HeronSpecs – Lab and Technical Project Tools

HeronSpecs is my personal project about how lab work and technical project management gets done — the structures, routines, and decisions that separate functional labs and projects from frustrating ones.

My book, The Organized Lab: A Note-Taking System for Research Teams, distills what I've learned from years inside academic labs and applied research environments, written for the people who work in 5–30 person labs and need a simple, yet efficient way of documenting their work.

Alongside the book, I've developed a small set of practical Obsidian tools — a Lab Management System, a Digital Lab Notebook, and a Lab Operations Toolkit — originally built to support lab teams in organizing experiments, lab workflows, and daily operations. I have also developed practical templates and guidelines to help technical project managers through project milestones and issues in the instrumentation industry.

These tools remain available free of charge to anyone who finds them useful. Just get in touch.

I'm Dr. Johanna Chantzos — a physicist, scientific writer and communicator based in Germany.

Explore my lab tools

Empowering scientists and technical teams with precision-designed toolkits for lab and project management.

Lab Operations for Obsidian

Manage instruments, maintenance, and inventory — all in one structured toolkit.
Keep your lab organized, traceable, and audit-ready with smart dashboards and logs.

Lab Management Tool for Obsidian

Combine research and lab operations in one integrated workspace.
Link experiments, instruments, and team members for full visibility and control.

Digital Lab Notebook for Obsidian

Track your experiments and research projects in a clean, connected Obsidian workspace.
Templates, dashboards, and data visualization — designed for scientists and engineers.

Further reading on lab management and research workflows:

• A simple way out of the lab mess: How researchers can manage their labs more efficiently

• The hidden factor behind good research: your note-taking system: A smarter way for applied sciences labs to track experiments and progress

• From measurements to management: Research dashboards for the modern lab

• Successful lab operations: Maintenance

• Successful lab operations: From orders to inventory control

• Successful lab operations: Installation, Inspection, Issues, and KPIs

• Who is Responsible for the Lab?

• Who Knows What in the Lab?

Video demonstration of the lab management tools:

The Digital Lab Notebook

The Lab Operations Tool

Explore my technical project management tools

Empowering scientists and technical teams with precision-designed toolkits for lab and project management.

Technical Project Management for Obsidian

A clean, structured workspace that streamlines every phase of the project lifecycle — with templates, linked notes, timelines, and smart checklists.

Technical Project Management for Notion

A clean, structured workspace that streamlines every phase of the project lifecycle — with templates, linked notes, timelines, and smart checklists.

Further reading on technical project management:

• What makes a good technical project manager: The simple skills and habits that make a real difference

• Why Your Technical Project Fails on Week One

• Hi, I'll Be the Technical Project Manager of Your System

• The Hidden Complexity of Technical Project Management: Common problems and how to handle them

The Organized Lab: A Note-Taking System for Research Teams

The HeronSpecs Book on how to manage research, operations and people to ensure scientific progress

Available on Amazon!

The Organized Lab: A Note-Taking System for Research Teams is a practical guide for researchers, lab managers, and tech professionals working in experimental labs of roughly 5 to 30 people. It walks through the four pillars of effective lab management — the What, the How, the Who, and the Digital Lab — and shows how a structured, flexible note-taking system can bring clarity, coordination, and continuity to daily lab work.

The book draws directly on the lab management tools and workflows developed under HeronSpecs, offering a tested, real-world framework that any lab can adapt — without expensive software, heavy IT infrastructure, or institutional buy-in.

Whether you work in physics, chemistry, materials science, or any instrumentation-heavy environment, this book is for you.

By Dr. Johanna Chantzos