Co-Founder and Developer at Xams
Daniel Ensminger co-founded Xams (ExamManager), building exam timing and school exam-management software from classroom timer through SaaS dashboard.
Xams
I co-founded Xams with a close friend after we sat our iGCSE exams and kept hitting the same friction in how schools timed and coordinated papers. What started as ExamTimer grew into ExamManager — exam scheduling, classroom timing, and staff workflows for schools.
The original xams.app domain is no longer active. Auth and backend services are offline; the frontends stay up as a portfolio showcase across three Vercel deployments:

ExamTimer
Online Exam Timer product surface
exams-app-v1.vercel.app

ExamManager v2
Next.js dashboard · docs · billing
exams-app-v2.vercel.app

ExamManager v3
SaaS rewrite with classroom timing
exams-app-v3.vercel.app
Product Evolution
We iterated the product several times — from a focused classroom timer into a fuller exam manager, then a SaaS-shaped rewrite — before parking the stack as public demos.
- 01
ExamTimer
Classroom exam timer
- 02
ExamManager
Scheduling · dashboards
- 03
SaaS rewrite
Billing · accounts
- 04
Showcase
Portfolio demos on Vercel
Impact & Responsibilities
- Exam Timing: Built the classroom timer flow for reading time, writing time, extra time, and clear status feedback during live exams.
- Scheduling & Dashboards: Designed exam lists, create-exam flows, and student-facing views so schools could see what was running and what was next.
- School Operations: Worked on planning, presets, and collaboration features aimed at staff coordinating papers across subjects and rooms.
- Product Iteration: Shipped multiple generations of the product (Vue timer, Next.js App Router manager, and a later SaaS rewrite) as the scope grew.
- Data Model: Mapped the domain into a relational schema covering exams, timing options, and school-oriented entities.
Platform Demo
An early look at ExamTimer in a live classroom-style run:
Interface & Features
Product UI from the ExamManager / Online Exam Timer generations — dashboard, creation flow, student view, and pricing:






ExamManager dashboard
01 / 06
What I Learned
Building exam software for real school workflows taught me to keep timing states obvious under pressure, iterate the product shape as requirements grew, and leave a readable public trail when a product is retired — demos and screenshots that still show the craft without pretending the backends are live.