During the first months of studying at University, I often asked myself whether I should find a part-time job in Karlsruhe, the city where I am studying. I constantly drove back to Ulm, where I’m from, to work at my old mini-job, which made adjusting in Karlsruhe complex. However, this was to change with my new working student job.

I began my search by writing down a few criteria, points, and questions that were the most important to me. Is the workplace easily accessible via public transport? Is the working atmosphere hierarchical or more familiar? Would I learn skills at this job needed for my future? Does the employer allow me to work from home, since I travel home often? Am I able to improve my English language skills at this job? 

I applied for various jobs that fit my criteria. Then came the first invitation from Zenkit.

Due to the circumstances of the pandemic, I had a telephone interview. This was challenging to me since my previous interviews were always conducted face-to-face, and I couldn’t gauge how to leave a lasting impression via telephone interview. 

Despite the circumstances, I was soon notified that I had received the job. Following that, I received very good onboarding in my area of responsibility, my tasks, and to the team in general. I have now been working at Zenkit in the Customer Service department for almost two years.

In my job I help and advise interested parties and customers with all product inquiries. I try to process and solve customer problems independently as best I can. In this way, our users are always informed and can carry out their work with our products in the best possible way.

By working in customer service, I was able to expand my knowledge and skills in the area of customer service and customer contact. Since I have many inquiries in English, I was also able to expand my vocabulary in the area of technical and business English.

In addition to my regular tasks and duties, I maintain the Reddit page for Zenkit. There I advise, help, and discuss with customers and other Reddit users who are interested in Zenkit.

Since I work at home and remotely most of the time, I can’t tell you much about working in the office. However, sometimes there is cake, for which, of course, I make an exception to my usual routine and come to work at the office. Even though I’m not in the office that much, I enjoy the camaraderie-feel when working in the small community at Zenkit. Everyone is friendly, always courteous, and helpful.

Does the work help me with my studies? Yes, it does. The insight into IT and, to some extent, business activities, are very relevant both in my degree program and outside my studies.

Personally, I am happy with my choice. The fact that Zenkit has more of a startup atmosphere makes it more pleasant and direct in my opinion. This makes it easier for me as a working student to take a step into the working world.

If you’re interested in working at Zenkit, we’ve got spots open! Send an email to jobs@zenkit.com for more info

The post Internship Insight: Customer Service appeared first on Zenkit.

Your product is the most significant part of your brand. When people try your product, they form an opinion about it and associate it with your company. So be it your first or ninth product, you need to ensure that your customers are completely satisfied with what it does.

For startups, in particular, it is even more challenging because of the uncertainty of how long you are going to stay in the market. The potential customers, in this case, are afraid that their time and money will be wasted if you just disappear from the market. 

Putting the fear aside, there is no shortage of startups that built a product and made millions out of it very soon. What these startups did is something you should note before you start developing a product.

There are a lot of sources that you can use as inspiration, but it is not only the idea of the product that matters. It’s about how you move forward and take care of the execution part. The execution part does not end once you’ve finished developing the product either. In fact, it continues even after that. 

Launching the product correctly is also as important as developing a product. Why? It’s because if your launch fails and you’re not able to generate the required sales to keep your business running,  then it doesn’t matter how good your product is.

So here, we have identified two of the major factors that determine if your business is going to be successful. These are the proper development of the product and the effective launch, which takes place after the development. This article consists of some tips on both these factors to bring the best out of your potential. Let’s begin.

Tips to Build a Product Successfully

If you are in a technical industry, you must have experienced the constant urge to perfect the project before handing it over to the customer. This is a great thought for your customers, but the problem with this is that you can run out of money without catering to the actual needs of the customers. This is where tons of companies go wrong.

Your customers can’t wait a lifetime for you to give them what you’re building. Here are some of the crucial ways to keep things on track for making a triumphant product.

Discover the Unmet Need Of Customers

Irrespective of how much growth we see in the industry, customers always want something better – something that they have not got yet. If you are starting out in the industry, these unmet needs can give you a product idea or feature that can almost ensure that your product will be a success.

In order to know what the unmet needs are, you can create some questions to interview your customers, whether existing or potential. You have to ensure that your questions tell you what the problem of your customers is. 

More importantly, you need to carefully listen to what they say. By listening to their answers, you’ll get to know more about the nature of their pain, which will allow you to come up with a product that a customer cannot deny purchasing.

Develop Hypothesis

Now you have made some observations about what your customer’s actual needs are and you know how to align yourself with them. The next step is to make intelligent guesses about the features that you could add to the product to make it accepted on a worldwide level. Moreover, you should work on figuring out what’s the estimated number of users that would use the prototype with those features. When you know what the average customer adoption number is going to be, you get to decide how much you should actually invest in the product.

Define Your Product

Since you have already interviewed people to find out their unmet needs, you have a clear picture of who your target audience is and what it is that they want. Now you just have to give them a reason to choose your product over the others available on the market.

Here you should take tips from successful brands about how they define their product and values, and integrate them into the entire company. Sales, marketing, finance, public relations, and offers – everything works around how you’ve defined your product. You have to dig deeper to find out what your company offers that no one else does. At the same time, you have to emphasize the qualities that make your product effective.

When defining your product, associate it with a story so that the customer can emotionally connect with it.

Prototype the Solution

Now you know what the features that your product can have are, it’s time to move to the next step, and start building a quick prototype with those features. The first version is not meant to completely satisfy the customer; it is more for you than for them. It helps you identify the track on which you should move to minimize the gap between what a prototype does and what the actual product should do to convince the customers to buy it.

Proper Project Management

To make the actual product, you have to go through the prototype. But deciding what the prototype should entail is also not a piece of cake. You have to keep many factors in mind while prioritizing the features of your product. In this case, when you are finding it difficult to decide what should be included, a prioritization framework can be of great help to you.

A prioritization framework consists of certain criteria that product teams of the company can use to rank features according to the business value in the order of priority. The framework allows you to minimize biases, avoid analysis paralysis, and more importantly, support decisions that are made strategically. Because it eliminates these biases, product management also becomes easier. 

With the help of frameworks, communicating the priorities to the leaders and stakeholders also becomes relatively easy.

The prioritization framework that you should choose depends on the nature of your product, the customers served, individual choices and the culture of the organization. Your product team has to pick the one that suits them best, and then apply it uniformly across the product. This takes us to the next part of the article. Here, we are going to share some tips that you can incorporate to successfully launch your product.

