Introducing Our New Customer-Focused Series: Championing Change

September 12, 2023 - 3 min read

Emily Westbrooks

What we hear time and again from our customers is that they love to learn how other people use Wrike. While we’ve shared hundreds of organizational use cases and customer stories that give you a macro perspective of how Wrike can help your company thrive, we know our customers also want to know the nitty-gritty details of how Wrike will affect their team’s day-to-day workflows.

So today we’re introducing a new series called Championing Change, where we get an inside view into the specific ways Wrike impacts people’s daily work. We’ll highlight the features each user relies on to increase productivity, eliminate roadblocks, and create processes that make their work lives easier.

Whenever I’m on a Zoom call with a colleague and they offer to share their screen to show something they’re doing in Wrike, I’m fascinated. Watching someone else in action using Wrike is simply the best way to imagine how you can use it to your advantage. Even working at Wrike, we benefit from gathering ideas for new use cases from our colleagues, and we’re excited to share the ways you can too.

To kick off the series, we get a peek inside Jennifer Mariotti’s Wrike processes. Jennifer is the Global Head of Creative and Design at Circana, a media company with around 5,000 employees. She did considerable research into work management platforms that would work best for her creative teams. When her team doubled in size, she was able to easily onboard new team members to Wrike — an experience that left her impressed with the platform’s ability to scale when necessary.

In her day-to-day work, Jennifer leans hard on Wrike’s dashboards to create seamless workflows with high visibility into her teams’ workloads and progress. And as part of a creative team, she uses Wrike’s in-app proofing tools so she doesn’t have to download files, mark them up, then re-upload to send them on for approvals.

We encourage you to read the full infographic to learn more about how Jennifer uses Wrike’s project management tools to help her creative team deliver results.

And check back regularly for more insight into how our customers use Wrike in our new Championing Change series!

Emily Westbrooks

Emily Westbrooks is a Content Marketing Manager at Wrike. She brings over a decade of experience as a freelance journalist, editor, blogger, and author to the Wrike blog, where she writes about the latest trends in work management, what’s on the horizon for the future of work, and how work and life intersect in meaningful ways. Emily joined Wrike in 2020 at our Dublin office, and relocated to Houston, Texas, in 2022 with her husband and kids, Maya, Noah, Angelina, and Laylabelle. After spending over a decade in rainy Ireland, she enjoys being outside in the sunshine with her family as much as possible — hiking, running, walking, and swimming.

#Project Management Advice #Wrike Customers #Wrike Tips & Tricks #Championing Change

