How Wrike Uses Wrike... For Fun!
We're not like a regular startup, we're a cool startup. ;) Here's the 411 on work events outside the office: team bonding events are difficult to pull off. They're normally unoriginal or downright boring. At Wrike, we were looking for a way to celebrate a successful end of the quarter with a game that everyone could take part in and be excited about, and we wanted to use a collaborative tool we all know how to use. We decided it was time for... the First Annual Wrike Scavenger Hunt! It started by creating teams of five and choosing a theme and a name for each team — oh, the creative possibilities! On the big day, teams gathered around and the list of scavenger hunt items was revealed in Wrike tasks. Teams had two hours to run around downtown Mountain View, CA and complete the tasks by uploading proof-of-completion photos or videos to the tasks via Wrike mobile app. Some of the tasks included taking a selfie with a stranger, snapping photos of all six downtown bubble tea locations, finding an item that cost exactly $0.49 cents, and completing a water balloon toss. Emeka and Patricia — our scavenger hunt facilitators — were able to get updates in real-time on their phones, so they could keep track of who was in the lead as the clock ticked down. How to Create Your Own Scavenger Hunt in Wrike Step 1: Divide everyone into groups of 2 or more and have them choose a fun name or theme that represents their team. . Step 2: Create a Folder and add a single task. . Step 3: Within that task, add subtasks with the specific actions you want completed during the Scavenger Hunt. Make sure these tasks require teams to take a photo or video they can upload to the subtask before they hit complete. . Step 4: Duplicate the parent task for each of the participating teams. . Step 5: Name each task with a specific team name and share it with them. . Step 6: On the day of the Scavenger Hunt, give all the teams a time limit to complete each subtask. Explain to the teams that they will have to upload a photo or video to each subtask using the free Wrike Mobile App. . Step 7: Follow the Scavenger Hunt progression in real time by watching as the subtasks are completed by each team. The team who completes the most subtasks in the shortest amount of time, wins! . Step 8: Share the winner with us on social media with the hashtag #WrikeScavengerHunt . Have fun and Wrike on! Check out our short video recap of the scavenger hunt to inspire your own team and use Wrike for your own adventures! We're an ambitious bunch, so it was a great opportunity to unleash our competitive spirits while having fun with our co-workers. And we found a fun new way to play with Wrike! How do you use Wrike for fun? Share your own stories in the comments!
What's the Best Music To Work To? (Work Management Roundup)
It's Friday the 7th! Time for this week's edition of the Work Management Roundup where you can grab the latest links to articles on getting work done efficiently and improving yourself. As always, you can browse these links in the accompanying Flipboard magazine: The Work Management Roundup What to Listen to While Working (Medium): Does listening to instrumental music really help you get work done? How about coffee house ambience? Here are some guidelines on what to listen to if you want to be productive, backed by science. Get Your Computer to Announce the Time (The Next Web): This hack is really simple: get your Mac computer to speak the time every 30 minutes. It will force you to readjust priorities if you're taking too long to finish a task and keep you from wasting time. Windows users can join the fun too. The 10x Rule Tool I Use to Organize My Life (MACangel): Entrepreneur Marni Melrose explains how she organizes her high level goals and projects using GTD (Getting Things Done) and Wrike. 6 Organizational Culture Examples Worth Following (EnPlug): These six companies may differ in size, location, and mission, but they all have corporate cultures that are worth emulating. 5 Simple Phrases That Will Make You a Better Manager (GetLighthouse): While it's true that leadership is more about what you do than what you say, your words can go a long way in motivating your team. Here are 5 simple phrases that will help you lead any group. How to Read More (Unlimited Mastery): Why reading is important, and some solid tips on how to read more even when our schedules are constantly filled to the brim. More Work Management Must-Reads: 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a New Job (Fast Company) 5 Ways to Manage an Outsourced Team on a Startup Budget (Entrepreneur) TV Legend Explains How He Beat Writer's Block (FastCo.Create) Working Remotely Isn't Always a Dream (Medium) How to Turn Any Website into a Desktop App (Cloud-Coach.net) Top Tools for Project Managers (Raconteur) Follow "Productivity Works!" on Flipboard If you're a Flipboard user, follow our Productivity Works! magazine for daily links to more articles on productivity and efficiency. IMAGE CREDITS: Jeff Sheldon of Unsplash.
Quiz: What's Your Team's Agile Marketing Score?
Improved quality of work, faster time to release, better team morale and alignment — truly Agile marketing teams are at a distinct competitive advantage. But getting your co-workers up to speed with Agile team roles so you actually reap these benefits is tricky, and it can be difficult to know whether you’re on the right track. That’s why we created an interactive self-assessment that will help you evaluate your team’s agility and get some simple, practical tips for improvement. Will your marketing team make the grade? Click here to take our short self-assessment and find out! Brilliant Agile Marketing Teams Run on Wrike Wrike's new solution tailored for marketing teams includes Custom Request forms, proofing & approval, visual dashboards and real-time reports to help marketing teams exceed customer expectations and launch successful campaigns. Learn more about Wrike for Marketers, or try it free for 2 weeks.