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Tips that Guarantee a Successful Product Launch

There are many companies that have made the mistake of presenting their final product to their audience without having any strategic product launch plan in place. As a result, most of them face financial issues and the promotion of products also becomes ineffective. To make a product launch successful, you’ll need proper research from reliable and experienced marketers. Here are some successful product launch tips:

Know The Details Of Your Product

What is the most important aspect of the product launch? Well, obviously, it’s the product itself! Therefore, it is essential that before launching the product everyone has a clear picture of what it offers. You should know how your product will fill the gap and benefit the people using it.

During the launch, you need to connect with an ample amount of people to make the product financially viable. This will only happen if your product satisfies the users in every aspect, like quality, functionality, and price. If all of this is in place, you’ll have a product that sells itself.

Putting forward the features that will most benefit the user is the first step that you need to follow for a successful product launch. You should even highlight these features in the launch.

Identify Your Competition

There is a product for almost everything in the market. Therefore, it is only natural that with time you’ll be up against massive competition. So how would you survive in the market then? It is only possible by knowing what the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors are.

Their strengths tell you about the advantage they have over you. You can use this information to bring improvements to your product and get a step ahead of them. Their weaknesses, on the other hand, can help you make a better pitch in the market.

It is also essential to know how your competitors launched their products and how they do their marketing. It will surely guide you on the path to promoting your products in a way that beats them.

Build a USP and UVP

Now you know who your audience is, what they want, and how you can help them. All that is left for you to do is convince those people that you are the best in the business and so is your product. 

You must show them the benefit that they are going to get if they purchase your product. For this, you’ll need to establish Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and Unique Value Proposition (UVP). These propositions tell everything important about your product to convince the customers that it is the best one available in the market.

Promote Your Launch and Product

Before you get into the launching part, it is essential to ensure that the product is completely ready to be launched on the market. Once everything is sorted about the product, only then should you know how to launch a product campaign.

At some point, you’ll have to create a buzz about the product in the market. You can use ads, press releases, and social media campaigns to reach out to as many people interested as you can. The team must come up with unique strategies to market the product. The promotion of the product should start well before the launch date so that there’s enough buzz in the market for you to gain instant acquisition.

Final Thoughts

For any company to succeed in making effective products, it is essential to follow a certain framework. Once you have everything in place, from idea to execution, develop in parts, and get instant feedback from the customer about the performance of each part. 

Once the product is completely developed, jump right into the promotion to create the necessary buzz. The buzz, in addition to various marketing strategies, will help you get customer acquisition. All of these factors, when placed together, enable you to create a successful product and launch.

About the author: Vibhu Dhariwal is a Co-Founder & Director of Marketing at Digital Gratified, a Digital Marketing & Web Development company. He likes sharing his experience in product marketing, SaaS marketing, content marketing, and SEO with readers. To know more about him, you can connect with him on LinkedIn.

The post 9 Tips to Build and Launch a Product Successfully appeared first on Zenkit.

As a growing company, we’re always on the lookout for talent. With plenty of room to gain hands-on work experience, our door is open to students and graduates alike. To give you a glimpse of the variety of jobs needed to make your favorite project management tool sparkle, we had a chat with our product management intern on his experience working at Zenkit.

Name: Alex

Role: Product Management (Hypernotes)

Explain what a product manager is. What kind of tasks do product managers typically handle?
As a product manager you are the contact person between the product and the different departments in the company. I mainly focused on online marketing and PR tasks during my internship, but the beauty of product management in combination with a small company is that you will get a look into a lot of different areas.

Tell us one thing you found challenging during your internship.
I was working on various tasks from day one. Within the first month, I was responsible for various projects. For example, creating and handling the social media accounts for Hypernotes.

Tell us at least two things you have learned while working at Zenkit.

1. 1. How to effectively handle online marketing strategies without spending a ton of money on ads.
   2. How the release of a new product is handled internally.

What brought you to this role?
I was searching for internship opportunities and uploaded my resume to the website Cyberforum. Zenkit reached out and scouted me for the position.  

When you’re not working, what are you doing?
Different things: Playing online games with friends, following Esports leagues, and enjoying time with the family.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Teleportation, because walking is boring.

What is your next step?
Finishing my bachelor’s degree. I start writing my thesis next semester.

Cheers, Alex. We wish you all the best!

If you’re interested in working on Zenkit, we’ve got spots open! Send an email to jobs@zenkit.com for more info

The post Internship Insight: Q&A with Alex appeared first on Zenkit.

For decades, remote work has been a concept reserved for freelancers, creatives, and tech professionals. Although companies allowing home offices for their employees was not a novel phenomenon, it wasn’t mainstream. A paradigm shift came with the pandemic, making working from home a necessity rather than just a benefit of the workplace. 

This rapid shift showed the benefits and challenges of remote working, affecting team communication and project collaboration. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that the home office is here to stay and many companies are adopting hybrid models. Upwork predicts that 73% of teams will have remote workers by 2028.

Digital collaboration tools (like the Zenkit Suite!) that promise better teamwork despite the distance compete for the limelight. With much software to choose from, it’s important for teams and companies to adopt tools that will complement team productivity, supporting their workflow within these new standard work models.

What’s the deal with New Work & Industry 4.0?

We live in the age of New Work and Industry 4.0. New Work defines today’s working society in the global and digital age. The integration of intelligent technologies under the term Industry 4.0 promotes a whole new concept of productivity and efficient systems. But what does all this have to do with remote work?

Well, depending on how you look at it, a little or a lot. The publication of the New York Times bestseller “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss is a good place to start making the connection. By demonstrating in his book how individuals can be just as productive in less time through process optimization, a stark contrast was created to the entrenched norm of the 40-hour workweek, initially created for production lines.

The appeal of flexible work hours and the nomadic freedom to prioritize work-life balance has only grown. Remote work and home office are the results of technological development enabling and demonstrating that work can be executed successfully without co-location. Flexjobs estimates that 4.7 million people were already working remotely before the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Collaboration tools support this type of lifestyle, where professionals work outside of a traditional office environment, yet going fully digital isn’t as simple as it seems. Besides the fact that having a stable internet connection is an imperative requirement, remote work complicates the integration of corporate culture, as well as team communication, and engagement within tasks and projects.

Whether working in an office or remotely, the art of effective team management and the importance of good workplace communication are key elements and indicators for successful team collaboration. 

