Posts by Lionel Valdellon

Leadership 3 min read

3 Ways to Better Manage Freelance Creatives

If you're a creative team working with freelancers, then according to the 2014 In-House Creative Industry Report, you're in the 90% of all creative teams that will hire remote freelancers this year to meet peak demand. But as with any remote work situation, there are challenges to making it work. While remote work may be ideal for introverted creatives who perform best in silence and isolation, projects remain collaborative efforts. Feedback needs to go both ways: your freelancers need to proactively communicate with the team for better coordination, and your team needs to support and engage freelancers on a human level to create camaraderie. So how do you make the situation conducive to creativity and out-of-the-box thinking? Take a look at the Slideshare below for advice on how creative teams and freelancers can work better together: 3 Tips for Creative Teams Working with Remote Colleagues Learned something new today? Share this Slideshare on social media, or repost it on your own blog using this embed code: 3 Tips for Creative Teams Working with Remote Colleagues from Wrike Need More Tips on Managing Creatives? Download our free eBook: The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency. The eBook gives a detailed plan for growing & enhancing your company with an internal creative team, including what support you’ll need to get there.

Project Management 5 min read

5 Project Management Warnings from The Shining

The Shining can present us with five very distinct warnings about how we should properly manage our teams and our projects — unless you want people to start angrily chasing one another while brandishing kitchen knives.

Collaboration 5 min read

Your Workplace is Scarier Than a Horror Movie

Happy Halloween! If you really want horror stories, forget Stephen King. You need look no further than your own workplace!

Productivity 3 min read

3 Reasons You're Unproductive at Work (Work Management Roundup)

So it's the Friday before Halloween, and while the rest of the United States is busy screening reruns of Freddy Krueger's and Jason Voorhees' greatest flicks, we discovered this week that your stressful job is literally killing you, and your inability to be productive at work is lowering your efficiency. Welcome to this week's terror-filled edition of the Work Management Roundup! 3 Ways You're Screwing Up Your Productivity at Work (Business Insider): The 2015 Work Management Report revealed the top three productivity mistakes. Here's how to avoid those mistakes and reclaim your day. Your Stressful Job is Literally Killing You (Washington Post): A new study by researchers at Harvard and Stanford has quantified just how much a stressful workplace may be shaving off of Americans' life spans. 3 Tips for Maximizing Your Happiness at Work (Inc): Happiness at work lies not in getting everything done (an impossible task, I might add), but rather, setting boundaries to avoid overflowing your to-do list. The WorkingMemory.txt File Hack (Study Hacks): Cal Newport demonstrates a simple way to work through a block of admin tasks: use a simple text file to capture, organize, and ultimately clarify all relevant information — leaving your brain free to execute. Is a Solid Customer Experience Enough to Ensure Customer Loyalty? (Forbes): Apparently the answer is no. The customer will always say "who cares?" about your service until you make a good enough impression on them. Which is why you need to give them a reason to keep coming back. 15 Customer Retention Strategies that Work (Help Scout): And if you're looking for concrete ways to put the above into action, here are 15 strategies, divided into 5 groups: communication, reciprocity, selling, support, and loyalty programs. The 3 Ways My Kids Give Me an Edge as an Entrepreneur (Medium): Is starting a family while starting a company a bad idea? Not according to this CEO who explains how his family motivates him to be a better entrepreneur. The Lying Down Desk (FastCo Exist): The entire standing desk frenzy has officially cooled down, with studies saying it isn't necessarily any better than sitting. But this new invention will probably be the nail in the coffin. Presenting: the lying down desk. Doesn't this remind you of the hoverbeds that the humans in Wall-E rode? More Work Management Reads Think About This: Screw Finding Your Passion (Mark Manson) How Our Tech Addiction—And Constant Distraction—Is A Solvable Design Problem (FastCo Exist) Why Too Much Choice Is Stressing Us Out (The Guardian) Founders, It's Not 1990. Stop Treating Your Employees Like It Is (Medium) Go Try This: Calculate how many other people have the same education, income, work hours, and commute as you do (Flowing Data) How to Foster Collaboration on Social Media (Inc) 10 Free and Paid Online Resources for Learning Creative Skills (Wrike) 5 Ways to Learn and Remember Absolutely Anything (Inc) Browse The Work Management Roundup on Flipboard If you use Flipboard on your mobile device, then you can choose to read these links via The Work Management Roundup magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine.