Project Management 7 min read

Wrike Helps Yourbiz Earn 25% More Revenue With 10% Fewer Resources

“How do you Wrike?” It’s a common question we ask customers in our customer advocacy program Wrike Stars. As you can imagine, the answers vary across industries and use cases, but we love hearing the variety of responses! In today’s ‘How I Wrike’ interview, we meet Pietro Poli, the Chief Operating Officer of Yourbiz, a marketing agency based out of Treviolo, Italy. Get an inside look at how Pietro and his colleagues integrate Wrike into their everyday operations to streamline tasks, create order out of chaos, and deliver exceptional services to clients across the globe. “Thanks to Wrike, we solved many of our problems and generated 25% more revenue with 10% fewer resources.” How’d they do it? Let’s dive in to get the details. What does your company do? PP: My company Yourbiz works with manufacturing companies that produce in Italy and sell worldwide, especially in the B2B market. We help them acquire, nurture, and transform potential customers into paying customers via demand generation activities. What department do you work in and how is your team structured? PP: I work with two departments: marketing and content. The marketing team has two branches — demand generation and ecommerce. This department has two team leaders and six people who work alongside us. I'm also the team leader for the content department, which has four copywriters, two SEO Specialists, and two SEM specialists. What is your job function? Describe a day in your life using Wrike. PP: I am the Chief Operating Officer at Yourbiz. My responsibilities span three different categories: Collaborating with my colleagues to support their marketing or content endeavors, provide guidance on technical matters, and help them achieve their goals. Overseeing the entire team's workload through Wrike, actively assisting colleagues in resolving any bugs, monitoring incoming intake requests, and creating informative dashboards for efficient information retrieval. As a trainer, I frequently attend events and webinars and visit prospect and customer companies to educate them on demand generation and HubSpot, sharing valuable insights and knowledge. Which Wrike features do you feel most knowledgeable about? PP: Wrike no longer has many secrets for me as I'm becoming an onboarding partner. I especially love: Workload chart The ability to see in real time how much teammates are loaded with work and to be able to make forecasts on what can be sold to obtain an optimal load. Try Wrike free Wrike Analyze Even though I don't consider myself a true Wrike Analyze guru, having a background as a marketer and data analyst, I spend a lot of time creating new data visualizations and discovering trends that I never would have seen in other ways. Automations Coming from the CRM world, marketing automation, and CRO, being able to create automations to simplify and execute the work is a huge benefit for all our teams love. We save a ton of time and can focus more on impactful work for clients. Please provide 2-4 examples of processes you use Wrike to support. PP: As I mentioned in the Wrike Community, we use Wrike throughout all our business processes. Whether it's a website development, marketing campaign, or strategic analysis, we have implemented and continue to implement and maintain specific processes and blueprints to help us in the work. Example #1: Integrating other software The process I’m most proud of in Wrike is integrating TimeLog with our billing software. It combines information on the budget available for each project with the hours that we schedule (effort) and the hours used. This process lets us know in advance if we’ll "overrun" when entering the project. It's incredible! Try Wrike free Example #2: Customizing project workflows One of our web agency’s most important services is creating client websites. All departments are involved in these activities (sales, product marketing, content, developers, graphics, etc.). It took me three weeks to implement the process — designing a large workflow, defining all the dependencies, and all the possible activities (optional and otherwise). Only at that point did we create the blueprint. Every six months we do a review because things change quickly. Example #3: Wrike request forms We use Wrike custom request forms for a variety of reasons, but here are the top two. Request for quotes with new clients We ensure a seamless and efficient client onboarding process through a dedicated request form that our sales team utilizes when approaching new clients. This form contains a comprehensive set of interview questions that our salesperson can refer to during the client meeting. By using this form within Wrike, our team avoids the need to work with external files, and all the information gathered is conveniently stored within the platform. After the interview, if a quote is needed, a different form is filled out, specifying objectives, client budget, and analysis requirements. Wrike then automatically creates tasks and subtasks for each analysis. It’s a manual process, but our goal is to automate it in the future, ensuring more efficient client onboarding. Transfer of new contracts Every time a contract is signed, the salesperson must use a specific form to pass it over to operations, the administrative office, and the PM. The PM confirms the salesman's request, with an approval, and completes all the missing information in the created task using a custom item type. At this point, the operations and administration teams receive an approval. They create the job in Wrike and ERP software and kick off the tasks. Try Wrike free Which Wrike features or use cases do you want to learn more about? PP: Working with production companies that produce in Italy and sell all over the world, it would be very useful to know how other similar manufacturing companies have leveraged Wrike to communicate the value of the software even to more structured companies. What’s your story? Want to tell your Wrike story and be featured in a customer spotlight? Join our exclusive customer advocacy program where you can connect and network with other Wrike users. When you do, you’ll get your chance to earn points, badges, and rewards by completing fun activities, participating in the Wrike Community, and amplifying the Wrike brand.