Types of work models

With an increasing number of modern variations of working models, we’ve described a few of the most common types:

1. 40-Hour-Workweek, or, the classic 9-to-5

Initially instigated in the 19th century, from workers protesting against gruelling long hours and requesting a reduction, the 40-hour-workweek was created to regulate the working hours of the working class. Ford Motor Company advanced the idea in 1914, which led to increased productivity in the production line. Many companies soon followed suit and the popularized phrase of “8 hours for work, 8 hours for rest, and 8 hours for what we will” was born.  

Today, most companies and organizations run on the 40-hour-workweek. Albeit, more out of tradition and habit rather than a deliberate decision based on employee productivity. With this knowledge and recent technological developments, individuals and organizations are reexamining the classic 9-to-5 working model. 

2. Hybrid Model, where Home Office is part of the deal

Hybrid models are usually known to be the best of both worlds. Organizations that have adopted hybrid working models allow employees the freedom to work remote or from home, and at times even to manage flexible working hours. This working model has become more popular in recent years as company infrastructure has developed. Owl Labs estimate that 52% of global employees work remotely once a week, and 68% do so at least once per month. Though hybrid models seem to be the answer for the future of work, only a selected range of job sectors can take advantage of these benefits, particularly due to job requirements and tasks.

3. Remote Work, work without co-location

Working with a view of the Swiss Alps in February, at a seaside hotel in Los Angeles in July, and from a coffee shop in downtown Sydney in October, is a dream come true for some. As much as this idealized version of remote work appeals to many, this type of work model is not exempt from challenges, particularly for the self-employed.

Working remotely gives employees the freedom to answer emails and write up project proposals from any given location, yet being able to support this lifestyle can often be quite challenging when working as a freelancer rather than being directly employed by a private company. Creative freelancers often work on a project-basis, which means that their professional and financial security is deadline-reliant. 

Employees working for fully-remote companies like Zapier and Buffer however, receive the benefits of working remotely while being fully integrated in a company. Although working with peace of mind of receiving monthly paychecks, working for fully-remote companies include challenges too. 

That being said, there’s always a list of advantages and disadvantages. What’s important is finding a style and process that fits and suits your needs best. 

4. 4-Day-Workweek, popular work-life-balance model

In short, the 4-day-workweek model is about reducing working hours from a standard 40 hours to just 32 hours for the same pay and benefits. This work model, adopted by various companies worldwide, focuses on achieving the same output as a 40h week, but in a shorter amount of time. Proven by employees and employers to be successful in optimizing use of time in correlation to productivity, the 4-day-workweek offers flexibility and enables individuals to concentrate on what’s important in their lives.

5. Coworking Spaces, the office alternative for professionals

Considering the progression of work models, there’s a good chance that there’s at least one coworking space in every major city. As hubs of productivity, community, and technology, coworking spaces offer an out-of-home office atmosphere and networking opportunities with others who work in a multitude of industries. 

Fun fact: The first official coworking space appeared in 2005 in San Francisco, USA.

6. Work & Travel, the best of both worlds

Desk jobs aren’t your thing and travelling the world has always been but a mere daydream for you? The work and travel model operates on short-term contract work often based on seasonal work such as during harvest time. Adventurers who enjoy taking each day at a time move location to where the work is. In this case, location is the objective and the type of work is the dynamic subjective.

7. Workation, let’s combine work and leisure

The terms ‘workation’ and ‘bleisure’ gained significant traction as a new market trend in light of the pandemic. A concept for travelling workers or working travellers, where work and vacation were combined in a single location. According to Dr Hayley Stainton, “A workation can be defined as a holiday, during which a substantial amount of time is dedicated to work.”

In Japan, the model was originally a way to realize a variety of work styles and promote creativity and networking opportunities in locations outside of the home and office. Today, various travel and tourism organizations offer workation packages for individuals as well as families. 

Currently, travel restrictions and guidelines are subject to constant change. This in-depth guide on how to practice responsible tourism during COVID-19, prepares any traveller for the journey, whether for travelling to holiday destinations or for business trips.

How have things changed?

Before the pandemic, the office was where millions of us spent about a third of our time. With the range of working models already being implemented by organizations worldwide, why would the pandemic be considered a compelling driver to advance the standardization of home office or remote work? 

Simply put, the conditions of Covid-19 affirmed the urgency of digital transformation in business, and brought an unprecedented shift, designating hybrid working conditions a necessity rather than a benefit. 

The mentality of remote working previously highlighted the benefits for individual employees. Today, home office and remote work is considered an asset for individuals as well as an advantage for company productivity and collaboration. 

From one day to the next, the world was required to adjust. Arguably, the potential of remote work has been realized. At the same time, the challenges and conditions in terms of the privilege interlaced with the arrangement were revealed.

Benefits and challenges at a glance 

+ Remote work is reshaping a future new world of work, popularizing modern working habits while disproving old ideas that working from home leads to low productivity with limited opportunity for collaboration. 

+ The office-to-home transition caused a breakdown of emotional and professional barriers, allowing colleagues and clients a more intimate view into each others’ personal lives.

+ Importance of soft skills have increased as working remotely solicits more intentional interpersonal interactions.

– The potential for remote work is determined by tasks and activities, not occupations. 

– Working from home draws a fine line in an individual’s work-life balance. A heightened level of responsibility and trust is required from managers and employees.

– Affecting more than just personal factors, remote work affects engagement, performance management, means less office space, and more.

Benefits of remote working

Workplace values have been redefined: the future of work is remote. Instead of planning activities in life around working hours, remote working enables individuals to incorporate the necessities of their life and work. 

The popular concept of leading a work-life balance lifestyle advocates for similar objectives, but with different intentions. Work-life balance is a concept referring to the level of prioritization between personal and professional activities in an individual’s life. What many early adopters have come to realize is that the work-life balance lifestyle is a cycle rather than a destination or an achievement. 

1. Flexibility: Remote work grants individuals the opportunity to develop a work-life balance due to the flexibility offered through the working model. 

Remote working or working from home grants employees flexibility where it matters, whether that is picking up the children from school on time or allowing the laundry to dry in the sunlight rather than using the dryer. At best, working from home should reinforce an individual’s work-life balance. 

2. A Healthy Balance: Employees are able to manage their health, tasks, and responsibilities better. Eliminating the commute and rigid routines can alleviate stress to allow individuals to do deep work and grow their creativity. 

The flexible lifestyle isn’t the only thing proving beneficial to remote workers’ mental health and likelihood of company loyalty. Working from home simultaneously requires and fosters individual time and task management, and responsibility. 

