwise have remained in completely separate parts of the business.
The public demo still shows that original idea. The internal version has since moved quite a long way beyond it.
What it has become
Project Command Centre is now connected through MCP, which means I can work with the same project information from ChatGPT, Claude and Notion, rather than opening the dashboard every time I want to update something or ask a wider question about the business.
That changes the role of the system quite significantly. Instead of simply storing project records, it gives AI a structured view of the whole portfolio, including the projects, their status, recent activity, notes, decisions and next actions. From there, it becomes possible to ask more meaningful questions about the bigger picture.
Which projects have been neglected?
Where is too much effort being spent?
Which ideas actually support the current direction of the business?
What needs a decision and what should probably be parked so something more valuable can move forward?
That strategic overview is the part I find most useful, because the problem was never just that information was scattered, it was that it was difficult to step back from the daily work and see how all of it fitted together.
Where it is heading
The system is also becoming the foundation for the Made Grand Growth Engine, designed to take what is already happening inside the business and turn it into something that can be used practically. A completed project, a technical solution, a client outcome or an internal product experiment should not simply disappear into an archive. It should become a case study, a LinkedIn post, a website update, a follow-up action or the starting point for something grander.
The important distinction is that none of this begins with a blank AI prompt. It begins with real project context and a clear understanding of what the business has actually been doing.
That, for me, is where AI becomes genuinely useful to a small business. Not as another standalone tool producing isolated pieces of content, but as something working with a structured view of the projects, ideas and decisions already shaping the company.
What’s next
Project Command Centre is still an internal Made Grand product and I am not opening it up as a public platform just yet. But I think there is real value in sharing how it is developing, particularly for other small business owners, founders and people managing several different projects who recognise the same problem.
I am putting together a landing page where people will be able to explore the concept, try the public demo and register their interest in testing future versions. The aim is to collect useful feedback without turning it into another platform that needs constant management before it is ready.
The public demo shows where Project Command Centre started. The more interesting question now is where it could go.
Explore the demo: https://ppc-demo.madegrand.co.uk
Join the early access list or share feedback: https://pcc.madegrand.co.uk/
If you're planning an MVP or early-stage product and want to make sure the foundations are right before you build, we're happy to talk it through.
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