How to Find the Right Project Management Tool
From: "Help! My Business is Growing" Podcast
A growing business will have a handful of projects underway on any given day.
You might be in the process of recruiting new team members, launching a new marketing initiative, and so on. And as more and more things get added to your plate, proper project management can help you avoid the overwhelm. It allows you and your team to conceptualize, outline and implement the steps to take - down to the last detail if needed - to get things done.
However, even the most stellar project managers can use a helping hand to stay organized and systematic via the right tools and apps. Should you choose to use a project management tool, finding the right one is crucial to your success. While a good tool can increase productivity and motivate your team, a bad one can slow down progress and waste time and resources.
In this episode of Help! My Business Is Growing, our guest Meagan Beltekoglu unlocks how you can take advantage and harness the power of productivity tools to ensure the continued growth of your business.
Meagan, a Certified Director of Operations and Vetted ClickUp Consultant and expert, shares her love for breaking big visions down into focused, manageable projects and tasks using her favorite productivity tool - ClickUp!
In this week's episode, we discuss:
03:57 What are the common issues, struggles, or tipping points for businesses to decide to use a project management tool?
09:11 What are some of the challenges when using Asana?
17:11 What is the easiest way to implement ClickUp and what are the common mistakes businesses make when trying to implement it?
22:38 Are there other ClickUp "must-use" features that can prove to be extra valuable to project managers and businesses?
38:40 What is the next tangible step that business owners and founders can take today to get them closer to or as-near a perfect state of project management in their business?
Listen to the podcast here:
"Values are important. I always recommend checking out the about page of any business and checking up there who they are, what they do, why they do it." - Meagan Beltekoglu
What are the common issues, struggles, or tipping points for businesses to use a project management tool?
1. Using the wrong tool, particularly spreadsheets (Excel or Google Sheets), to manage everything, including major projects. Problems when using the wrong tool:
Takes so much time and effort for customization.
Team members don't continually update the status of tasks.
No timestamping features.
Enabling automation is clunky and time-consuming.
Integrations with other tools are disjointed.
2. Not having an organizational process or system or any management tools at all.
What are some of the challenges when using Asana or other apps?
Hundreds of apps are available to help businesses achieve their project management objectives. And this is a big win for business owners because the variety will help accommodate the different ways people think. However, managers still encounter barriers when working with other apps, including:
High cost / Prohibitive pricing
Some people find Asana and other apps expensive compared to Clickup, and many also check and use free plans to test the waters.
Missing or wrong features
Sometimes apps don't have the features you need, or they might have many features, but none are the right fit. This, of course, ties in with the way organizations or team members think or process work.
Mismatched values
Businesses thrive when they work with companies that match their values. The same goes for the tools and apps you use. If you can't connect with their company values, they might not be a fit for you.
What is the easiest way to implement ClickUp and what are the common mistakes businesses make when trying to implement it?
1. Have a strategic plan in place.
Going in without a plan is the biggest mistake you can make when using ClickUp.
Think about what you actually want to see in your ClickUp
List down all your goals and key objectives
Organize and group like things together
Outline everything you need to do and the workflows
Think out the structure
Take some time to learn about its features such as using custom fields and views, task location features (breadcrumbs), etc.
2. Watch all the onboarding videos produced by ClickUp.
Their short videos are full of easily digestible tips and information that give a great overview and feel for the company and the platform and some of the things you can do with the app.
3. Check out ClickUp's Help section.
Take advantage of their free videos, webinars, tutorials, and extensive help docs to get you going.
Are there other ClickUp "must-use" features that can prove to be extra valuable to project managers and businesses?
Favorites!
Super basic but often overlooked.
If you have documents or folders that you find yourself going often, add them to your favorites. There is no need to dig around all your files and more to find it, saving you so much time and stress.
Task location (breadcrumbs)
Simply turn it on and you'll immediately know where to look for tasks as well as see where they are in context with the whole project.
"As humans, we just tend to make things unnecessarily complex. And just stepping back and focusing on the essentials can really provide so much clarity in all different areas of our lives." - Meagan Beltekoglu
What is the next tangible step that business owners and founders can take today to get them closer to or as-near-a-perfect state of project management in their business?
BE CONSISTENT!
You can set up your tools, be it ClickUp and other integrations easily, but you need to update daily and consistently, be it entering new tasks, cleaning up your inbox, and more, or else these tools won't get you anywhere.
Without consistency and dedication to that consistency, you'll slowly revert to how you were always doing things before the app.
ProTip: Finding a coach or consultant during this initial phase can help you provide that consistency and keep you accountable to stay committed.
We go in-depth with this topic and more over at the podcast. Listen here:
To Recap:
1. When the lack of correct organizational processes or systems, like using clunky spreadsheets to manage major tasks, for example, begins to undermine productivity and efficiency, that's when businesses start to use project management tools.
2. Different value systems, prohibitive pricing, and not having enough - or having the wrong - features are some of the challenges businesses face when choosing other project management tools.
3. To quickly integrate ClickUp or any other project management tool into your business, come up with a strategic plan on how to structure your ClickUp and what you want to see in there and, of course, what you want to achieve.
4. Don't underestimate or ignore even the most basic of features, for example, the favorites or task location features. They will save you time from searching for your files, and you can also see their status or what stage they are in the project immediately.
5. Starting today, strive to be consistent when working with new productivity or project management too. It will immediately make a difference in your growing business.
About Meagan Beltekoglu
Meagan Beltekoglu is a Certified Director of Operations and Vetted ClickUp Consultant who helps women-owned small businesses and agencies with the back end of their businesses so that they can spend more time making a difference in the world.
She thinks creating standard operating procedures is fun and loves breaking big visions down into focused, manageable projects and tasks using her favorite productivity tool - ClickUp!
A ClickUp expert, she applies her love for strategy, planning, and project management to every aspect of her life from her children's homeschooling to her basement remodeling to her client work. She's also a Jersey-born obsessive researcher, infovore, birdwatcher, and homeschooling mother of 3 living in Pennsylvania.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/newleafdigital
Website: https://www.newleafdigital.net/
Other Resources mentioned in the episode:
ClickUp: https://clickup.com/
Asana: https://asana.com/
Trello: https://trello.com/en
Jira: https://jira.atlassian.com/
Miro: https://miro.com/
Freedom.to: https://freedom.to/
Matter: https://hq.getmatter.app/
by Kathy Svetina
Kathy is a Fractional CFO and the founder and director of NewCastle Finance LLC. She is a financial puzzle solver, focusing on women-owned businesses, providing financial insights needed for a healthy and sustainable business.