Cutting travel time and other forms of mundanity from life, employees are able to focus on work. With less time spent commuting for example, employees are able to manage their health, tasks, and responsibilities better. As a result, a silent expectation for employees to rise to the occasion by living up to their potential is present. 

Despite the expectation, swapping out the busyness of crowded train stations for a 30-minute walk in the neighbourhood park with the dog can cause significant changes to an individual’s health. Now, instead of attending company-run in-person team-building activities, some companies set aside time in the week to encourage employees to engage in activities that inspire and empower them for work and life. 

3. Time Management: Remote work possibly requires more management, however simultaneously allows an increase in creative flow and productive output.

What remote work advocates promote, such as Laurel Farrer in her working remote article, is that “work is something you do, not somewhere you go… For knowledge workers whose roles rely on mobile tools, location should be a daily choice, not a lifestyle commitment.” With the right tools and circumstances, work doesn’t need to be chained to an office desk. 

Granted, working remotely makes employee and task supervision more complex. But with less time lost moving from one office room to another for meetings, and no more lines for afternoon coffee, more time can be invested in getting work done.

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4. Cost-saving (for businesses): Reducing the need for office space enables companies to invest in other things, preferably to the benefit of employees.

With fewer employees in the office, businesses need less office space, decreasing rent cost exponentially. Instead, companies can opt to invest in supplying employees with the necessary work equipment or offering other benefits as an alternative to the cost of the canteen upkeep.

Challenges of remote working

While eliminating location from the equation brings flexibility, certain concerns are also key variables when considering if and how to implement remote work at a company. Working remotely requires high self-management, time management, and team management. 

Engagement is usually what suffers first due to the distance. Managers and colleagues working from home can’t simply walk over to ask a question about the financial proposal or spend time catching up with their morning brew in the office kitchen on Mondays. Instead, an increase of chat notifications, forwarded emails and dedicated meetings to discuss workflow best describe the workday. 

1. Team Culture: The objective to encourage teamwork and cultivate a team and company spirit remains, although the method to achieve this may have changed.

Team meetings over Zoom or Skype are certainly different from those held in the office meeting room. When working with distributed teams, distance should merely be considered a factor rather than an obstacle for team integration. 

The method for scheduling and conducting meetings may have changed, but the objective to encourage teamwork and team spirit remains. Managers as well as coworkers require and should actively seek interpersonal relationships within the workplace. Just like work isn’t tied to a location, company culture isn’t contained in a building. Rather, corporate culture is cultivated by the individuals that make up the company.

The responsibility and journey for cultivating a strong and effective team and company culture is an individual process. That being said, there are ways and certain remote team management mistakes to avoid to make the process easier.

2. Management: Using productivity tools to manage and regulate team, task, and time management is the answer.

Every company uses software for everyday business operations. With oodles to choose from, it’s the team and company’s responsibility to evaluate which tools best support both internal and external business operations. Some companies use Suites, while others mix & match; some even create their own apps for internal processes.

Either way, when it comes down to the wire, productivity tools and team management software is a growing billion dollar business with a mixture of advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, team management software can build stronger teams. At the same time, it’s vital to analyze whether a productivity tool is actually enabling team productivity or not at all.   

3. Party for the privileged? Remote work is only available for those working in sectors or jobs that are primarily made up of online tasks and activities.

Praised for all of the benefits, working remotely isn’t available as a viable option for everyone. Hospitals, supermarkets, hairdressers, and other services will necessarily continue to be in-person. Although technology has certainly enabled medical consultations and other services to be handled online, not everything can be solved digitally. Even with advancements in machine learning and robotics, it’s hard to envision massage parlours or operating rooms to switch to robot-only employees. 

Research into the future of remote work from McKinsey Global Institute indicates that the potential for work is determined by tasks and activities, not occupations. Professionals able to avail of remote work fall into categories of highly skilled, highly educated workers in various industries, occupations, and geographies. For those already working with digital and mobile tools, like those working in the IT, communications, and marketing sector, the option of home office is often already included in the contract.

Collaboration tools for the workplace: the tools that keep employees productive despite distance

One of the most impactful changes the pandemic brought was to the way humans work. Businesses switched to digital collaboration tools for team communication, project management, and more. The best collaboration tools facilitate effective teamwork for tasks and projects, primarily in a streamlined manner.

In this case, there is no ‘one software fits all’, since the tools companies require should strengthen and support individual business operations and the organizational structures.  A countless list of applications and their alternatives are available for any type of work and team size. We’ve listed a few categories essential for remote teams: 

Chat Apps

The most widely used mobile apps are chat apps, because communication is necessary to get any work done. Originally created to replace email conversations, enterprise chat apps are essential internal communication platforms for teams today. Every company uses enterprise messaging applications to facilitate and boost teamwork, communication, and collaboration. 

The most popular enterprise chat apps allow teams to not only communicate with one another but also on specific topics, projects, and tasks. Depending on the interface, chat apps for business include features allowing teams to create channels, categorize topics, use quick edits, manage tasks, share files, conduct export functions, and more.

Top 4 Chat Apps for Business:

1. 1. Zenchat
   2. Slack
   3. Chanty
   4. Yammer

Video Conferencing Tools

Remote teams don’t have the option of organizing a team meeting in the boardroom on a Wednesday morning. Instead, video conferencing tools are used for coaching sessions, the quarterly report, team-building activities like Friday mocktail hour, and the company Christmas party.

The pandemic certainly accelerated the future of video communication. Microsoft Teams received an increase of 55 million users within a 5-month period and the latest report of the conference call company, Zoom, shows an 88% year-over-year jump in revenue.  

But it’s not just the conferencing tool companies who have realized the advantages and profits video communication brings to teams. Switching to video conferencing tools allows individuals to participate in meetings from the convenience of their own home, supports the flexible schedules of working parents and ultimately influences company culture. Significant features of such tools include screen sharing, presentation mode, meeting annotation, and creating subgroups within a meeting.

Top 4 Video Conferencing Tools for Business:

1. 1. Zoom
   2. Skype
   3. Microsoft Teams
   4. GoTo Meeting 

Project Management Software

Managing projects is no simple job. Tracking deadlines, updating task iterations, and communicating the project status to stakeholders are tasks project managers need to handle on a daily basis. 

Project management software enables teams to manage individual tasks and resources within projects.  Built for agile teams, project management tools include features such as tracking project progress, task management, project view switching, and plenty of other collaboration features.      