Bad Office Behavior is Risky Business
Whether you're talking about unethical actions or everyday whining, the thing about bad workplace behavior is that it's infectious. Someone starts gossiping over lunch, and before you know it, cliques of people are trading horror stories about the NSFW image they may or may not have spotted on their colleague's computer screen. And if this type of behavior is not nipped in the bud, it spreads throughout the company. It becomes the company culture.
How to Figure Out If You're a Workaholic (Infographic)
Are you always working late into the night? Or pushing yourself to work hard because you want constant recognition by coworkers? Is it all to the detriment of your personal relationships? If so, you just might be a workaholic. Psychology Today calls workaholism "a soul-destroying addiction that changes people's personality and the values they live by." Here at Wrike, we call it the disease of the "working dead." Because we don't want you to roam the office hallways with carpal tunnel syndrome, glassy eyes, and moaning "brainsss," we put together this quick quiz to help you discover if you are on the road to becoming a workaholic. Find out now, and pump the breaks if you're going down the wrong path! Share this infographic quiz with your coworkers who are teetering on the edge of workaholism. And use this embed code if you want to share it on your blog: Infographic brought to you by Wrike If you prefer not to manually total your score, then take our interactive version of the quiz to get your results quickly: Working Too Hard? Maybe You Just Need Lunch If you feel you're on track to becoming a full-fledged workaholic, you may want to take one small step toward making a change in your life. Here's one tip: actually use your lunch hour. And no, eating at your desk doesn't count (we're onto you!) Go out, grab a bite, enjoy a walk, and don't check your work messages for a solid 20-30 minutes. Workaholic instincts making you wary of stepping away from your desk for that long? This blog post explains why you need to give yourself a real break during the workday: 7 Reasons to Bring Back the Lunch Break.
Why Your Company Should Be Excited About Pokemon Go (Work Management Roundup)
This week, no other topic has quite captured the imaginations of millions around the world than the Pokemon Go mobile app craze. Don't dismiss it without realizing the app's success has opened up a whole new marketing opportunity for companies— even yours. Read on!
The Art of the Handoff: What Soccer’s Tiki-Taka Teaches Us About Teamwork
Even if you’re not on a soccer field, your team needs to be able to quickly and effectively “pass the ball” to one another (just like Tiki-Taka!)—without things falling apart in the process. That latter part is where things can get a little sticky. So, let’s dive into some tips to make those project handoffs a little more streamlined.
9 Project Management Lessons Learned from the Apollo 11 Moon Landing
“We can lick gravity, but sometimes paperwork is overwhelming.” —Wernher von Braun, Chief Architect of Apollo's Saturn V Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins may have been the most visible figures of the 1969 moon landing, but the Apollo 11 team included thousands of people led by a select group of program and project managers at NASA. Tasked with the nearly impossible goal of putting an American on the moon in less than a decade, the Apollo program will always be remembered as a remarkable feat of technological innovation. And yet to many leaders at NASA, its true legacy lies in its project management achievements. Use these 10 lessons learned from their extraordinary experiences to make your own project a stellar success. 1. Keep Open Lines of Communication with Stakeholders “When John Kennedy went before Congress on May 25, 1961 and said we were going to the Moon, our total flight experience was one 15-minute suborbital flight." —Dr. John M. Logsdon, Director of the Center for International Science and Technology Policy To say Kennedy set an ambitious timeline is an understatement. The fact is, sometimes stakeholders will have sky-high expectations that you don't think are realistic. So take a cue from Dr. Robert Gilruth, Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center at the time. He recognized that he and Kennedy were working on the same team, not fighting against each other. Instead of starting his relationship with Kennedy on a tense, adversarial note, Gilruth chose honest communication. He said, “I don’t know if this is possible," and followed it with frank and upfront details about the resources NASA would need in order to make the dream a reality. Gilruth recalls, “[Kennedy] really wanted us to be successful.” So no matter how difficult it may be to manage your stakeholders' expectations, remind each other that you share the same goal and use that motivation to focus on the project's success. Read: 7 Keys to Project Stakeholder Management from the #PMChat Community 2. Planning is the Most Important Step... "We knew what had to be done. How to do it in 10 years was never addressed before the announcement was made. But quite simply, we considered the program a number of phases." —Dr. Maxime A. Faget, Chief Engineer & Designer of the Apollo command and lunar modules When faced with an extraordinarily complex project, Apollo's program leaders broke it down into much smaller steps and focused on attaining each one. They set a series of milestones: phase 1 was to fly to the moon, phase 2 was to orbit the moon, phase 3 was to land an unmanned craft on the moon, and so on. They organized all their service structures and measured their progress around these set milestones. Had they immediately set their sights on a full-fledged lunar landing, history may have turned out very different. In spite of the time crunch, the NASA team put a great deal of thought into the planning process, viewing it as an opportunity to cut as much risk as possible. Dr. Faget recalls, "I basically said the best way to deal with risk management is in the basic conceptual design, get the damn risk out of it.” If you're facing a tight deadline you may be tempted to jump right in and get to work, but check that reflex. Take a beat and formulate a thorough project plan, considering risk from the very beginning. You'll thank yourself later! Read: 6 Steps to a Foolproof Project Plan 3. ...But Don’t Be Afraid to Modify the Plan "They probably normally expected us to land with about two minutes of fuel left. And here we were, still a hundred feet above the surface, at 60 seconds." —Buzz Aldrin, Lunar Module Pilot On descent to their landing site, the lunar module's computer became overloaded