Collaboration 7 min read

Understanding the New Work Rules [Part 2 of 2]

Trying to list all the various ways that work has evolved in the last two decades would be impossible so instead, here is part 2 of the 10 rules which should help anyone navigate the constantly shifting waters of work. Think of these as the new work rules — our 21st Century Work Rules.

Marketing 5 min read

10 Free and Paid Online Resources for Learning Creative Skills

Whether you’re working as an advertising/marketing professional, freelancing in graphic design, or a hobbyist photographer, there's always something new you can learn in order to enhance your creative skill set. So instead of wasting time on social media or cat videos (my favorite), why not check out these recommended online resources that can help you learn new, creative skills? And sometimes, flexing your muscles in unfamiliar territory may be just the spark you need to give a little 'Oomph!' to your daily problem solving and creativity. Online Resources for Learning New Creative Skills Free resources 1. edX: It was tough deciding which of the three to include on this list: edX, Coursera, or Khan Academy. edX won out because of its wider range of courses on Design, Art & Culture, and even Music Production. Courses are totally free, however they are not on-demand. Like a brick-and-mortar school, they have start and end dates and must be accomplished within the allotted time. 2. FutureLearn: Owned by The Open University, FutureLearn offers free courses in everything from business and law to literature, history, health, science, language, and of course, a lot of creative arts & media (e.g. storytelling, songwriting, fiction writing). Again, courses are not on-demand; they have set start and end dates. 3. Tuts+ Free Tutorials: In a sub-section of the larger Tuts+ website, they offers free (and short) tutorials on specific creative tasks under categories, such as coding, web design, photo/video, music/audio, motion graphics, and business. 4. Instructables: Ever wanted to make your own geeky Halloween costume or build a security camera from a 3-D printed body and a Raspberry Pi CPU? Instructables is where you'll find the detailed, photographed instructions to accomplish your unique do-it-yourself projects. Comes with a built-in quirky creative community to support your every project! 5. Smashing Magazine: A well-known online magazine for web developers and designers focusing on coding, design, mobile, graphics, UX, and Wordpress. Aside from niche articles tackling everything from web standards to gorgeous wallpapers, there is also an abundance of tutorials to help you accomplish step-by-step tasks. Paid resources 6. Udemy: Despite this being more of a general online learning resource, don't discount Udemy's huge bank of design, photography, and music courses. Every so often they even have site-wide promos that discount all courses to around $10. A good starting point for any education. 7. Lynda.com: A true holdover from before Web 2.0, Lynda is possibly the most well-known online tutorial website. Partly because it covers such a wide breadth of topics, from web development to design, from animation and video, to music and audio. They even have courses in business and education. You'll need to be a member to gain access, and membership starts at about $20/month. 8. CreativeLive: Dozens of creative classes segmented by interest: audio, crafts, art/design, photo/video, money/life. The beautiful thing about this site is that on-air classes can be enjoyed for FREE. But on-demand access to it will cost you anywhere from $20-$99, depending on course length and complexity. 9. Curious: Their name explains a lot. This is a site created so you can indulge your curiosity and learn a thing or two on a wide variety of topics. Under their free plan you can take a new free lesson everyday — choose from hundreds of courses broadcast over 10 channels that include crafts, music, photos, and more. But with a monthly or annual subscription, you get the whole shebang, including mobile access and an ad-free experience. 10. Treehouse: This resource is specifically for those who want to learn web design and web development, with courses centered around programming languages like PHP, Ruby, HTML, CSS, Wordpress, and even mobile app platforms. Basic plans begin at $29/month. What will you learn this month? Keep learning new skills and encourage the rest of your teammates to join you on the journey. It's a great way to add to your skill set as well as bring more expertise to your organization. For actionable strategies on growing your internal creative team into a world-class agency, please download our free eBook, available now. Photo Credit: iVincent by JD Hancock on Flickr. Some rights reserved, changes made.

