From entrepreneurs to seasoned agencies, more and more people are making use of practical management tools. However, those who are highly motivated to sign up for dozens of tools do not automatically become more productive as a result. Lea from elsch&fink, a WordPress agency based in Münster, offers an insight into her everyday life and reveals which tools help her to keep her business perfectly under control.
Trello, Moco, Basecamp, Asana, Dapulse, ActiveCollab, Wrike, Zapier, Jira, Taskworld, Freedcamp, Slack, Zenkit and co.: these are neither underground bands nor Pokémon, but apps and management tools that are designed to make our lives easier.
Organization and management are important for web projects of any size. But tools alone cannot work miracles. Only those who familiarize themselves extensively with a new tool and integrate it into their natural workflow can use it profitably, productively and in a time-saving manner.
That's why today I'm giving you an insight into our everyday agency life at elsch&fink and tell you which tools we use and how to ...
- ...inspiration and input
- ...internal communication
- ...our project management
... efficiently and sensibly.
1. collect fresh ideas and recognize trends
If you design websites that look like they were created in 1998, customers will flee in droves. Designers and concept developers have to create their designs in tune with the times, recognize trends and at the same time stand out from the crowd. People in the digital industry in particular thrive on constant input in order to develop unusual and new ideas.
But even if you are responsible for technology, programming or usability, you should be aware of the latest security updates, freshly uncovered WordPress attack surfaces or the latest findings from user research.
A simple and extremely practical tool for collecting interesting articles is Feedly. Even in the free version, you can follow up to 100 publications and blogs and create topic-specific news feeds. This way, you always get all the content from your favorite sources bundled and delivered in real time.
The bottom line is that if you do your job well and stay on the ball, you will be confronted with tons of content every day. But where do you keep what you find particularly useful?
Get a handle on the flood of information with note-taking apps
For many entrepreneurs and web professionals, note-taking apps such as Evernote or OneNote have proven their worth. With these practical tools, you can organize and directly edit your ideas, notes and content that you come across in newsletters, feeds and the like. By synchronizing across all your devices, you can also capture spontaneous ideas and contacts in one central location when you're on the go.
To share interesting content in a large group or with specific colleagues, we use our internal communication tool at the agency, which I will come back to in a moment.
Basically, it doesn't matter whether you record your finds and ideas in an app, your browser's bookmarks or a good old notebook.
The main thing is that you not only retain new insights, but also process them and transfer them to your business.
After all, if you miss out on the latest trends and developments, you could soon find yourself out of business.
2. save time and nerves with efficient communication
Especially in digital business, it is important to be able to communicate quickly, flexibly and reliably with your team and your customers. In many cases, email can no longer achieve this.
We all know the problem of completely overflowing inboxes in which important emails get hopelessly lost among spam, newsletters and circulars from the internal mailing list.
The solution: a chat tool for internal communication. A communication tool offers enormous added value, particularly for brief inquiries, spontaneous changes or information for specific teams.
Short and fast communication channels thanks to Slack
At the agency, we only use the messaging tool Slack. Also in the WordPress community all agreements, meetings and projects are managed entirely via Slack. The messenger has also already established itself at large companies, agencies and freelancers proven.
The advantages of Slack at a glance:
- The inbox remains free for important e-mails from customers and cooperation partners.
- All messages are documented centrally. For example, we have gotten into the habit of posting short minutes in the corresponding Slack channel after meetings.
- With topic-specific chat channels, everyone ideally only receives relevant messages and is less distracted from work.
- Silly videos, GIFs and co. are bundled together in one place: the "leisure channel".
Even a chat tool harbors productivity pitfalls
With a messenger like Slack, a team can only be as fast and flexible as the slowest team member allows. For this reason, the introduction of a new tool should be well planned and discussed with the entire team.
Finding the optimal number of Slack channels is another challenge. With too many channels, there is a risk that many things will be discussed twice and communication will not be much more efficient than with emails. Too few channels, on the other hand, will lead to you being distracted by many messages that are not relevant to you.
