How to Create Project Templates in Wrike
Are you a marketing manager making a daily SEO campaign for each new client you take on? Or are you a project manager who has a complex product development workflow that takes hours to set up? You know there has to be an easier way to manage all these repeating projects without banging your head on walls. And we have the answer: project templates. Project templates are a great way to easily replicate work within Wrike, and can be set up in just a few minutes. But before we jump too far into Template Babylon, let's really make sure a template is what you should use. How to Decide If You Should Use Project Templates Step 1: Determine the complexity of the project on a scale of 1-4, with 1 being very simple, and 4 being very complex. Step 2: Determine the frequency of the project on a scale of 1-4, with 1 being very infrequent, and 4 being a constantly recurring project. If your score is over 3 in each category, you should definitely use templates. If your score is over 3 in frequency, but is less than 3 in complexity, you could benefit from a template. If your score is under 1 or 2 in both categories, then you're better off using tasks, subtasks, and custom workflows to manage your work. Still unsure? Here is a list of common use cases for creating templates. It's just a few examples, and not meant to box you in. If your situation lies outside of these examples, but you think you could benefit from templates, we encourage you to try it out and see if it works for your team! Common Use Cases for Creating Templates: Purchase Orders Implementations Marketing Campaigns Product Development Workflows Application processes (applying for patents, etc.) Any repeating projects with multiple steps Decided you need templates in your life? We're here to help! Read on. How to Create Project Templates in Wrike Now that you know you need a template, let's get started actually building them out. Step 1: Create a folder and call it "Templates". You can create this folder under your root folder, or if you have multiple teams from different departments in Wrike, create this folder in your specific department folder (e.g. create the Marketing Templates folder inside your main Marketing folder). Step 2: Inside this Templates folder you've just created, create a subfolder for a project you are constantly repeating. Start building out the tasks within this folder from your project's inception all the way through completion. Be sure to put a lot of detail into each task description so that anyone receiving this task for the first time will know exactly what to do. Once you're done with this step, you should have tasks for each necessary step in your project, including all relevant subtasks. Step 3: Go though all of the tasks you've just created and set the proper duration for each task. (e.g. Task X will take 2 days to complete.) You don't need to set a specific date yet — that comes later. Step 4: Determine if you have any dependencies within your project. If your tasks can all happen at the same time, you won't need dependencies, and can move on to the next step. But most likely, your tasks will need to be accomplished in a specific order, which means you will need to set up dependencies. To start with dependencies, assign the dates of each task to today's date. From there, switch over to the Timeline View, and begin dragging and dropping tasks to reschedule them and set dependencies between them. For more info about how to set up specific dependencies, check our help page. Once everything is rescheduled and dependencies are set, you should have something that looks like this: Step 5 (optional): If you choose, you can make the last task in your template a milestone, as it will serve as a firm deadline for your project. You can also add assignees to your tasks if it will always be the same person repeating those tasks. But we don't recommend this, as you could easily overload someone's workload by forgetting to reassign those tasks after duplicating the template. Step 6: Now that you've set up all the dependencies for your template's workflow, the last step is to change each of the tasks statuses to "Deferred." This ensures that a task residing in the template folder won't be confused with any duplicate tasks holding the same title. You can do this by jumping back to the List View, selecting all tasks, and changing the task status to "Deferred" on the right-hand panel of the page. And voilá, you've now created a project template in Wrike! How to Start a Project from a Template Now that we've created your template, let's talk about how to use it when a project lands on your desk. Step 1: Duplicate the template. Go to your templates folder and right-click on the template you want to use. Click "Duplicate Folder." When prompted, you'll want to copy the folder with the task descriptions, assignees (if applicable), custom field values, and then reschedule the new project. If you used a milestone as your last task in the template, schedule the end date as the final completion date for the project. If you did not use a milestone, schedule the start date for whenever you want your project to begin. You should also rename the folder to accurately depict the name of the client, project, or process that you will be repeating. Step 2: Drag and drop the template into its appropriate folder. You should then move this folder to where you have previously stored projects of this same nature (e.g. a duplicated marketing campaign should live in the active campaigns folder). Step 3: Assign the tasks. Go through each task in the template and assign it to team members with available bandwidth to complete the tasks. The Workload View is great for this function, as you can see who is available to take on another project, and who is already booked. You're done! Go through this process for all other repeatable projects. No banging head on walls required! Have questions about creating project templates in Wrike? Ask us in the comments, or contact our Support team — we're here to help!