Project Management 10 min read

Working With Machines: AI in Work Management

The age of artificial intelligence (AI) is upon us, changing forever the way companies operate and grow. Machine learning (ML) now helps to predict and minimize delays, reduce time spent on mundane tasks, and optimize the skills and talents of the human workforce. [caption id="attachment_475270" align="aligncenter" width="868"]Generated by Midjourney[/caption] PwC refers to AI as a ‘game changer’ in digital transformation, contributing as much as $15.7trn to the global economy by 2030. Wrike is at the forefront of this wave, developing the best AI tools, solutions, and features on the market, saving 20,000 organizations time and money every year. But what does AI in a work management platform look like? And where might it take us in the future? The adoption of AI is underway They don’t look like the futuristic robots we once imagined but, in reality, machines are already part of our daily life. At home, we use AI every time we ask Siri or Alexa a question, open our phones using facial recognition, or scroll through a streaming service’s TV suggestions. [caption id="attachment_475276" align="aligncenter" width="811"]Generated by Midjourney[/caption] AI also has a major influence on our work. We might rely on AI to help us manage customer relationships through chatbots, scan for fraudulent activity in financial systems, or turn documents into data via optical character recognition (OCR). Gartner estimates that a third of organizations are currently applying AI across several business units, a figure that is only set to grow. There are many reasons why companies choose to use the best AI tools available. For example, they may wish to: Save time spent on tedious tasks Optimize processes through automation efficiencies Accelerate and ameliorate customer service Gather and analyze data for better decision-making Seek out opportunities for new revenue streams The benefits of AI are clear to most stakeholders, particularly during a challenging economic climate. Research from Forrester indicates that 80% of executives say AI boosts productivity and creates new positions. At the same time, about 20% of all workers say they will use automated assistance technologies to make decisions and get work done. [caption id="attachment_475282" align="aligncenter" width="730"]Source: Forrester[/caption] “We see similar statistics in Wrike as well,” says Igor Akimov, Head of AI Solutions at Wrike. “More than a quarter of our users work with AI Recommended Tasks every day.” He has ample experience leveraging ML systems, and believes that AI can help us reach significant breakthroughs without the need for major investment. One of the reasons why Wrike represents such good value to its 2.3m customers is because it delivers the best artificial intelligence tools for project and task management, for a fraction of the cost of bespoke software engineering solutions. The many roles of AI in the workplace The ways in which AI can help us in our work expands every year. Some of the most interesting uses to emerge include: AI as an artist Text and picture generation is more advanced than ever before, with the best AI tools including DALL-E 2, Midjourney.com, Stable Diffusion, and so on. These neural networks are fed with billions of images with descriptions, allowing you to generate content with just a single text prompt. This means that AI can not only copy famous images and create psychedelic graphics, but also generate award-winning masterpieces like this one by Jason Allen and Midjourney AI. AI as a developer Platforms such as Copilot from GitHub can now accept requests and write code based on your comments, saving developers or software engineers countless hours in the process. For example, if you need to write simple but time-consuming code to program a form to access a database, you can simply enter the instruction, select the data from a table, put it into an array, and let AI write the code for you. This has the benefit of extending basic coding abilities to people outside of the developer audience. AI as a writer Drafting high-quality content for books, education materials, or blogs takes time. While AI won’t be as natural or nuanced as a professional writer any time soon, it can significantly accelerate the researching, writing, and editing process. With GPT-3 from OpenAI, you can generate whole articles from one sentence. For example, AI suggested that this piece of text should follow the previous sentences: Artificial intelligence is also being used to create music. For example, Google's AI Magenta project is creating algorithms that can generate original music. For example, teams can overnight data, feed it to personal learning models, and use AI to craft statements that leverage key elements. Some creative teams are using this technology now to generate raw content that can be later finessed by human editors. Startups such as Jasper.AI help thousands of companies to create marketing materials. On a day-to-day basis, almost all writers use some level of AI-driven technology to find relevant search terms, auto-complete predicted text, and check spelling or grammar. AI as an administrator The best AI tools in project management have the ability to take care of time-consuming tasks and monotonous work with automations, suggestions, and search intent technology. Robotic process automation (RPA) or standard automation can replace tedious work like opening an item in one app and then copying or moving it somewhere else. However, these days AI can also infiltrate our creative and management work, something that was not achievable even two years ago. Automating workflows makes progress from project planning to delivery far more efficient. It can adjust tasks, assign owners, ask for approvals, and offer updates in the background while humans take care of the more valuable work. AI and work 3.0 [caption id="attachment_475312" align="aligncenter" width="811"]Generated by Midjourney[/caption] The way we work has been transformed in recent years. While we may be working remotely, or outside of the 9-5, we’re also dealing with high levels of complexity, with some knowledge workers using up to 14 different applications every day. Choosing the right work management platform is vital to effectively manage more data, more connectivity, and more expectations than ever before. If organizations want to drive results and reduce busywork in this new modern environment, the best