To avoid these mistakes, the entire communication structure should be regularly evaluated and adapted.
3. how we tame the project management beast with just two tools
We could fill entire books on how a start-up agency tries to get to grips with its own project management. Project management is extremely extensive and a field of expertise in its own right.
The purpose of a project management tool is always to centralize the planning and organization of tasks.
In order for the team to work efficiently, each member needs an overview: Where does the project stand? What needs to be done and who is responsible? Are we still on budget? You will quickly reach your limits without a tool, especially for projects with multiple WordPress sites.
You won't find the perfect tool overnight
In addition to fully-fledged and highly complex tools such as Redbooth and Basecamp there are also leaner alternatives on the market, including Trello, Hygger and the like. These are particularly suitable if you don't want to struggle with complex functions or avoid a steep learning curve.
For very basic requirements, a tool that allows tasks to be defined, deadlines to be set and responsible persons to be assigned, for example in the form of checklists, is usually sufficient. In addition, all team members should have simultaneous local and mobile access.
We started with the analog paper system, got bogged down in chaos, tested various tools (Jira too complicated, Asana too simple at the time, Basecamp somehow not our thing, ActiveCollab good, but not good enough) and finally settled on a combination of Trello and Moco ended up with a combination of Trello and Moco.
Moco helps with acquisition, time tracking and billing
We use Moco as a...
- ... very simple system for CRM to store addresses and link them to projects.
- ... acquisition tool for creating and managing offers. This allows us to keep track of the progress of our acquisition processes.
- ... tracking tool for our projects: This allows us to keep an eye on the budget of individual projects at all times.
The use of Moco is relatively self-explanatory and requires little training. Trello is a little different, however.
Trello helps with task management
Trello is basically a tool for to-do lists, the structure of which can be imagined as a collection of large pinboards: each pinboard (called a "board" in Trello) is a project. Lists with individual cards hang on it. Each card has a task on it, which you can assign a deadline and a team member.
The secret of Trello: the Kanban principle
Just like Hygger, Trello is based on the Kanban system, which originally comes from Japan. "Kanban" means something like "shield, card". The purpose of the whole thing is to keep processes as lean, agile and fast as possible.
The idea behind it is quite simple:
- Maps: A project is broken down into tasks. A map is created for each individual task.
- Lists: Lists are created on the project board, which are usually called "To Do", "In progress" and "Done". The system can of course be supplemented, e.g. with a "Waiting for feedback" list.
- ProcessingTeams and employees now independently pull cards from "To Do", move them to "In progress" and after completion of the work package to "Done".
This way of working means that everyone involved always has an overview of the current status of a project. The high level of personal responsibility also keeps team members motivated.
To prevent congestion in the process, everyone is only allowed to work on a limited number of tasks. Where bottlenecks become apparent, flexible restructuring is required. Regular status meetings support communication within the team.
Trello also works without Kanban
The Kanban system is particularly suitable for smaller projects. When we create large and complex WordPress websites, a single board is not enough. We would need so many different boards that the individual teams would no longer have an overview. And if we had a separate board for each team, no one would be able to keep track of the overall project.
That's why we don't actually use Trello according to the Kanban principle, but instead create lists by work area, for example design, information architecture, text, technology and project management. We exchange what is currently being worked on in regular meetings.
No matter how you end up using Trello: Agree with your team on a consistent way of using it. If one colleague in a project creates lists according to the Kanban system and the other cross-pins topic-specific tasks, no one is helped. Trello only has added value if everyone works according to the same system.
Conclusion: the right application is crucial
What you shouldn't do now is rush off and sign up for Moco, Trello or Slack just because you've read this. Such tools are only useful if you use them sensibly. In other words, a tool must either help you save time or significantly improve a process for it to be worth using.
Some things, such as the use of an internal chat tool, are relatively straightforward. Other tools require the user to be familiar with relevant background processes and methods. You should always weigh up this effort against the benefits. Do you have any tips for using management tools such as Trello and the like? I look forward to your comments!