with tasks and incoming data, threatening to reboot in the middle of the landing sequence. Armstrong and Aldrin discovered they were going to miss their target, and would likely smack into a crater littered with treacherous boulders at an alarming velocity. Armstrong took semi-automatic control of the lunar module, while Aldrin fed him altitude and velocity data. They successfully landed on the moon's surface with just 25 seconds worth of fuel left. If Armstrong and Aldrin hadn't acted, Mission Control would probably have been forced to abort the mission, and Armstrong's iconic moonwalk would never have happened. So remember that even the most well-thought-out project plans may need to be altered if circumstances change or a new opportunity arises. Don't be so rigid that you fail to adapt to either save your project from disaster or seize the chance to deliver beyond expectations. Relate read: 5 Project Management Ideas That Should Be Extinct 4. Acknowledge Risk, but Don’t Let It Deter You “We said to ourselves that we have now done everything we know how to do. We feel comfortable with all of the unknowns that we went into this program with. We don’t know what else to do to make this thing risk-free, so it's time to go.” —Dr. Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., Director of Flight Operations The Apollo 11 mission was perhaps one of the most risky undertakings in human history. From technical failure to human error, any number of things could have gone wrong — and did. But without acknowledging and planning for that risk, the achievement would never have been made. NASA handled risk by actively looking for it and constantly asking themselves, "What if?" Having backup systems and procedures in place ensured there was always a Plan B. So be proactive in assessing and managing risk for your own projects. Identify situations that could trip your team up and plan for them — but don’t let an acceptable amount of risk keep you from pushing ahead. Another risk management strategy embraced by NASA: training and empowering your team to make good decisions and fix problems on the fly. Howard Tindall says, “I think one of the greatest contributors to minimizing risk was the extraordinary amount of training that was done. That really saved us many, many times because I don’t think there was a single mission that we didn’t have some significant failures. The fact was that people could figure them out because they had been trained and knew how to work with each other.” Read: Ultimate Guide to Project Risk Assessment (Part 1- Project Risk) 5. Be Strategic About Team Communication “One of the biggest challenges that we had was one of communication and coordination.” —Owen Morris, Chief Engineer & Manager of the Lunar Module Apollo's team of project managers went from managing small projects with a select team of close colleagues to managing thousands of people they had never met. Coordinating such a massive effort required constant communication to avoid costly or dangerous errors. Their solution was to identify five central priorities and drill them into every single level of the organization. With the entire team aligned around those set priorities, communication and discipline became infinitely easier. Team leaders also met every few weeks to coordinate efforts, discuss progress, explain current challenges, and work together to overcome problems. At no point was any team in the dark about what another group was doing, or what support they needed. Communication is often cited as the #1 reason projects fail, so take a proactive approach. Don't just trust that communication among team members will fall into place on its own, or that everyone will assume the same priorities. Create a plan for how your team will communicate with each other and with you, and check in frequently to offer support, clarify high-priority tasks, and make sure processes are running smoothly. Read: How to Communicate Like Super Bowl Champions & The 5 Ws of Virtual Communication 6. Delegate! “Another thing that was extraordinary was how things were delegated down. NASA responsibilities were delegated to people who didn’t know how to do these things, and were expected to go find out how to do it." —Howard W. TIndall, Jr., Mission Technique Coordinator Delegating to people who don't have experience with a certain task may seem counterintuitive, but it was something Apollo project managers actively encouraged — in fact, the average age of the entire Operations team was just 26, most fresh out of college. NASA gave someone a problem and the freedom to run with it, and the results speak for themselves. So while it's tempting to give important tasks only to team members who have direct experience, you may be missing out if you do. While you shouldn't just dump a critical task on a hapless employee and wish them good luck, with the proper support, fresh eyes and curious minds can discover the most innovative solutions to a problem — or find valuable ways to improve stale processes. Read: 9 Phrases to Jumpstart Productivity When Delegating a Task 7. Record Lessons Learned “When we had the [Apollo 1] fire, we took a step back and said okay, what lessons have we learned from this horrible tragedy? Now let’s be doubly sure that we are going to do it right the next time. And I think that fact right there is what allowed us to get Apollo done in the ‘60s.” —Dr. Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., Director of Flight Operations The Apollo program was home to some of the most brilliant minds in the world, and yet no one was shy about their mistakes. They made recording and learning from their errors a central part of their process, from the very top of the organization down. Failure was simply an opportunity to learn and improve. Follow their lead by making retrospectives an ongoing part of your project, not a one-time event that's relegated to the end. Collect lessons learned at each standup or status meeting to refine your process as you go, and take the lead yourself so your team knows it's safe to discuss mistakes and roadblocks without judgment. Your team — and your project's results — will be that much stronger for it. Read: Why You Need to Record Project Lessons Learned: Tips & Templates 8. Celebrate Success as a Team "We would like to give special thanks to all those Americans who built the spacecraft; who did the construction, design, the tests, and put their hearts and all their abilities into those craft. To those people tonight, we give a special thank you." —Neil Armstrong, July 26 television broadcast from orbit At every opportunity the astronauts called the world's attention to the efforts of their teammates back on the ground. So