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.
Hiring? You Need This Ultimate Employee Onboarding Template
Overwhelmed new hires? Strained managers? Inundated HR team members? Bringing in new hires doesn’t have to be a headache. Our ultimate employee onboarding template has everything you need to smoothly transition new hires into your organization.
3 Step Process to Building a Project Work Plan Template in Wrike
A project work plan allows you to outline the requirements of a project, project planning steps, goals, and team members involved in the project. This provides visibility to everyone involved, keeps project deliverables organized in one place, and helps you stay on track to reach your objectives.
How to Create an Excel Timeline Template
Visual timelines are essential tools for planning, tracking, and managing a project. You can map out dependencies and milestones to get an accurate overview of progress and deadlines, and create a reusable version, such as an event timeline template, to steer your future projects too. But while using these Gantt chart-style timelines for project management is fairly easy, creating one in Excel can be tricky. We'll walk you through the process of how to make a timeline in Excel and share a project schedule template you can reuse for future work. How to Create a Timeline in Excel Step 1: Start by creating a table List each task in your project from beginning to end, including key decisions and deliverables, and set a start date, end date, and duration for each one. Next, turn your table into a bar chart. Select Insert, then click the Bar Chart icon and choose the 2-D stacked bar chart. Step 2: Add Start Dates Right click your empty bar chart, then choose Select Data. When the Data Source window appears, click Add under Legend Entries (Series). The Edit Series window will appear. Click in the empty “Series name:“ field, then click on the Start Date cell of the table you created in step 1. Finally, click on the spreadsheet icon to the right of the “Series values:” field to open the Edit Series window. Click on the first Start Date in your table, then drag your mouse down to the last Start Date to highlight all your task start dates. Click on the spreadsheet icon at the end of the Edit Series form. The previous window will appear; select ‘Ok.” Step 3: Add Durations Follow the same process with your Durations column: click Add under Legend Entries (Series). Select the empty “Series: name” field, then click the first Duration cell in your table. Click the spreadsheet icon next to the Series values field to open the Edit Series window. Select the first duration in your table, and drag your mouse down to the last duration to select all your duration entries. Click the spreadsheet icon to the right of the Edit Series form, then select Ok to add durations to your Excel timeline. Step 4: Add Task Names Right click on any bar in your chart and choose Select Data. Click the spreadsheet icon to the right of Category (X) Axis Labels, then click and drag to highlight the names of your tasks in your table. Do not select the name of the column (Task), only the task names themselves. Then click ok, and ok again. Step 5: Format Your Gantt Chart You now have a stacked bar chart indicating the starting dates of your tasks and their durations—but your tasks are in reverse order. Right click your list of tasks and select Format Axis. Select the ‘Categories in reverse order’ checkbox. To hide the blue part of each bar, right click on the blue part of any bar and choose Format Data Series. Click Fill, then select No fill. Then click Border Color and select No line, and finally Shadow and unclick the Shadow box. Then delete the unnecessary bar chart key to create more space. To get rid of the white space at the beginning of your Gantt chart, right click on the first Start Date in your data table and choose Format Cells. Under General, write down the number listed. Hit Cancel. Back in your Gantt chart, right click on the dates above the bars and choose Format Axis. Change the Minimum bound to the number you’ve written down. Select close. If you want to get rid of the white space between the bars, right click on the top red bar and select Format Data Series. Set Separated to 100% and Gap Width to 10%. Congratulations! You’ve created a project timeline in Excel. Download a Free Excel Timeline Template Instead of creating your own project timeline template in Excel, download one that's ready made. Track deadlines and project status for all kinds of projects, from software development to online marketing campaigns, with this free timeline template download from Microsoft Office. An Easier Way to Create Project Timelines As you can see, it’s time consuming and tedious to create project timelines in Excel. Plus, whenever a deadline changes or new tasks need to be added, it’s difficult to manually update your Excel chart. Instead of messing with spreadsheets and table formatting, use an online Gantt chart. Wrike’s Timeline feature lets you easily plan your projects, set due dates, milestones and dependencies, and adjust to changes by dragging and dropping tasks and durations. You can also share your timeline with colleagues, or take a snapshot and send the link to clients and stakeholders so they can get progress updates quickly and easily. Get a free trial of Wrike and try it out for yourself, with nothing to download or install.