Top 5 Project Management Tools for Business:

1. 1. Projects
   2. Asana
   3. Wrike
   4. Basecamp
   5. Zoho Projects

Knowledge Management Software

Knowledge management software are excellent tools for teams to manage everything from internal company processes such as onboarding information to managing a customer database. Primarily focused on the collection, storage, and organization of data and information, these tools help teams with all sorts of administrative tasks.

Top 4 Knowledge Management Tools for Business:

1. 1. Hypernotes
   2. Base
   3. Salesforce
   4. Pipedrive

Learn about the different types of knowledge management processes and find more alternatives in Knowledge Management Tools 2021.

Tools for Centralized Storage 

Shoot for the stars, but keep your files secure in the Cloud. Cloud file storage is a necessity for remote teams, permitting file access to team members, whether they live a 30-minute drive from the office or working remotely in another country. The best tools for centralized storage support all file types, sync across multiple devices, track document changes, and integrate well with other applications. 

Top 4 Business Tools for Centralized Storage:

1. 1. Microsoft Sharepoint
   2. Google Drive
   3. Dropbox
   4. Box

We’ve only listed a few tools useful for teams working remotely. Find more alternatives in 50 Must-Have Remote Working Tools And Apps.

Practical tips for a balanced home office routine

The right tools certainly help get the job done, but even with advanced tech running on artificial intelligence, humans still have to put in the work. These are our tips for a balanced home office routine: 

Get dressed

Overcoming the notion to stay in your pajamas all day is a good tangible step that helps you mentally prepare for the workday. Select a few outfits that are both presentable and comfortable, so you are prepared for the odd-chance when your boss unexpectedly calls for a meeting.

Establish boundaries

Distractions are bound to happen. To best navigate such situations, establish boundaries, whether that may be to set specific times to go on breaks, schedule packages to arrive only at certain times, or communicate your availability to your children and spouse. 

Tip: Turn off desktop notifications when doing deep work and set all applications settings on silent, especially when in meetings.

Stick to routines

The urgency of staying online and always being available increases when working from home. Just do as you would in the office: take time to get your coffee, spend a few minutes catching up with a colleague via chat, and respond to emails when you normally do. 

Home office allows more flexibility, however routines help in more than just sticking to a daily schedule. Some things to remember: Make sure to stick to your standard work hours, don’t skip the lunch break, and try not to work overtime.

Tip: Even with boundaries and routines, remember to stay flexible when things don’t go as planned. Humans aren’t robots and that’s a good thing. 

Get out and about (unless self-isolating)

Without the commute, we might spend most of our days enclosed in our houses. Make time for walks around the block, trips to nature parks, or even a quick drive to a local bakery for the morning coffee and breakfast fix. 

Additionally, fresh air and sunshine are great for both the mind and soul. Taking care of one’s health with enough physical activity and time for relaxation is perhaps even more necessary now when most of our daily interactions happen online.

Take regular breaks

Downtime is necessary for technology devices; the same goes for humans. Research states that brief diversions from a task can improve an individual’s ability to focus. When we take a short break from hours of deep work, we essentially reward our brain with a downtime. 

There are various techniques and systems on how to train yourself to focus. And though daily to-do lists are great, the essence of time blocking is to produce high-quality output within a specific amount of time. 

Check in with colleagues regularly

Because it’s not just always about work. Cultivating relationships help any employee to feel at ease and accepted within a company. Most of the time, we may not know what challenges our neighbor may be going through, even more so when we don’t work in back-to-back cubicles or a shared office space.

Even more reason to make it a habit to type your colleagues some greetings every now and then, or send them encouraging messages to make their day. That said, I hope you have a great day!

All remote work statistics are sourced from Review24’s Remote Work Statistics for 2021.

Image credits from Andrew Neel, Daria Shevtsova, Sarah Chai from Pexels;  AltumCode, Sigmund, and ThisisEngineering RAEng from Unsplash; and Giphy.

That’s a wrap! It’s exciting to see how much has changed in a short amount of time. What are your thoughts on the variety of modern working models? Our team has run on a hybrid model within the last year and have experienced the impact that digital collaboration tools have on team productivity and collaboration. We hope, as probably most other companies do too, to navigate back to more in-person meetings and workshops soon. How has your team navigated teamwork this past year? 

Cheers,

Jessica and the Zenkit Team

The post Home Office and Remote Work: How to Improve Team Collaboration appeared first on Zenkit.

The term ‘project management’ is increasingly trending however it isn’t a new phenomenon. Truth be told, the study of the history of project management is a relatively new development. The present version we have come to know and love was officially defined in the 1990s. However, the 1950s marked the beginning of the modern project management era and the craft is still evolving.

But What Is Project Management? 

“Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve goals and meet success criteria at a specified time.” – Joseph Philipps, project management expert and author of Project Management Professional (PMP) Study Guide 

Without a doubt, you clicked to read this article because you are interested in project management (just like us!), along with the methods and approaches in the industry. You understand that finding and utilising a specific method can help make or break your projects and your company. 

Alternatively, you may have posed the question of whether to use an online project management tool (like Zenkit) or continue creating charts and diagrams with standard pen and paper or even use a whiteboard and markers in your workshop!

No matter how big or small your company is, how simple or complicated your project may be, or the amount of resources you may have, finding out which project management method suits your needs best will truly help you stand out above the rest.

Project management can prove to be challenging for large corporations as well as medium-sized enterprises, startups, freelancers, and private citizens alike.

With the right project management method, your project process can be made much easier and problems can be avoided at an early stage. “But which project management method fits me, my company and my project best?” you ask. 

Does an Agile Method like Scrum, Lean, or Kanban offer the most flexibility? Or would a classical method like the Waterfall Method make more sense in my situation? Maybe a variation of the classics like the Critical Path Method might fit best? 

We have often asked ourselves these questions as well. That is why we have created an interactive quiz to help you figure out which project management method best suits your needs.

Take this quiz to find out which project management method is a perfect fit for your company or your individual projects. 

The post Project Management Quiz: Best Method for Your Project? appeared first on Zenkit.

Are there just too many tasks to do in a short amount of time? Don’t even know where to begin, how to organize it all, or what to prioritize first? Find yourself working at a clean desk, but with a cluttered mind? You’re definitely not alone. 

We live in an information overload society that is riddled with people, information, and tasks competing for our attention, making it extremely difficult to eliminate distractions and noise from our daily routine. 

Prioritization is the key. The answer to doing more better lies in how we design our time. 

Time management solutions are efficient tools to measure and foster productivity. And because we can’t make more time, we need to learn how to make better use of it. Instead of focusing on the number of tasks completed in a day, start prioritizing those that matter.