when you deliver a successful project to a group of happy stakeholders, share that applause with the rest of your team. Relay positive feedback and results back to the group, acknowledge their hard work with a round of high-fives, and use small wins throughout the project to fuel continued hard work. Read: 5 Reasons Your Team Isn't Getting Stuff Done & 10 Encouraging Productivity Proverbs to Hang on Your Office Wall 9. Make Project Success Sustainable "The leader has got to really believe in his organization, and believe that they can do things, and find ways to challenge them." —Dr. Maxime A. Faget, Chief Engineer & designer of the Apollo command and lunar modules Once you've achieved success, how do you make it repeatable across your entire organization? According to Apollo's project managers, every successful project needs three things: the first is a vivid picture of where you’re going and what you can accomplish to motivate your team. Second: complete commitment from leadership so your team has the support they need to get things done. And finally, a deadline or goal to keep everyone focused on high-priority tasks that further immediate business goals. Secure these three things at the beginning of a new project and you're already on the path to success. Read: 3 Lessons on High Performing Teams from TED Talks Keys to Project Management Success As experienced project managers, we know you have some expert tips on managing projects and achieving results that are out of this world. Share your best advice with fellow readers in the comments below! Sources: History.Nasa.gov, History.com, Space.com, Wikipedia.org Photo credits: NASA Images Collection at Archive.org
10 Fatal Product Launch Mistakes
Product launches are stressful. While success can propel your company to new heights, a botched launch can cripple your business. On top of all that pressure, pulling off the perfect launch is a complicated process, with plenty of room for error. With less than 3% of new consumer goods considered "highly successful" (i.e., exceeding first-year sales of $50 million), what can you do to ensure that everything goes smoothly on launch day — and beyond? 10 Mistakes That Will Derail Your Product Launch 1. You view your launch as an event, not a process. Launch Day isn’t the end, it’s the middle. In addition to months of product launch planning, the weeks and months following your official launch are critical for sustaining momentum, building even more buzz, and scaling your efforts if things go well and the product takes off. 2. You assume an innovative product is enough. If there's no market or need for your solution, no one is going to spend money on your product no matter how cool you think it is. Conduct product launch analytics before sinking resources into developing a product that won't sell. 3. You don’t know your customer/market well enough. Do you fully understand your customer's pain points? Their buyer’s journey? Do you know the kinds of keywords they search when looking for a product like yours? If you don't, the time to learn is yesterday. 4. You don't involve marketing, sales, and PR far enough in advance. Successful marketing and PR campaigns don’t happen overnight, and if you don’t plan ahead you’ll be left scrambling to maintain or accelerate momentum. 5. You announce too early. Unless you’re Apple and your product launches are shrouded in hype and speculation, announcing a new product too early could lead to waning customer interest as time passes, or give your competition a head start on their response. 6. You make the launch date a hard deadline, even if you’re not ready or your product is buggy. It's far better to delay a product launch (even a hotly-anticipated one) in order to deliver a product that performs at or beyond customer expectations. 7. You don't do a test run with sales. Let one or two of your sales people start selling the product before launch: what feedback and questions are they getting from customers? How are they positioning it? What support do they need in order to sell it? 8. You spend your whole budget on the product, and don’t have sufficient resources left for marketing, PR, and other promotions. If you're counting on word-of-mouth buzz to fuel customer interest and sales, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. 9. You don’t create a story around your launch. Why should people care about your new feature or product? What social or industry narratives relate to your product? Make sure the story is centered around your customers, not you, and include case studies if you can. 10. You don’t create a detailed launch day plan. "Winging it" is not an option. If launch day involves speeches, practice them beforehand in front of a test audience. Create a launch day schedule that covers exactly what needs to happen and when, plus the one person who’s ultimately responsible. Follow the DroneCo Comic for More Startup Fun! For more product management resources, browse previous episodes of Welcome to DroneCo in the comic archive, and subscribe to the strip to get each new episode. Then follow DroneCo on Twitter to keep up with the gang all week long. Share the comic on your own site with this embed code: Webcomic brought to you by Wrike Sources: 280Group.com, Hubspot, SalemMarafi.com
10 Fatal Product Launch Mistakes (+New DroneCo Comic)
Product launches are stressful. While success can propel your company to new heights, a botched launch can cripple your business. On top of all that pressure, pulling off the perfect launch is a complicated process, with plenty of room for error. With less than 3% of new consumer goods considered "highly successful" (i.e., exceeding first-year sales of $50 million), what can you do to ensure that everything goes smoothly on launch day — and beyond? 10 Mistakes That Will Derail Your Product Launch 1. You view your launch as an event, not a process. Launch Day isn’t the end, it’s the middle. In addition to months of planning and prep, the weeks and months following your official launch are critical for sustaining momentum, building even more buzz, and scaling your efforts if things go well and the product takes off. 2. You assume an innovative product is enough. If there's no market or need for your solution, no one is going to spend money on your product no matter how cool you think it is. Do your research before sinking resources into developing a product that won't sell. 3. You don’t know your customer/market well enough. Do you fully understand your customer's pain points? Their buyer’s journey? Do you know the kinds of keywords they search when looking for a product like yours? If you don't, the time to learn is yesterday. 