It is important to have processes. I run DigiSavvy in Los Angeles, a WordPress development agency. I understand the importance of processes, workflows, procedures, and standards. I also know that I need a project management system and that I should read those books on Agile. I also know that I need to remove the nail from my car tire before it gets completely flat. However, I don’t always do the right thing, especially if it’s a pain in my neck. It’s necessary to do it at some point. Once you do it, your life will be much easier. Let me tell you. How We Managed Projects in Asana
We were once a happy, Asana-using creative store. It lasted a long time. We were even among the first ones to use it. Asana was simple and pretty, but not too simple. Everyone could quickly get on board and get the job done. However, no one did. I had to keep up with every task and detail. Asana was simple enough that it was difficult to use. However, Asana quickly became out of control and we had to return to simple emails and text messages. We had to go back to text messages and emails at one point. I learned to live with this chaos for a long time. But I knew there had got to be a better way. There were many project management tools on the market, so I knew there had to be a better way. This was a challenge that I learned over the years. How can you provide enough utility without making your users feel overwhelmed by features they may never use?ActiveCollab did it after redesigning their product. They created a tool that was both functional and form-based, with the end in sight. They understood that their customers want to be able to manage projects efficiently without getting bogged down by communication or features. The experience was flawlessly executed by the team. It was refreshing to use ActiveCollab for our first project. Tweet this. We all were on the same page right from the beginning. Our team was up and running within minutes of switching to ActiveCollab. One of our customers was fed up with the project status updates and left an incoherent voicemail. We had a private discussion in ActiveCollab about how to approach each project and how to improve our workflow. It was a success and helped us manage our projects better.
We have both internal projects (where we keep our agency initiatives, things we’re currently working on) as well as client projects. Each week we have a private kickoff discussion where we discuss each project. We discuss what’s happening, what happened, as well as what’s next. We use Notes a lot. There are project briefs and information about the scope. They are not a fully-featured wiki but they don’t need to be. We need a place where we can post project information so that it’s always accessible to everyone. ActiveCollab Stopwatch (a time tracking app) has helped us calculate project profit and identify the areas where we spend most time. Time tracking allows us to estimate projects more accurately because we know exactly how long a similar task will take. It was eye-opening to see how each project and task affected our bottom lines. ActiveCollab is also used for onboarding clients and contractors. We have templates for creating project templates and templates for teaching.