Productivity 5 min read

Telecommuting Leads to Decreased Job Satisfaction (Work Management Roundup)

Fourteen years ago today, Apple introduced the very first iPod at the staggering price of $399 and basically disrupted the way we purchase and consume music. It may not be hoverboards or "Jaws 19" (sorry, Back to the Future II), but at least we have portable music libraries in our pockets and virtual reality goggles. And furthermore, the way we do our work today is a definite improvement from the way our parents worked 30 years ago. Which only means we're on the right path. So let's keep creating those disruptive technologies and improving the way we work. Our weekly roundup gives you some tips on how to work smartly, lead humanely, and manage excellently! A Lesson in Negotiation (Lenny): A little over a week ago, Hollywood actress Jennifer Lawrence penned an essay for Lenny, the feminist newsletter run by Lena Dunham, explaining how she failed at negotiating for a better salary because she didn't want to appear spoiled or difficult. Lesson: know your worth and fight for it. Translating Quotes into Woman Speak (Washington Post): To illustrate exactly how difficult it is for women to speak honestly in the workplace, Alexandra Petri of The Washington Post tried converting famous historical quotes into how a woman would have to say them in a meeting to be taken seriously. Eye-opening, to say the least. Good Managers Know How to Listen (Entrepreneur): Speaking is only half the equation. Matt Mayberry over on Entrepreneur writes: If you can listen properly, you'll be a better leader. And not the "pretend" listening you do when you're on the phone while Mom shares neighborhood gossip. You need to practice careful, invested listening where egos are set aside so that the needs of the one speaking can be addressed. Young Entrepreneur Mistakes (Fortune): In Fortune Magazine, Wrike CEO Andrew Filev talks about the common mistakes that young entrepreneurs make. The best bit: "If your gut and your data are telling you the same thing, it’s time to listen. Don’t let burning all your cash be the thing that brings you down." A photo posted by Wrike (@wriketeam) on Oct 21, 2015 at 3:42pm PDT The Dark Cloud Around Remote Work (Fusion): We all know working from home is a growing trend worldwide as companies seek to save money leasing office space and workers seek to avoid horribly long commutes. But an article on Fusion.net shows new research that is casting doubt on the benefits of telecommuting. Their telecommuting productivity statistics say that people who telecommute 2 days a week experience decreased productivity and job satisfaction. So the advice now is: only work from home in small doses, and make sure your working-from-home equipment is up to scratch. Top Jobs with the Best Work-Life Balance (Fast Company): If you're dissatisfied with your current job and you're looking for a job that gives you the work-life balance you crave, then check out this Fast Company article. It lists the top 25 jobs with the best work-life balance. Although if you really want to reclaim control of your life, you could simply follow the Mayo Clinic's advice for workaholics. No One Cares How Much You Work (99U): Whether you work in an office or in your garage, please don't confuse effort with results. Oliver Burkeman over at 99U writes,"if you’re judging your output at the end of the work day by your level of tiredness, you’re sure to be misled". There's a difference between simply doing busywork and working smartly to get results! More Work Management Reads Think About This: How a Former Factory Worker Built a $7 Billion Fortune (Medium) Making the most of your 5–9: Why You Need to Take Microadventures to Stay Inspired (Medium) 10 Simple Practices for an Uncreative Life (Medium) Go Try This: 5 Reasons You Should Be Podcasting Right Now (LinkedIn) How to Have the Perfect Workday (Infographic) (Wrike) 6 Sleep Habits of Productive People (Fast Company) Browse Productivity Works on Flipboard If you use Flipboard on your laptop or mobile, then you'll enjoy our magazine on productivity tips. Check out Productivity Works or click on the widget below: View my Flipboard Magazine.