4. You don't involve marketing, sales, and PR far enough in advance. Successful marketing and PR campaigns don’t happen overnight, and if you don’t plan ahead you’ll be left scrambling to maintain or accelerate momentum. 5. You announce too early. Unless you’re Apple and your product launches are shrouded in hype and speculation, announcing a new product too early could lead to waning customer interest as time passes, or give your competition a head start on their response. 6. You make the launch date a hard deadline, even if you’re not ready or your product is buggy. It's far better to delay a product launch (even a hotly-anticipated one) in order to deliver a product that performs at or beyond customer expectations. 7. You don't do a test run with sales. Let one or two of your sales people start selling the product before launch: what feedback and questions are they getting from customers? How are they positioning it? What support do they need in order to sell it? 8. You spend your whole budget on the product, and don’t have sufficient resources left for marketing, PR, and other promotions. If you're counting on word-of-mouth buzz to fuel customer interest and sales, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. 9. You don’t create a story around your launch. Why should people care about your new feature or product? What social or industry narratives relate to your product? Make sure the story is centered around your customers, not you, and include case studies if you can. 10. You don’t create a detailed launch day plan. "Winging it" is not an option. If launch day involves speeches, practice them beforehand in front of a test audience. Create a launch day schedule that covers exactly what needs to happen and when, plus the one person who’s ultimately responsible. Follow the DroneCo Comic for More Startup Fun! Browse previous episodes of Welcome to DroneCo in the comic archive, and subscribe to the strip to get each new episode. Then follow DroneCo on Twitter to keep up with the gang all week long. Share the comic on your own site with this embed code: Webcomic brought to you by Wrike Sources: 280Group.com, Hubspot, SalemMarafi.com
7 Top Stories of Design Clients from Hell
Let's talk about the difficult clients. You know, the ones that don't know what they want, are picky as ever, and push up deadlines like it's their greatest pleasure in life. This indecisiveness and miscommunication creates a lag in the design process and leads to horrific scenarios. Without a collaboration tool to capture exactly what the client is looking for, schedules are thrown off by multiple iterations, endless revisions, and too much input.
Viral Marketing Strategies from Crazy Successful Campaigns
It's the holy grail of online marketing: the campaign that goes viral. Massive numbers of views, a staggering amount of social shares, and the kind of brand awareness money simply can't buy. But crafting a successful viral campaign is no easy feat; in fact, most experts say you can't really plan it with a marketing strategy definition at all — it either happens, or it doesn't, and luck is no small factor. But that doesn't mean you can't craft your campaigns to increase your odds of viral success. The key is to tap into your audience’s "lizard brain." “Stories that evoke very primal emotions tend to work best,” says Neetzan Zimmerman. He should know: during his time at Gawker, he generated an insane amount of traffic — more than all of his other colleagues combined. So which emotions do you target? How do you start? By getting to know your audience and understanding what makes them tick, first and foremost! Then, try these three proven viral strategies to help your next campaign spread like wildfire. 1. Make them laugh. Why it works: Funny marketing videos downplay the hard sell and instead go for "surprise and delight." They make people say, “I have got to see that again!” This cranks up the view count, and makes people want to share a laugh with friends. Positive emotions like joy are much more likely to trigger an action like social sharing. (Check out our recent work humor video, "Beware the Managers from Hell!") 2. Make a bold statement. Why it works: These campaigns go for the gut, tapping into powerful emotions. People connect to your message on a deeper, "Me too!" level and genuinely want to spread the word or share your cause. 3. Make their jaws drop. Why it works: The awe factor. These are the videos that make people turn to their friends and say, "You gotta see this!" Everyone wants to be the first person to share something cool or amazing with their friends. Warning! Don’t get so wrapped up in achieving viral status that you stray too far and your campaign ends up having nothing to do with your brand. If people remember your campaign but can’t remember what company or product it’s associated with, your efforts are wasted. Follow the DroneCo Comic for More Startup Fun! Browse previous episodes of Welcome to DroneCo in the comic archive, and subscribe to the strip to get each new episode. Then follow DroneCo on Twitter to keep up with the gang all week long. Share the comic on your own site with this embed code: Webcomic brought to you by Wrike
Conversations with the Work Apps You Love (& Hate)
When you think about it, today’s technology is pretty incredible. We can talk to anyone, anywhere in the world within seconds. We can access a near infinite amount of information in the blink of an eye. We can store countless documents without filing a single sheet of paper and access them instantly. But that doesn’t mean these apps solve all of our problems—in fact, they sometimes create new ones. These imaginary conversations exemplify the love/hate relationship we have with our favorite work apps. And while they can cause quite a few headaches, our fixes can help provide some relief! 1. Organization FIX IT: Finding the file you need shouldn’t be such an endeavor, but when attachments get buried in lengthy email threads or duplicated into multiple conflicting versions, trying to find the right one gets frustrating fast. Attaching work files directly to the related task in a work management tool keeps information organized and easily accessible. 2. Tracking & Reporting Work Progress FIX IT: Managing work through spreadsheets is time-consuming, overly-complicated, and needs constant attention. Use a tool designed for managing projects that updates in real time, so you don’t have to input changes manually or risk making decisions based on outdated, incomplete information. FIX IT: Use work management software that automatically creates visual reports you can easily share with execs, clients, and stakeholders, without messing with finicky tables and graphs. 3. Communication FIX IT: Clear communication is key to preventing misunderstandings, wasted time, and work that needs to be redone. Technical glitches and assumed intentions just lead to greater frustrations, so establish a formal channel for work conversations and feedback, and leave the informal chats and "watercooler" conversations to your instant messaging apps. 4. Remote Collaboration FIX IT: Anything involving live cameras and microphones is a recipe for awkward moments, which are not only embarrassing, but distract your team and derail productive meetings. A collaboration app keeps all team members aligned and up to date on work status and top priorities no matter where they're located, so you can skip the time-consuming video calls and status meetings. Fix Your Work Tool Frustrations for Good Know any great workarounds for these annoyances? Share them with us in the comments below! Then start a free Wrike trial to easily communicate, collaborate, organize, and track work progress with your team.