work management software option for them will be one that includes artificial intelligence tools. Take Wrike’s ability to analyze computing behavior to predict a user’s next actions, for example. This means that if a Wrike user tends to start their day by viewing their dashboard or opening request forms, AI can learn and then replicate these steps every morning. The best AI tools can also take care of the most time-consuming data entry tasks, like transcribing meeting notes. Automation such as Wrike’s AI engine can then use those notes to find actionable tasks and create action lists and project plans. Users can further extend this process by highlighting key parts of the text to create subtasks, instantly transforming a meeting discussion into tangible actions — something we can do today with AI Subitem Creation. Wrike’s advanced AI Search can even recommend who might be the right person to carry out these subtasks, saving yet more time in the planning journey. AI has been able to analyze large volumes of complex data for some time but, in the near future, it’ll also be able to summarize the contents for humans. For example, a manager who wants to check on a project could click to receive a short video reel, a one-page brief, or an AI-voiced verbal update. As with most things, artificial intelligence tools are only as good as the data that powers them. Some work management software providers have limited access to good-quality data in the system, but Wrike is different. We’ve invested heavily in the area of AI in project management, which led to our exciting Work Intelligence technology. This creates a structure that understands the issues, dependencies, and human input challenges of your working environment, and puts that knowledge to work to suggest accurate answers to your queries. This type of differentiating factor will become all the more important in the future, as work continues to become more complex and the data we deal with more dense. Humans and machines: The dream team [caption id="attachment_475318" align="aligncenter" width="811"]Generated by Midjourney[/caption] Much has been written about ‘robots replacing humans’ and the possibility of machines taking over our roles in the workplace. Like the Industrial Revolution in the past, the global embrace of AI may well result in a shift in job roles, but that doesn’t have to mean job losses. In fact, Forrester research predicts that cognitive technologies such as robots, AI, ML, and automation will create 9% of new U.S. jobs by 2025. These new jobs may include robot monitoring professionals, data scientists, automation specialists, and content curators. A recent Stanford study titled ‘How to Survive the A.I. Revolution’ recommends a human-centred approach to AI, which envisions “a future where people and machines are collaborators, not competitors.” We shouldn’t expect machines to be just like humans, they say. They can do some tasks very well, while we have more time to excel at other types of work. For example, creatives could channel the technology to take care of the research stage, so they can focus on crafting engaging visual or written messaging. It’s also important to recognise that there will always be cases where a human’s input is needed. Take chatbots, for example. Sure, they can answer quick queries or funnel users into specific categories. But for more complicated questions, most people will opt for the ‘speak to an operator’ option. On the upside, that operator will have more time to spend on resolving your problem, because the chatbot is taking care of the rest of the queue. The best outcomes are achieved by combining human expertise and experience with the speed and efficiency of ML. One can benefit the other, ultimately providing customers, clients, and companies with a better experience and service. AI and Wrike — An exciting future AI is advancing at such a rapid pace, every year brings huge leaps forward. Connected devices are one of the most exciting frontiers, representing a way for humans to feel at home, wherever they are. As machines continue to learn, they will better understand humans’ habits, particularly as our interactions extend from our laptops to our phones, cars, and even the kitchen fridge. Over time, these computers will know a lot about us, which will allow them to recognize our pain points and deliver bespoke solutions. Wrike already does this for us at work. Every time the platform digitizes data and connects to different integrations like Slack, email, or Zoom, it better understands our everyday needs. It can then offer a variety of ways to make the process smoother and faster, such as suggested to-do lists via AI Recommended Tasks, daily due date reminders, and nudges for overdue approvals. That means greater clarity around your workflow and much improved focus on the priorities at hand. A good example of this is Wrike’s risk predictor, which leverages an advanced work graph model, the user’s interactions with the platform, and thousands of other data points to help flag at-risk projects. “Our AI Project Risk Prediction can help managers and owners track their projects without active involvement,” Akimov explains. “The system monitors your projects for any risks that may cause you to miss your deadlines, then assigns a risk level (low, medium, or high). It was developed using our custom-built AI and learning from millions of Wrike projects.” This all helps to focus teams on the work that matters most, ensure consistently on-time delivery, and position the organization for growth in a rapidly changing environment. A transformative technology Forbes writes: “There has been no better time to be in the world of artificial intelligence than now. AI has achieved an inflection point and is poised to transform every industry.” This means that the time is now for organizations to build the technology into their daily operations. Those who don’t might find themselves left behind, as competitors harness the best AI tools to pull ahead. The good news is that Wrike makes taking the first step easy. When you become a Wrike customer, you open up a world of possibilities, which includes 360° operational visibility, cutting-edge collaboration features, valuable data analysis and powerful automation. Wrike can help you create a more productive, efficient, and profitable work environment by enhancing your human resources with AI. Ready to see how? Get a free two-week trial today to see how Wrike can put machines to work for you.