There are countless time and project management methods and techniques to boost your productivity and help you do your job more efficiently. A simple, yet powerful tool that does just that is the Eisenhower Matrix. The Eisenhower Matrix is an excellent task prioritization matrix for practising better time management. Even if you’ve never heard of the term, you have probably been using the method. 

It goes without saying that most successful people are adept time and project managers. As key skills in any industry, time and task management require focus, prioritization, and planning to increase productivity and achieve your goals. 

However, if we’re honest, staying organized and on top of deadlines isn’t always that simple. Keep reading to learn about how the Eisenhower Matrix can help you get things done…

What Is the Eisenhower Matrix?

The Eisenhower Matrix (also known as the Urgent-Important Matrix, Eisenhower Box, Eisenhower Method, and Time Management Matrix) is a decision-making method that helps you sort out tasks based on the criteria of urgency and importance. 

Although simple in its makeup, this prioritization matrix is powerful. Use it to eliminate the noise and time-wasting activities in your life, help you combat the “mere-urgency” effect (more on this later), and increase your mental legroom to make progress on your long-term goals.

This method is particularly useful for people who:

• Find themselves merely running around handling daily crises 
• Are busy but feel inefficient and ineffective
• Have long-term goals but no time or energy to make progress on them
• Have trouble delegating tasks or saying ‘no’

With oodles of time management strategies and tools to choose from, what makes the Eisenhower Matrix so noteworthy? It is remarkable because, despite its simplicity, it has outlived the trends (having often been repackaged and sold as new!) and continues to produce results.

Where Does the Term Come from? 

For those of us more familiar with US History, the name Eisenhower probably rings a bell. The term does indeed derive from the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Having served as a five-star general in the United States Army, better known as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces during World War II, Eisenhower had to continuously make tough decisions due to the nature of his job and responsibilities. 

“I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

Fun fact: the method first became popular through its appearance in the genre-defining self-help book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The author, Stephen Covey, repackaged Eisenhower’s decision-making principles into a template to prioritize tasks, now known as the Eisenhower Matrix. 

How Does It Work? The Eisenhower Matrix Explained

The Eisenhower Matrix is an extremely effective way to prioritize and manage both your time and your tasks. Arranged into four categories, the decision-making method is based on two simple criteria: urgency and importance. 

The matrix is systematized with four quadrants, structured according to urgency on the x-axis and by importance on the y-axis. According to priority and urgency levels, the user organizes their tasks and activities into the following categories:

• Quadrant 1: Do first – get it done now
• Quadrant 2: Decide when – make a schedule, set a deadline 
• Quadrant 3: Delegate to – divide the workload 
• Quadrant 4: Delete it – eliminate unnecessary elements 

Why Everything We Know About Productivity Is Wrong: How to Decipher the Urgent from the Important

Being able to categorize your daily and weekly tasks into these four quadrants is a challenge and arguably the fundamental and most complex skill for utilizing this prioritization matrix. 

According to the Pareto-Principle, 80% of the planned results can be achieved with 20% of the total effort. Problem: most people often invest more of their time in miscellaneous activities rather than focusing on tasks that will produce the best results with the least amount of effort.

This is a consequence of “present shock” – a condition in which we lose our sense of the long-term narrative and direction, because of living in a continuous, always-on, ‘now’ moment. Research shows that we live in a pattern, dubbed the “Mere-Urgency Effect”, where we tend to prioritize tasks with deadlines over tasks without one regardless of the impact they can make in the long run.

It is, therefore, pertinent to be able to distinguish the urgent tasks and activities from those that are important. Urgent tasks are things that require an immediate attentive response such as a tax deadline, health scare, or scheduled parent-teacher meeting. According to Brett McKay, founder and editor-in-chief of the Art of Manliness, “Important tasks are things that contribute to our long-term mission, values, and goals.” Deciding which tasks you should or should not do becomes much easier when you are certain about what is important to you.

Rory Vaden, author and Self-Discipline Strategist explains that most people are trading their to-do lists for emergencies. In Procrastinate on Purpose, he describes most successful people as “time multipliers” who begin their day by posing the question: “What are the most important things that I can do today that would free up more time tomorrow?”

So instead of continuing your tiresome and likely unhealthy cycle of decision-making, begin making truly smarter, more conscious choices today.  Stop hustling without purpose.

Popular Youtuber John Green comments on productivity: “I would argue life is not about becoming the most efficient, problem-solving, value-creation machine you can become. To me, productivity is mostly a matter of recognizing that time is what we have and that it is imperative to be a steward of our most precious resource: time.” 

Start Doing What Matters Using the Eisenhower Matrix

1. Do first – Get it done now: Tasks that are urgent and important

Quadrant 1 tasks are inevitable, and characterized as urgent and important; they require direct and immediate attention. These tasks have a tendency to be more tedious and challenging consequently requiring more time and attention to complete.

Tasks that land in the first quadrant are often the direct result of procrastination. They should, however, be tackled first and completed as soon as possible.

Use Mark Twain’s Eat the Frog principle to master possible task paralysis. The term ‘eat that frog’ refers to getting your worst task out of the way first. Eating the frog implies you finish a task you don’t want to do, but know you have to do. These tasks ultimately give you a strong feeling of accomplishment once completed.

For those of us who work best under pressure or with clear deadlines, you can use the Pomodoro technique to help you focus on the task.

Types of Quadrant 1 Tasks include:

• Review a document for your manager
• Finalize the employee payslips
• Pick up the dry cleaning on Friday afternoon for the weekend event

2. Decide when – Make a schedule, and set a deadline: Tasks that are important, but not urgent

Not every important task has to be finished in one day. Tasks that are important, but not urgent are generally long-term projects or assignments that require sufficient planning and a certain amount of time to be executed properly.

Termed the sweet spot of personal time management, the second quadrant is the spot focused on personal improvement in terms of opportunities and growth. Quadrant 2 is the perfect location to write down a list of your meaningful goals. Remember to set realistic deadlines even for tasks that aren’t urgent.

Types of Quadrant 2 Tasks:

• Set up a marketing budget for the following year
• A restart of your fitness regimen
• Update your will

3. Delegate to – Divide the workload: Tasks that are urgent, but not important

Quadrant 3 is where the mere-urgency effect affects lives. Even if you and I were the best multi-taskers and extremely efficient in our jobs, we have to face the fact that we aren’t Superman.