Craziest Productivity Tips of All Time
Deep breathing exercises. Head stands. Talking to yourself. Making funny faces in the mirror. People will resort to testing some pretty far-fetched experiments in the pursuit of greater productivity. Did you know that Balzac drank 50 cups of coffee a day? Or that Demosthenes shaved off half of his hair so he would be too embarrassed to go out in public until it grew back, forcing him to stay inside and focus? Maneesh Sethi of Hack the System even hired a girl off Craigslist to slap him in the face every time he looked at Facebook. Odds are you've got a productivity junkie in your office testing out the latest flavor-of-the-week technique and swearing by its genius — only to move on to something "better" a few days later. What are the craziest things you've seen attempted at your office to boost efficiency? How many of them actually worked? (We'd really love to hear — tell us in the comments below!) Tried-and-True Productivity Tactics With so many productivity techniques popping up, it's hard to know which are passing fads and which are the real deal. Here are a few we've tried and can vouch for ourselves, plus tips that are lauded as lifesavers by others: David Allen's Getting Things Done method Jerry Seinfeld's Don't Break the Chain The Anti-ToDo List Jay Shirley's Must, Should, Want method Biological Prime Time Workplace Productivity Tips from People Who Actually Use Them (Video) Productivity Tips from Manage Your Day to Day 5 Ways to Boost Creative Team Productivity 1 Question to Make Every Meeting Productive (Video) Follow the DroneCo Comic for More Startup Fun! Browse previous episodes of Welcome to DroneCo in the comic archive, and subscribe to the strip to get each new episode. Then follow DroneCo on Twitter to keep up with the gang all week long. Share the comic on your own site with this embed code: Webcomic brought to you by Wrike
"Failing Forward": How to Turn Mistakes Into Success
Fail fast and fail often. If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough. Entrepreneurs hear this ALL the time. It sounds like good advice, and we're all familiar with the stories of famous innovators overcoming setbacks to achieve greatness. Everyone from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs has an inspirational anecdote where failure was an essential ingredient of innovation. But the how is usually pretty fuzzy. What practical steps can you take to turn failure around? How to Turn Mistakes Into Success: 1. Seek out criticism early and often. Instead of dreading negative feedback, go looking for it! Send early prototypes or mockups to a select group of customers, or run your new idea past a few meticulous colleagues. Failure is much more costly if you wait until after you've spent all your time and resources. 2. Get an attitude adjustment. According to author John C. Maxwell's bestseller Failing Forward, the difference between those who achieve their business goals and those who don't all comes down to how they react to and perceive failure: the achievers see it as a process, not an event. It's not a reflection of them personally or the death-knell of their project — it's an opportunity to make future efforts even more successful. 3. Set realistic goals. Don't set yourself up for failure by establishing unattainable standards. By making goals practical and measurable, you can incorporate setbacks and new iterations into your process so they don't discourage you, but instead fuel your growth. 4. Reflect on what went wrong, and then move on. Don't obsess over failure! It will only eat away at your confidence and sabotage your future efforts. Take a little time to reflect and learn, and then get right back to work. 5. Focus on the silver lining. Failure does have benefits: customer feedback can take you in an entirely new and improved direction, or make you aware of a lucrative market you didn't even know existed. Plus, you now know something about your customers that you didn't before — and something your competitors may not be aware of either. That's a valuable advantage! Follow the DroneCo Comic for More Startup Fun! Browse previous episodes of Welcome to DroneCo in the comic archive, and subscribe to the strip to get each new episode. Then follow DroneCo on Twitter to keep up with the gang all week long. Share the comic on your own site with this embed code: Webcomic brought to you by Wrike Sources: Forbes.com, Mindy Crary - Forbes.com
Product Development Lessons from Infamous Product Flops
You’ve spent months laying the groundwork for your company's new product: conducting in-depth market research, creating wireframes and mockups, persuading stakeholders and execs to support your plan, plotting out a detailed project schedule, wrangling the development team, and working with marketing to generate buzz and ensure a successful launch. After all that work, the product is a guaranteed, slam-dunk success, right? Not so fast. Even wildly successful companies with a tried-and-true product development process can end up with a flop on their hands, and as they say, hindsight is 20/20. Learn from these 7 famous product failures to avoid your own catastrophic launch. 1975 - Sony Betamax VHS vs. Betamax is one of the most famous examples of poor product marketing strategy, proving that superior products don’t always win out. When Sony chose not to license Betamax technology, they effectively forced consumers to choose between Sony as the only Betamax producer, and the convenience of VHS, which was available from multiple companies. Lesson: A good product strategy doesn't end at launch — you need to consider customer adoption as well as overall market conditions. 