Introducing Wrike's Project Templates for Salesforce
Keeping track of all the work being done for your customers can be a challenge when many of your teams (like Legal, Marketing, and Professional Services) don’t work in Salesforce. When this happens, work gets dropped and customers get upset. Today, we're excited to announce Wrike’s new Salesforce Project Templates to make collaboration between sales and cross-functional teams smoother, so you can make customers happier. Watch this short video to see how they work: How it works: You can now link project templates in Wrike to Salesforce, which will provide a menu of project choices for your sales reps. For example, you could create a template for post-sale implementations, and when an account executive closes a new deal they can select that package from the menu in Salesforce. When they do, your implementation team will immediately see the new project in Wrike and get notifications, so they can get started right way. Project Templates are great for any team that frequently works with your sales team. Instead of starting every similar project from scratch, Wrike will automatically set up the project and schedule the tasks based on when you say work needs to start or finish. Here are some common examples of how customers are using templates: Professional Services Your implementation team might have several standard packages. For instance, at Wrike we have Gold, Silver, and Platinum packages. Create templates for each of them so the sales team can quickly pick the right project template after closing a deal. Legal review Create a template for legal reviews so your legal team can keep all comments, discussions, and versions together in Wrike and linked to the customer record in Salesforce. Demo requests Make it easy for your sales team to schedule a sales engineer for a demo by creating demo templates. Marketing support Create templates for different types of marketing materials you provide to customers (emails, hand-outs, manuals, etc.) and keep track of the support you provided. Getting started: The Wrike Salesforce Integration is available to all Wrike Enterprise accounts. If you're a Wrike Enterprise customer you can install the integration from your apps and integration page. You will need a Salesforce Administrator to install the integration. Once you've installed the integration, linking templates to Salesforce only takes a minute. Click here for instructions on how to setup templates in Salesforce. If you’re not a Wrike Enterprise customer start a Free Trial today and give it a try. Any other questions? Reach out to our Support Team! They’re standing by and ready to help.
How to Supercharge Lead Generation With Project Management
The right project management strategies can teach marketers how to nurture customer relationships, scale lead generation efforts, and produce better, more organized systems for success. Read on for examples and tactics you should know to increase your marketing leads and convert a higher percentage into sales.
4 Reasons to Have a Professional Services Management Template
The growing demand for project management skills is a huge threat to professional services businesses. Time tracking, resource management, collaboration and beyond, you need a professional services project management template. Here's why and a prebuilt free online professional services template you can download today.
4 Things to Keep in Mind When Building a Product Launch Template
Leveraging a product launch template helps your team map out each step of a complex project. Wrike’s free product launch plan breaks it all down and ensures every product launch is more successful than the last. This introduction helps you turn your overwhelming checklist into actionable strategy for success.
Unlock All Your Team “Kan” Do With a Kanban Template
Creating a Kanban template means clearly defining your workflows and using a Kanban board to track progress visually. Your work management platform is the perfect tool to build your flexible Kanban style project template. Ditch those sticky notes and whiteboards while solving your team's biggest project management challenges.
Elements of a Standout Social Media Template
You can find no shortage of social media templates online, but very few offer the flexibility and ease of use needed to keep pace with an evolving social strategy. We’ve isolated the crucial elements of a standout social media plan template to help you build a lasting presence across multiple channels.