The common phrase, “teamwork makes the dream work” isn’t famous just because it is catchy, but because it is true.

Good leaders and managers know when to do a task themselves and when to delegate the work to someone else. Sometimes it’s best to delegate a task you could do yourself to a co-worker knowing they might be the better person to complete the job.

Types of Quadrant 3 Tasks:

• Schedule a job interview
• Go food shopping
• Book flights for vacation

4. Delete it – Eliminate unnecessary elements: Tasks that are neither urgent nor important

Quadrant 4 is the quadrant of excess and immediate gratification. Tasks that are neither urgent nor important are to be placed in the trash, out of sight and out of mind. Depending on the situation, such tasks could reappear on your to-do list in a week’s time but do not need to be done yet and may even be considered a waste of time.

Types of Quadrant 4 Tasks:

• Buy a new coffee machine
• Renew magazine subscription
• Sort through junk mail

Best Practice Tips for Using the Eisenhower Matrix

• Add a splash of colour! Colour-coding helps give an overview of the categories and quadrants at a glance.
• Do not mix business with leisure! Create separate lists for your professional and personal tasks. This makes it easier to stay organized because you aren’t having to decide between scheduling a doctor’s appointment and booking an important business trip.
• Make it visual! Not a fan of the square layout? Why not organize the matrix Kanban-style! There are plenty of great tools you can use to do this. Here’s a template for implementing the prioritization matrix in Zenkit:

• Put a label on it! Labels are great ways to stay organized. This technique works especially well for tasks or activities that might fall in more than one category for a period of time. Alternatively, you can organize your tasks into the four categories using labels in the Kanban layout.
• Be environmentally friendly! Save paper. Go online! There are many online task and time management tools available nowadays that can help you to track your progress, whether for personal or professional use as a team. (psst! Zenkit!)

Convinced That the Eisenhower Matrix Is for You? Here Are Some Things to Consider

Advantages of the time management matrix:

• It’s free! It’s easily one of, if not the cheapest technique to use. The Eisenhower Matrix is a free resource and you need no special software or tools to get started. 
• UX approved! The method requires no previous knowledge or experience to use either. Since there are no predefined rules telling you what is urgent and what is important, you are free to decide which tasks go into which quadrant according to your preference. So, what are you waiting for? Give the method a try. 
• Designed for decisions! You will become better at making split-second decisions naturally because the method makes you consider the importance of your tasks and reevaluate what is urgent and what isn’t. 
• Review it! Tracking and analyzing your progress and habits after using the matrix helps you practice self-analysis and teaches better self-awareness.

Disadvantages of the Eisenhower Matrix:

• You only have two choices. The matrix is systematized based on two criteria: urgency and importance. It doesn’t take external factors like resources, complexity, or level of effort into account. 
• Not so easy does it. Like all good things, using the matrix takes work. On a daily basis, it can be difficult and time-consuming to categorize your tasks. The matrix serves as an aid to help you start each day with an action plan. Make sure that organizing your tasks doesn’t become the focus.
• No flex room. The grid can easily become overwhelming and quickly generate task paralysis when too many tasks are present. Limiting the number of tasks in each quadrant will keep the chaos contained.

Key Takeaways on the Eisenhower Matrix, Time Management, and the Universe

Staying organized in this time-pressured world can prove challenging due to overlapping commitments and spontaneous ‘urgent’ meetings. A recurring false pretence of urgency can also cloud one’s understanding or definition of an ‘urgent matter’. 

A common cause of stress and job burnout is improper time management. Utilizing this method helps you learn key principles of planning, prioritizing, delegating, and scheduling. The Eisenhower Matrix is a simple aid to help you increase productivity and complete tasks that matter. 

This prioritization matrix may not work for all, but it’s a great starting point. You can use it as a stepping stone to finding a more personalized, better-suited technique. So, what are you waiting for? 

1. Set yourself up for success.
2. Stop hustling without purpose.
3. Switch to prioritizing long-term goals over shallow task wins.
4. Start working on what matters.

Final Thoughts

We know that habits don’t happen overnight. Just like in sports, practice makes perfect. Sometimes it takes a little (or a lot!) of experimenting to find what system works best for you and your team. But the reward for finding the system that fits you best, whether for personal or business use, is incomparable. I think it’s safe to say that it’s more effective to invest enough time for the important but not urgent things now, rather than waiting until the frog has doubled in size. What type of productivity tools and time-saving methods are you using? 

Cheers, 

Jessica and the Zenkit Team

Image Credits: Carl Heyerdahl via Unsplash, fotografierende via Pexels, JESHOOTS.com via Pexels

The post The Eisenhower Matrix: A Task Prioritization Method appeared first on Zenkit.

Today, we’re proud to finally release our most requested feature ever. Since Zenkit was launched way back in 2016, our users have been requesting that we develop a Gantt chart or timeline view. We’ve been putting it off, not because we thought it was a bad idea, but because we thought it was so important that we had to do it right. We had to wait until the moment we were able to do it justice.

Now is that moment.

Over the years, we’ve learned a lot. Not just about building software, but also about project management and everything it entails. We feel that Zenkit the product, and Zenkit the team, is mature and experienced enough to manage the complexity involved in delivering the best Gantt view we could.

With the new Gantt view, we didn’t want to create just a simple timeline view of your tasks. We wanted to make sure we could deliver every feature you’d expect from a fully-fledged Gantt tool. This means that not only are your tasks displayed on a timeline, but that you can create 4 different types of dependencies between tasks, add lag and lead, create milestones, view the critical path, and even display one chart superimposed over another.

Let’s get into it!

Benefits of Using Gantt

Zenkit started life as a Kanban tool – the increasingly popular project management methodology used by teams of all sorts around the world. Like Kanban, Gantt is a way to track and manage projects. The main difference between Gantt and Kanban is that Gantt gives you a more structured, granular overview of the project schedule, while Kanban focuses primarily on the progress of tasks. This means that you can precisely track the start and end dates of activities, whether or not an activity is dependent on another, the resources needed to complete them and much more. Unlike Kanban, Gantt charts give a clear and easy to understand visual representation of the project timeline, enabling you to understand your project schedule and resources at a glance.

Gantt charts were commonly used in long term, complex waterfall projects that involve physical resources and multiple teams of people, particularly in industries like construction, manufacturing, engineering, infrastructure, IT, and more. Now, with the help of software (like Zenkit!), you don’t need years of special training as a project manager to manage complex schedules and task lists. Almost anyone can create a Gantt chart if they think it would help their project!