1980s - Life Savers Soda The product did well in taste tests, and things were looking promising for this '80s soft drink. But as soon as the Life Savers logo was slapped on the bottle, people started picturing the soda as liquified Life Savers and couldn't stomach the idea of drinking melted candy. Lesson: Understand how customers perceive your brand. While you can be innovative and push into new markets, don't try to venture so far outside your territory that you confuse customers or muddle your image. 1981 - DeLorean DMC-12 “You built a time machine… out of a DeLorean??” Introduced in 1981 with a unique stainless-steel body design and gull-wing doors, the DeLorean was the pet project of famed auto exec John DeLorean, who designed iconic vehicles like the Pontiac GTO, Firebird, and Grand Prix. But after building a much-hyped car with a sleek design but shoddy performance, the company folded in less than two years, having produced fewer than 9,000 cars. Lesson: Don't expect good brand reputation to save a sub-par product. More often than not, a single stinker is enough to sink your company, so make sure everything you produce is something you can proudly stand behind. 1992 - Crystal Pepsi When Pepsi decided to jump on an early-90s marketing fad that equated clarity with purity and health, the world was introduced to Crystal Pepsi. It tasted like regular cola, but without any caramel coloring. Although it did well initially, sales plummeted fast and Crystal Pepsi was yanked from the market the following year. Lesson: Novelty and gimmicks will only get you so far. You need a quality product that customers actually want if you're going to maintain success. 2006 - Joost Pitched as a revolutionary peer-to-peer TV network and headed by the creators of Skype, Joost seemed to have everything going for it. The celebrity-backed, buzzed-about company even had a deal with major content providers like CBS and Viacom, but it stubbornly stuck with its client-based video service model, while competitors like Hulu began offering browser-based streaming. We all know how the story ends. Lesson: Markets can shift very, very quickly. If you're not paying attention, a competitor can come along and pull the rug out from under you — even if you have a great product. 2011 - Qwikster In what some analysts believed was an ill-conceived attempt to pacify customers protesting a recent price hike for streaming video, Netflix announced its DVD subscription service would split off into a separate entity called Qwikster. Users would access their DVDs through a separate website, meaning they'd have to manage two different title queues on two different sites. Customers hated the idea, and the project didn’t survive more than a month. Lesson: Resist knee-jerk reactions to criticism. Listen to your customers and react quickly, but not without thinking through your response very, very carefully. 2013 - Facebook Home Facebook spent a lot of money building hype for its Android application — they even collaborated with HTC on a branded Facebook phone with the software pre-installed. Six weeks after launch, HTC slashed the price of the phone from $99 to 99¢. So what went wrong? According to insiders, the Facebook Home development team was made up of iPhone users who weren’t familiar with the habits and expectations of typical Android users — nor did they adequately test the software with Android users before launch. Another problem: not many people wanted that much Facebook, to the point where it took over their smartphone home screens. Lesson: Understand exactly how your customers prefer to use your product, not how you wish they used your product. Follow the DroneCo Comic for More Startup Laughs! Browse previous episodes of Welcome to DroneCo in the comic archive, or subscribe to the strip to get each new episode. Then follow DroneCo on Twitter to keep up with the fun all week long! Share this comic on your own site with this embed code: Webcomic brought to you by Wrike Sources: DailyFinance.com, Buzzfeed.com, BusinessInsider.com
3 Video Conference Horror Stories & Tips for Avoiding Them
With the number of remote teams on the rise, video conferences are becoming a pretty regular occurrence. When you just need to quickly check in with your remote colleagues, a short video chat or group meeting can save time and effort, and offer an easy way to keep everyone in the loop no matter where they are. As with any new business practice or technology, awkward moments tend to pop up — and anything involving a bunch of live cameras and microphones only amplifies the possibility for blunders. Use our tips to avoid embarrassing gaffes in your virtual meeting room and keep all your video meetings running smoothly. 1. You thought your mic was muted. This one’s probably the most common video conference blunder. Whether you’re complaining under your breath to a co-worker sitting next to you, slurping your coffee, or your kid/spouse/roommate is singing Miley Cyrus off-key as they fix their breakfast, save yourself some embarrassment and pay attention to your mic settings. 2. You’re not prepared. If you’re supposed to lead the meeting or give a presentation, don’t just wing it. Just because you’re not all in the same room doesn’t mean a video conference isn't a professional setting. You still need a proper agenda with a list of key issues or questions to cover, and you need to lead the meeting with authority, exactly the same as you would if you were all gathered in the conference room. 3. You’re flustered by technical glitches. We’ve all been part of a video or conference call where sound cuts out, a video feed is choppy, or the presenter can’t figure out how to switch views or share his/her screen. The awkward fumbling isn’t only embarrassing, it wastes time and distracts your team. Make sure you understand exactly how your video conferencing app of choice works, and what to do if technical difficulties do pop up so you can immediately switch to Plan B and continue a productive meeting. Running a good video meeting often means choosing the right tool for your team, with reliable audio/video and the conferencing features you need for productive collaboration. Between live webinars and daily meetings with remote colleagues, we've tried just about every video conferencing tool out there here at Wrike. Check out our 5 favorite video meeting apps to see if one is the perfect fit for you. Follow the DroneCo Comic for More Workplace Laughs! Catch up on previous episodes of Welcome to DroneCo in the comic archive, or subscribe to the strip to get each new episode. Then follow DroneCo on Twitter! Share this comic on your own site with this embed code: Webcomic brought to you by Wrike
Are Marketers Allergic to Project Management?
