How to make 2018 a better year (for real) : choosing a new project management tool

Quick summary: As the organisation keeps developing, we need better ways to work together. This post presents 3 project management tools that - if happily adopted by everyone- could significantly improve the way we work (and make our lives much easier)

Between email, slack, trello, telegram and google docs - just to name a few of the tools we currently use- it is not easy to stay on track of everything. (Note, these are communication, not project management tools, except trello, which is actually rather limited)

I am sure I'm not the only one spending hours and hours trying to find the right information between the 150 telegram messages we get by the hour, chains of emails, and google docs.

We know that one of the major challenges of working on a distributed - decentralized organisation is having a central platform to aggregate all our work. However, I believe more can be done, both at community and 'global' level to improve the way we work in general, and therefore, make our lives easier.

At our last Summit in Munich, ** we discussed the need to improve our workflows, communication channels, documentation and security practices and overall visibility of projects.** We decided I was going to look for some options on how to solve these issues.

After some careful consideration and evaluation, I want to present the best 3 project management tools that - if happily adopted by everyone - could really make a difference in how we work together.

Of course there are many things to decide:

• Should each community take responsibility for the tools it uses or should we make it part of the commons?
  
• Should some project leaders test the tools and present their feedbacks to the community before choosing one?
• Should each project leader include the tool cost as part of their budget?

THE 3 MAGIC TOOLS

After a lot of research, I have selected these 3 tools:

1) ** Monday.com ** : focused on transparency and advanced collaboration.
No more spreadsheets. Just pure joy. See the video below, they explain it pretty well.

https://monday.com/features/

** Why I love it: **

• It's super easy to use and has a great design
  
• It comes with templates that save time and adjust to everyone's needs
• It has a nice project timeline, so we know how busy everyone is.
• We can chat and send files through each project, so all the info stays in one place
• It gives great visibility on all the projects, and once they are over they can be saved and stored but remain available for others to consult if needed, etc.
• It has a lot of security options, so only the right people get access to sensitive info
• It can be shared with clients, which makes us look super professional and improve our efficiency and communications with them.

To consider:
* We can get 50% discount. ** For a team of up to 100 it would cost 250 euros per month.**

2) Asana. Eliminates the need to use email and third-party apps for communication
https://asana.com/#close

** Why I like it: **

• It has a smart inbox – instead of tons of boring and unwanted messages, you only receive important project updates, and can convert them into actionable tasks the very same moment
• Asana is fun! When you complete a task, a unicorn/phoenix/ leaps about to help you celebrate.
• It gives a complete history of the tasks done and how they were done for each project, making it easier for future consultation.

To consider:
* Access is based on your shared email domain, so it relies on people in the team having the same email address structure.
* Price: Free for teams of up-to 15 members, then it costs ** 10 euros per user/per month ** (although it can be negotiable for larger teams like us)

3: Wrinkle. Improves the speed and efficiency of work in both co-located and distributed groups
https://www.wrike.com/tour/

** Why it's good **

• It gives reports on everyone's activities. The performance chart shows the ratio of planned and completed tasks, as well as how far behind a team is with their work.
• It has a really good approvals workflow (digital images, videos and documents, and you can invite guest users too)
• It's super secure as it has two-factor authentication

To consider:

Price: It's expensive, costing 25 euros per month per user

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FINAL COMMENTS:

It might look like it's an expensive endeavor, especially since we're used to use free tools, but I see this as a ** major investment with immediate returns.**
The tool itself won't be enough, ** for this to work we need commitment and a true will to change the way we work. We claim to be experts on new and better ways of working collaboratively, so let's lead by example and experiment with ourselves.**

Looking forward to your comments :)

If someone wants to have a chat, I'll be more than happy to explain in more detail why I chose those tools, etc. Also if you know other tools I'd be delighted talk about it.

PS: If you want more encouragement as to why we should break away from emails and spreadsheets, check this post. click here