Leadership 3 min read

How Big Data Gives You Smarter Insights

As someone once said, the problem with Big Data is that it's... well, BIG. Long before the term exploded into the vocabulary of the general public in mid-2011, industries everywhere have delighted in the fact that Big Data can provide them with much-needed insight. By looking for Big Data both internally and externally, organizations can gain the intelligence needed to become more responsive to customer needs, stand out from their competition, and ultimately, be more profitable. Here's a quick look at the four qualities of Big Data that make it a unique tool for generating actionable business insight: Volume: Why Big Data is Big Everyday, people are spending huge chunks of time working and socializing in the digital world, which generates an enormous amount of data. According to a 2014 infographic by DOMO, every minute there are 277,000 tweets posted to Twitter, 216,000 photos uploaded to Instagram, and 8,333 videos shared on Vine. Now imagine being able to tap into all of that social activity to identify how consumers are finding your website online, or how much time they spend using your SaaS tool on a weekday. That's what Big Data is about — allowing users to access this mind-boggling volume of information and then process it in order to pinpoint actionable items. Variety: Handling Structured and Unstructured Data Generally, structured data is information that's highly organized and easy to search using straightforward search engine algorithms. A concrete example would be spreadsheets — information is presented in columns and rows, making it easy to search and sort. Unstructured data, on the other hand, is the opposite. It usually consists of human-generated and people-oriented content that may not fit neatly into database tables. The best example of unstructured data: email. Let's face it, information in email is chaotic. If you had to force all the data in your inbox into the grids of a spreadsheet, you'd soon understand the problem. And yet, Big Data can do so much more using both structured and unstructured data. There are newer, better machine learning algorithms that can differentiate signal from noise. Look at Google Flu Trends, which is able to predict the number of flu cases in a certain country based on search data surrounding keywords such as "flu," as opposed to relying directly on health reports. It's one example of how Big Data can parse even unstructured data (e.g. web searches), resulting in a useful tool. Velocity: Delivering Insights in a Snap Moore's Law states that the overall processing power of computers doubles every two years. As technology's capacity grows exponentially, it allows Big Data to deliver insight to its users at a greater velocity. Data is generated in real time, so users can demand actionable information in real time. A decade ago, this would have been impossible. But today, it's a reality that is opening new doors. Value: The Goal is Intelligence All this comes back to the fact no organization collects data just for the sake of having data. They're doing it to derive actionable insight. This is the value you want to extract. And it will only happen if all three previous V's are addressed in equal measure: volume, variety, and velocity. How has Big Data helped you and your organization? Hit the comments and tell us.

News 3 min read

Presenting: the New Wrike Dublin Office

The new Dublin, Ireland office officially opened today, October 21st, with a fitting celebration involving Minister of State at the Department of Finance Eoghan Murphy TD, our CEO Andrew Filev, and many guests and neighbors from the Dublin tech community.

Collaboration 7 min read

Navigating the New Work Rules [Part 1 of 2]

Change is swift. And technology has truly disrupted how we work. At the risk of massive generalization, we've condensed the various ways work has changed and discovered ten succinct work rules which should aid anyone trying to navigate the modern workplace. Welcome to the 21st century!

Collaboration 5 min read

Using Google Forms Templates for Instant Feedback

Sometimes you just need to get the opinions of other people really quickly. And as they say, “there’s an app for that.” Google Forms is one such tool that gives you a convenient way to create forms from scratch or from templates.

News 3 min read

Every Startup Needs a Market: The Wrike Story

Every business needs to understand its market before it builds its products. Startups must provide a solution that no one else is providing, to ease a pain point that is real and relevant. Ideally the solution is so meaningful that customers fall all over themselves to pay for it. In an April 2014 Inc.com article, digital product strategist Neil Cabage named this the number one criterion that every new startup must consider. But how? This is where professional market research comes in to help you figure out if there is a real market need for your product or service. And while access to research information may not come cheap, there are other ways to get a pulse on your audience, such as conducting informal surveys and polls. The alternative is failure. If a business doesn't have a market, or doesn't know who it will be marketing to, it will flounder trying to find an audience. If they find one in time, luck is on their side. If not, they will likely close their doors. Answering the Need for an Efficient Collaboration Tool Let's take the example of our own company. When Wrike started out as a small side project of CEO Andrew Filev's, it had a built-in market already: itself. From a recent profile article on Forbes: "We started as a collaboration and project-management vendor and then as we were working on managing our clients’ projects, we realized the need for something bigger. We needed a tool to help us collaborate better. So we created Wrike to solve our own problem,” says Filev. The great thing was, the need for a more efficient collaboration platform wasn't just specific to Wrike and its initial customers. It was, and still is, a common enough problem among fast-moving companies, so much so that customers actually raise their hands to get onboard. Again, from the Forbes article: Most of Wrike’s customers come through word-of-mouth and online. They don’t have to cold-call businesses. And while they have a tiered subscription model to fit any budget, most of Wrike’s customers come straight to their Professional or Enterprise Plans because they already have experienced the pain that comes with project management and are ready to try new tools to make them more effective and efficient. If your startup identifies a market need, and can provide a solution that solves that problem, you're one step closer to success. The only thing missing is: get that product out ASAP! Read the full Forbes article here: Andrew Filev's Wrike Wants to Bring Project Management and Collaboration to the Masses Image credits: "Customer" by 10ch on Flickr.

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Lionel Valdellon