Not everyone on your team has to be a certified PMP to reap the benefits of project management for marketing. Even an understanding of just a few basic project management principles and processes can help your team be better organized, more efficient, and enjoy improved results. In short, basic project management means you can achieve more with less effort and stress. But project management training can sound like a chore to your team, who may see it as just stuffy processes and restrictive rules — or simply more work than it's worth. So where do you start? Which principles or processes will have the biggest positive impact with the least amount of effort and disruptive change? Start with these three project management tips to get the most bang for your buck: 1. Better Project Planning As every project manager knows, getting all your ducks in an row before your project starts will save you an aspirin-bottle’s worth of headaches later on. Every effective plan starts with determining your goals, and that means sitting down with stakeholders to figure out exactly what their needs and expectations are. Only then can you define your deliverables and chart an efficient path towards producing them. Read: 6 Steps to a Foolproof Project Plan DroneCo's plans for the new HoverPup quadcopter — click to view full size 2. Better Processes Inefficient or broken processes can mean missed deadlines, overshot budgets, and work that doesn’t meet requirements — in short, wasted efforts and project failure. Fix the root cause of your frustrations by adopting a few principles from Lean project management: simplifying your processes and cutting out waste. Do it right, and your team will be able to get things done faster and more efficiently than ever before. Read: The 7 Wastes that Cripple Knowledge Workers (Video) 3. Better Solutions for Next Time Nothing’s worse than the horrible déjà vu of recurring work frustrations. Keep the same old problems from popping up time and again by taking some time at the end of your project to reflect on what went well, what didn’t, and what you’ll change for next time. That way, each project makes your team better and stronger. Read: Recording Project Management Lessons Learned: Tips & Templates So no, marketers are not allergic to project management. It's nurture vs. nature - nothing a little basic PM training can't fix! See how Wrike can help you coordinate your team, adjust to changing priorities, and keep every campaign organized and on track. Follow the DroneCo Comic for More Marketing Laughs! Browse previous episodes of Welcome to DroneCo in the comic archive, then subscribe to the strip to get each new episode. Follow DroneCo on Twitter and keep up with the fun all week long! Share this comic on your own site with this embed code: Webcomic brought to you by Wrike
4 Reasons We "Love" Email (Video)
At its inception, email was a great way of sending short notes to your officemates and people around the world. Since then, it has become a primary way to communicate at work, and messages can be anywhere from a short, "OK," to a long-winded essay on all the tasks that need to be done before tomorrow and every step to be taken. Which then quickly spirals into a chain of back-and-forth emails. Tasks get assigned and promptly forgotten, people send simultaneous messages that contradict one another, and you never know if your email has actually made it through the territorial spam filters. We challenge you to look at your email inbox again and consider if this is really the best way to communicate with your team. How many projects have been delayed because important emails weren't read properly or in time? How often have you had to resize a document in order to attach it successfully? Do you open your inbox in the morning and groan at the amount of junk mail you are now required to wade through? Watch our video on the reasons we "love" email, and if you identify with these groan-worthy moments, maybe it's time to switch to a better communication tool: What do you hate about email? We only named six reasons why email is a pain in the neck, and we know we left some out. So tell us: what do you hate most about communicating with your team via email? Download our free ebook: It's Not Me, It's You: Why Managers Need to Break Up with Email and Spreadsheets If this video resonated with you, and you know your company needs a better communication and work planning platform, try out Wrike. You can start a free 2-week trial for your team today. Related Reads: Email Management: 10 Clever Tricks to Hit Inbox Zero 3 Collaboration Tips for Enhancing Teamwork The 5 Ws of Virtual Communication