Project Management 7 min read

Why You Need to Record Your Project Management Lessons Learned: Tips & Templates

You've checked off the last few tasks on your to-do list, submitted the final deliverable, and shaken hands with a group of happy stakeholders. Time to congratulate your project team on a job well done and pop the champagne! Wait, what do you mean the project's not finished? Record lessons learned?? Groan. It can be tough to make time for any retrospective when many urgent new tasks and projects are waiting. And if your team has already moved on to new work, it can be like herding cats to get everyone in the same room again. However, the benefits of recording project management lessons speak for themselves: you can identify best practices for future use and share them with the rest of the company so everyone can learn from others' experiences. Your life gets exponentially easier going forward, and your company becomes more competitive. This article includes a simple how-to guide, along with the downloadable "Project Management Lessons Learned Document" templates at the end, to make the process of recording project takeaways quick and painless. The Importance of a Learning Culture Recording lessons learned is not just a task to be checked off at the end of a project. It's a crucial part of fostering a learning culture within your organization. When teams see the tangible benefits of learning from past projects, they're more likely to embrace continuous improvement and strive for excellence in every project. Creating a learning culture in project management can result in benefits you can appreciate for years. Best Practices for Recording Project Management Lessons Recording lessons learned in project management is a crucial practice that helps in refining project strategies, avoiding repetitive mistakes, and continuously improving team performance. Here are some best practices for effective documentation of project management lessons. Make it a Regular Practice: Don’t wait until the project's end to document lessons learned. Make it an ongoing practice throughout the project lifecycle. This ensures that insights are captured when they're fresh and most relevant. Encourage Open Communication: Foster an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing their successes and failures. Open communication leads to more comprehensive and honest insights. Be Objective: When documenting lessons, focus on the situation and the outcome, not on individuals. This helps prevent the process from becoming personal and encourages objective analysis. Categorize Lessons Learned: Organize lessons into project planning, risk management, or communication categories. This makes it easier to reference and apply the lessons in future projects. Use a Standardized Template: A consistent format ensures that all necessary information is captured. This should include the situation description, lessons learned, and recommendations for future projects. Review and Apply Lessons: Regularly review and incorporate the documented lessons into your project management practices. This ensures that the team benefits from past experiences and continuously improves. Remember, the goal of recording project management lessons is to build a knowledge base that contributes to the success of future projects. How To Identify & Record Project Management Lessons Learned 1. Don’t save it all for the end of the project. Attach quick review meetings to project milestones to support continuous learning. Periodic reviews are known to have a positive impact on team motivation, since they'll directly benefit from the lessons learned instead of altruistically passing on tips to other teams. This also means you'll get better quality insights, as people aren't trying to remember what happened weeks or months ago. Plus, it's easy to gather everyone while the project is still active. (This is especially true with contract workers or consultants, who typically scatter once a project ends.) The importance of recording project management lessons will become clear as we work through the rest of the steps. 2. Focus on why and how. A lessons learned document isn’t simply a report or description of the project’s results. Go deeper: what problems did you encounter and how did you solve them? What cause-effect relationships did you notice? What insights did you pick up into how work processes could be improved? 3. Emphasize successes. Which strategies and procedures contributed to success? Knowing what worked well is just as helpful as knowing what didn't! Answer these questions: What should we start doing? What should we stop doing? What should we keep doing? What's still causing us trouble? 