Achieve Collaborative Writing Nirvana with Wrike
Wrike tasks pack a lot of punch. Ideas about how an action item can be captured and executed are possible with fields for everything from duration and due date to task importance. However, the real magic lives in the feature-packed task description section. Because the task description works like word processing software, content marketing teams around the world are leveraging task descriptions to draft, edit, and update their writing on a daily basis. The benefits are many: Tasks and their content live in the cloud. This means that you never need to scour through your email searching for the latest version of a document. And you won't worry about whether or not your changes will be lost in case, say, your Word document suddenly decides to crash. Wrike autosaves your work every second so you never lose a single letter. The Live Editor built into the task description area allows multiple people to edit and write on the same task, simultaneously. Similar to Google Docs, each person’s cursor appears in the description area as a different color so you can see exactly who is doing what. Revision history allows you to go back in time to revive or reference old versions of your text. No more "Where did that paragraph go?" You can figure it out immediately. 6 Tips to Improve Your Content Collaboration Efforts 1. Colored highlights point out specific comments and phrases. Wrike offers six colors for highlighting text. Leverage these during the revision phase to call out sentences or phrases that need to be updated. This will quickly draw the reader's eyes to the areas that need immediate attention and ensure that all suggestions are addressed. If you’re stepping in quickly, simply highlight entire sections that seem clumsy or need rethinking. Highlighting is also an ideal reminder to add links, styling, and formatting. Bonus tip: if your team is small enough, have every person adopt a fixed color so at one glance you know the red highlights are from Mary, and the purple highlights are from Richard. 2. Revision history tracks small and big changes. Have you ever noticed the little clock in the formatting bar of the task description? With a couple of clicks you can step back in time like Marty McFly and revisit every second of your task’s existence. This is a great tool to see who’s made what changes, recover information that may have been accidentally deleted, and better understand the content's progress from start to finish. 3. Comments allow conversations and feedback. Keep the conversation about the content right where the content is being created and edited. Wrike’s comments system makes it easy to request feedback from colleagues, add your own thoughts, and let team members know when you have completed your work on the task. By keeping the conversation where the work is happening, no one needs to jump back and forth between emails and documents. This minimizes the number of windows you need to keep open and helps you to execute more productively. 4. Folder tags move content through its life cycle. If you’ve read my blog post on using Wrike as a CRM or using Wrike as a ticketing system, you’ll know that I’m a bit of an addict when it comes to tagging tasks. Managing the content process is no different. Create custom folders to track the life cycle of your writing from ideation to publication. Think about how your team operates and the steps you take when creating content before setting up a folder structure. If your team draws its ideas from a backlog, create a place in Wrike for those ideas to live. One approach could be to start with “Drafting,” then move the task through “Editing,” "Designing," “Scheduling,” and finish it off with "Published." Remember, there is no right or wrong way to set up your folders. It’s all about what makes the most sense for your team. 5. Subtasks and checklists track multi-step content projects. If you haven't seen it yet, Wrike has launched Subtasks in Beta (you can enable them for your profile by visiting www.wrike.com/labs). Subtasks are a fantastic way to break down the creation process and keep team members on track. For example, there are multiple steps involved when sending out a newsletter. Create, schedule, and assign subtasks for each step to ensure individual team members are held accountable for their work and get it done on time. Alternatively, you can use Wrike's simple checklists built into the task's description area. This option is perfect for small teams that work closely together and don't need full-blown subtasks to track their work efficiently. 6. Attachments help manage external files. While we love to see you working in Wrike, we know that there are times you will need to create content outside of the workspace. After attaching your external files to the related task, Wrike supports version control and gives you the ability to edit Office files without downloading — two features that are critical for a collaborative content team. Version control is perfect for tracking changes and updates to images and other visual files. In the attachments section, select "New version" or "Add new" (depending one whether or not you've already uploaded files) and select the version you want to view, or add your latest edition. Wrike helps content teams, writers, academics, and freelancers complete their writing commitments with grace. Check out this video for some of these tips and tricks in action. Let us know: How are you using Wrike to achieve Collaborative Writing Nirvana?