4. Evaluate each stage of the project. If you're stumped on where to start, discuss these aspects of the project with your team to get the conversation going and make sure you hit all the important points: Project planning Defining scope & requirements Resource and budget management Risk management Reporting Testing/Revisions Stakeholder communication Team communication Quality of meetings Quality of final project outcome 5. Find consensus. Your whole team should agree on the lessons learned, and everyone should contribute. The people personally involved in the work are the ones with the insights you need! 6. Make takeaways actionable and widely applicable. Once you’ve collected lessons learned with your internal team, you need to repackage them for general use and apply them to your future work. They shouldn't be so specific that they don't pertain to new projects, or so generic that they confuse people. Create a preliminary plan: what would improvements look like, and who would be responsible for making them happen? 7. Make your conclusions accessible. Wouldn't it be a shame to reflect and record lessons learned only to have your insights lost or forgotten? Set up a knowledge base or an intranet where every team can store their lessons learned and access advice from other teams. Learning how to write a project management report will also be beneficial to document all of the project's details and identify potential changes to implement in your next project. Additionally, practicing how to document project management lessons learned is a skill that your entire team will benefit from, which will benefit your organization overall. The Long-Term Impact of Recording Lessons Learned in Project Management Recording lessons learned in project management can profoundly impact an organization's efficiency, productivity, and success. Here's how: Continuous Improvement: Documenting lessons learned fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement. It helps teams to identify what worked well and what needs to be improved, leading to better project outcomes over time. Knowledge Sharing: Lessons learned serve as a valuable knowledge base. They provide insights and guidance for future projects, ensuring teams don't repeat past mistakes and capitalize on proven strategies. Enhanced Decision-Making: With a historical record of lessons learned, project managers can make more informed decisions. They can predict potential risks, foresee challenges, and devise effective solutions, improving the quality of decision-making. Increased Efficiency: Over time, applying lessons learned can streamline project processes, reduce waste, and increase efficiency. Teams become more adept at managing time, resources, and scope, leading to more successful projects. Improved Team Morale: When teams see their experiences are valued and used to improve future projects, morale and motivation can be boosted. It cultivates an environment of growth and learning, enhancing team satisfaction and retention. Recording lessons learned in project management is a strategic investment that pays dividends in the form of improved project outcomes, knowledge sharing, and organizational growth in the long run. Conclusion Recording lessons learned in project management is a strategic activity that reaps long-term benefits. It fosters continuous improvement, enhances decision-making, and boosts team morale. It provides a treasure trove of insights for future projects, ensuring teams evolve and grow from every project experience. Utilizing the provided templates can further streamline this process, making it a standardized part of your project lifecycle. Remember, the wisdom acquired from past projects is a powerful tool for future success. So, keep sharing your insights and tips, and contribute to the collective learning and growth of the project management community. Use these ready-to-use templates to record and share your team's most helpful project tips: Download template #1: Project Management Lessons Learned - Periodic Milestone ReviewDownload template #2: Project Management Lessons Learned - Final Review What are your tips for better project management? We know you've picked up some project management wisdom along the way, so share your tips for recording lessons learned with your fellow readers in the comments! Read Next:The Ultimate Guide to Project ManagementThe 3-Step Guide to Choosing a Project Management Methodology4 Strategies for Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders Sources:Harvesting Project Knowledge, PMTips.net, The-Program-Manager.com, Intland.com

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Introducing Our New Customer-Focused Series: Championing Change

Emily Westbrooks

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Wrike Helps Yourbiz Earn 25% More Revenue With 10% Fewer Resources

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Why You Need to Record Your Project Management Lessons Learned: Tips & Templates

Introducing Our New Customer-Focused Series: Championing Change

Emily Westbrooks

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Wrike Helps Yourbiz Earn 25% More Revenue With 10% Fewer Resources

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Why You Need to Record Your Project Management Lessons Learned: Tips & Templates

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