Project Management Templates: #PMChat on PM Templates Discussion Recap
Learn from the experts in this recap of the recent Project Management Twitter chat hosted by @PMChat. Topics include: Whether project managers have a standard set of templates for each project Recommendations about what to include in project status updates What types of templates PMs use for each project Project Management Templates: #PMChat on PM Templates Discussion Summary View more lists from Wrike Team What else would you add to the templates discussion? Feel free to add your ideas in the comments!
Wrike Remote Work Template Brings Teams Together & Keeps Projects On Track
To put an end to the disorganized virtual workspace, the lack of clarity on high-priority work, and disjointed employee communication, Wrike has created a Remote Work Template. Read how our pre-built configuration can help your remote teams thrive.
How to Create a Lean Canvas Model (Template)
According to the Harvard Business Review, many startups fail because they waste resources building the wrong product and neglecting customer research. This is typically the result of a lack of proper problem understanding at the start. That’s where the lean canvas model comes in. Traditionally, business plans are long documents that take weeks (or more) to create. They provide every single detail business owners can think of about the ins and outs of their idea. Not only is this process tedious, but the result is too dense to truly understand in any actionable way. The lean canvas model was created in response to these issues. This strategically simple tool distills the most critical factors of your business into a meaningful outline. In this guide on creating a lean canvas model, we’ll show you how to maximize its effectiveness while answering all of your most frequently asked questions about the topic. What is a lean canvas model? A lean canvas model is a lean project management tool that helps you deconstruct your business idea into its key assumptions. It was originally created by Ash Maurya in response to the Business Model Canvas by Alex Osterwalder. The Business Model Canvas The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is becoming more prevalent within large enterprises. It’s helping product managers develop compelling business cases for new products and services. And it makes sense why; the BMC is a powerful tool that helps visualize and evaluate the viability of an idea. The BMC takes you back to a time when you were thinking about a business instead of just a product or a proposition. One of the main reasons organizations use the BMC is because it enables them to connect with their business stakeholders in a way that's both productive and user-friendly. The Lean Canvas Model The lean canvas model, on the other hand, is a conceptual framework that is used to test various parts of the business model. On the lean canvas model, boxes represent key attributes or actions required to improve project management status or business process. The driving concept of the lean canvas is that it can help you identify the customer problem-focused areas of your business and develop solutions to address them. Getting to know your unfair advantage can also help identify areas where you can improve upon. This step is unique to the lean canvas model, helping business leaders and managers develop a more robust business model overall. Business Model vs. Lean Model Both the BMC and the lean canvas model provide the same benefits and opportunities. That is, to represent a business model on one page. But what makes the lean canvas model so unique is that it can serve as a tool for all of the following: Coming up with new ideas Determining viability Confirming or dismantling assumptions Encouraging feedback and conversation Comparing multiple ideas side by side Raising funds Communicating clearly with teams Offering nontechnical explanations of products and services Could a lean canvas model help your business? You might think that having a sea of numbers is helpful, but it can also lead to the confusion of identifying the right key macro or action steps. This single-page business model is quick and straightforward to complete. Because it is on the shorter side, it is easier to share with others. You can also combine it with an OKR (Objects and Key Results) template or any other business model summarization tool. Another benefit is that teams companywide can treat it as a living document and update it accordingly. This is especially useful when teams are looking to cut waste wherever possible. And if you need to create a few different options, it won’t take a long time to draft and compare. To write a successful lean canvas model, your draft needs to grab attention, cut the fat, and highlight only the most important elements of your business. Once complete, business leaders can use this document to persuade investors, give board presentations, and update teammates with ease. Another common use for the lean canvas model is to create a visual representation of a startup business model. Entrepreneurs will then get feedback and polish their pitches using this tool as a jumping-off point. If any of these benefits sound appealing to you, then the lean canvas model combined with a lean project management approach will help your business. Lean canvas model example and template To better understand the power of a lean canvas model, let’s take a close look at this lean canvas model from Google that executives presumably created 20+ years ago. Google is the world’s most popular search engine. Everyone has heard the story of how it was started in a garage in California and that it has since grown into a multinational company that specializes in various products and services. Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, were inspired by the need for a better search engine but they needed to come up with a way to translate that idea into an actionable concept. That's when they invented the PageRank algorithm, which is now used by millions of websites globally. Here’s an example of the lean canvas model they used to visualize their idea: Problem: Existing search engines produce irrelevant search results making it difficult to find high-quality answers to queries. Existing alternatives: AltaVista, Yahoo, Excite Solution: Develop a technology that would allow users to search and find relevant content. Key metrics: Number of search requests and percent of users who end their search on the first page. Unique value proposition: Faster search with better results High-level concept: Fast web search based on the relevancy of results Unfair advantage: Innovation. Google PageRank technology. Channels: User references. Note: This box has since become the Customer Relationships segment Customer segments: All web users Early adopters: Stanford students Cost structure: Hosting, development Revenue streams: Investment, ad revenue Notice how they were able to capture the entire essence of Google as we know it today in only 100 words? While your lean canvas model doesn’t have to adhere to a certain word count, this example showcases just how succinct you can be. Most answers to segments are bullet points and incomplete sentences. But they directly address the category and give the reader the need-to-know information. Not only is this lean canvas model example easy to understand, but it’s also easy to connect the dots between where they started and where they’re going. Now, decades later, the entire world knows what Google is and what they do. Plus, they’ve kept the promises they laid out in their original lean canvas model. Lean canvas model segments explained Problem Understand what, exactly, your product is trying to solve. Most founders start with their idea for a solution without really taking the time to understand this section. Existing alternatives Research what your target audience who experiences this problem currently uses to solve it. List 3-5 of the top options they currently have. Solution Describe what your product is and how it fixes the problem in a sentence. Key metrics List key performance indicators that you’ll use to determine whether or not your solution is the best. These should be simple and straightforward. They should also be attainable. Unique value proposition What does your solution bring to the table that the alternatives currently do not? High-level concept Think of this as your 8-second elevator pitch. Focus on the what and the why. Unfair advantage This is, quite literally, what your product is unfairly good at. Ideally, it will be something competitors cannot replicate or, if they can, their results will likely be of lower quality. Lean canvas model creator Ash Maurya wants entrepreneurs to know that this step is not meant to trip you up and it definitely shouldn’t slow down your progress on this exercise. The goal of this box is to encourage you to keep working towards finding an unfair advantage in the marketplace. It is inevitable that a startup will get caught up in the fast-moving world of competition. So don’t worry if you’re feeling uninspired. Write what makes the most sense to you now and come back to it later once you have more experience, feedback, and industry knowledge. Customer relationships Identify the right path to reach your ideal customers so you can guarantee you’re building a solution they actually want to use. Customer segments Who will use your product? Point out one or two major groups. Early adopters For Google, this was a group of students they had access to for direct product feedback. For you, this will be anyone outside of your organization who will first have access to your solution. Cost structure Outline your top biggest expenses besides the obvious general office supplies. If you need to cut costs later, you can keep these core elements and decrease the rest. Revenue streams How will your product make money? List one to three ways you can prove that the product will create opportunities for revenue growth. What is a lean product canvas, and when should you use one? A lean product canvas is the same as a lean canvas model, except that it focuses on a product rather than a service or way of running your business. You should use a lean product canvas whenever you need to illustrate your idea for a new product, a product upgrade, or a third-party product collaboration. In other words, if you need a tool to communicate your business idea to anyone, this is a great option. Do I need a business model canvas? The business model canvas is a simple formula that will help improve the focus and clarity of your business. If you’ve ever found yourself in need of sharing a new business venture idea, working out the details for an existing one, or pitching for funding, then this is the tool for you. Not only is it free and simple to use, but it’s also highly accessible. Wrike has created a lean model canvas template you can take advantage of when you begin your two-week free trial. Streamline your business model, get better quality feedback, and raise seed funding through a lean canvas model you make with Wrike.