Introducing Gantt View for Zenkit

Gantt View is rolling out to Plus and Business users today! Here, I’ll cover the main functions of the view, but of course, as always, you can learn more about it in our Gantt View documentation.

Dependencies

You can create dependencies between scheduled items by dragging and dropping an arrow between the tasks on the chart. Click on the arrow to change the dependency type, add a description of the dependency, or add lag and lead.

Critical Path

The critical path shows the items in your chart that determine the minimum time needed to complete the project. If any item on the path is delayed or takes longer than expected, the project will be completed late. When the critical path is activated, the items on the path appear in orange.

Lag and Lead

Lag and lead allow you to add delays between tasks, or allow a task to start earlier than scheduled if there’s no clash of resources. This function is available only to Zenkit Business users. Lag is indicated in red, lead in green.

Milestones

Milestones are used to indicate important points in a project. Usually the start and end of a project are marked, as well as the completion of important phases, and appointments such as external review or auditing, or budget checks. Zenkit displays milestones clearly with a blue horizontal line.

Secondary Date

In some instances, it may be helpful to show one Gantt chart superimposed on top of another, for example, a chart that tracks the actual dates of your project on top of the originally planned dates. In Zenkit, this can be done by creating a second date field and opting to display it on the chart via the Gantt view options. This is available only to Business Plan customers.

Breakdown by Time Period

If your project is very long, it wouldn’t make any sense to view it on the scale of days or weeks. In fact, it may make more sense to view it in months or even years! Zenkit lets you change the scale of the chart, as well as zoom in and out along that scale.

Drag & Drop

Drag items onto the chart, move to re-schedule or drag the edges to change the duration of tasks. You can even drag and drop to change the hierarchy of tasks and subtasks! It may seem pretty basic, but it makes working in Gantt just that little bit more delightful!

We’re extremely proud of Zenkit’s Gantt view, and hope we’ve been able to do it justice! Do you use Gantt charts in your projects? What do you think of our latest view? As always, we’d love to hear your feedback. Please feel free to leave a comment here or contact our team to let us know!

Cheers,

Siobhan and the Zenkit Team

The post Introducing Gantt View for Zenkit appeared first on Zenkit.

Project vs process – many people confuse one for the other, or may even be unaware there’s a difference! For many people, there is an unaware mix-up between a project vs a process. While they do share commonalities and are both popular practices implemented in everyday business, they are in fact, two very different methods of operations.

This article will help you understand the two practices better by describing what they each entail and their distinct purposes.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn from this article:

• The 5 phases of project development
• Key differences between projects and processes
• What task development tools are best used for projects and/or processes

Project vs Process

Simply put, a process is a set procedure that involves a sequence of steps that need to be taken in order to produce a result, whereas a project is a temporary course of action that aims to deliver a distinctive product, service, or result.

Further details to know whether something is a project vs a process:

What Is a Project?

Led by a project manager and conducted by a project team, a project is a collection of tasks that have to be accomplished in order to achieve a goal. It includes a scope, fixed timeline, project plan, and resources. It’s something that generally hasn’t been done before within an institution and is often implemented to administer change.

Project management is the practice of organizing and delivering a project. Project procedure is reflected through the project life cycle, which is comprised of five phases:

1. Project initiation

The first phase is the conception stage, where the ideas get explored, the research gets done, and possibilities are decided. This all helps to determine whether a project is feasible enough to actually happen.

2. Project planning

The second phase is where you consider stakeholder concerns and requirements, come up with a goal, bring a project team together, and create a project plan.

3. Project execution

This phase is where the project team start to create deliverables and attempts to achieve the objectives set out in the project plan. Processes are implemented, resources are allocated, and tasks are assigned.

4. Project monitoring and controlling

The fourth project management phase focuses on performance and progress tracking. Measures are established to ensure everything is on track to meet the deadline and keep within budget.

5. Project closure

The final phase is where all activities across the project come to a conclusion. Both successful and failed projects must close. Administration tasks are resolved and finalized and an evaluation is conducted to improve future endeavours.

What Is a Process?

A process is an established, repeatable procedure used for internal business purposes. It involves a series of tasks that are related to one another and are required to be carried out in order to achieve a result. 

An important element of company knowledge, processes make up a lot of day-to-day business operations. For instance, the HR department has a process in place for hiring new candidates and the development team have one for prioritizing feature requests. A flowchart is a common way to visualize a process.

The purpose of a process is to serve business objectives that provide customer value. They should be regularly evaluated and improved so that business standards can be refined. 

Different Types of Processes

In his book, High Performance Through Business Management: Strategy Execution in a Digital World, Mathias Kirchmer describes three types of processes:

• Operational process: centres on correctly executing the operational tasks of a business/entity. In other words, when employees “get the things done”. An example of this is when the customer service team provide support to a customer.
• Management process: makes sure that the operational processes are performed fittingly. This is where the management team “ensure efficient and effective work processes”. An example of this is when a project manager oversees the tasks and activities of a project.
• Governance process: ensures the business/entity is working in full compliance with required regulations, guidelines, and shareholder expectations. Namely, where executives make sure the “rules and guidelines for business success” are understood and being followed. An example of this is the responsibilities of a board of directors for a company.

What Is the Difference Between a Project and a Process?

The difference between a project and a process is how often you repeat it. Projects are one-off instances, whereas processes are regularly repeated. If a certain project template is repeated a few times over, it should then warrant process status.

Another varying factor is the goals that are set. A project’s goal is for it to succeed. You want to get it over the finish line on time and within budget. Because projects are usually one-time endeavours, a lot of planning has to go into them and there is often a huge risk involved. Project teams spend their time ensuring the project gets delivered while minimizing the risks.

In comparison, when undertaking a process, the focus is more on optimization. There is little to no risk involved in processes (after all, there’s a reason why it became a standardized process), which is why the main objective is usually to refine it. The more you work on something, the easier it is to fine-tune. There is always room for improvement when it comes to factors such as cost and time.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, projects and processes share commonalities. Perhaps the biggest is that they are both comprised of tasks that need to be achieved. The fact that both create and comprise of tasks is probably the main source of confusion for this topic. I get it, if you’re assigned a task, your aim is to simply get it done. Whether it’s part of a project or process doesn’t always affect what you personally have to do.

You can also find projects and processes within each other.

If you think about it, a project itself is a process. The phases of the project management life cycle follow a series of stages that are required to be completed. Project management methodologies are also akin to processes. A methodology is a system of practices and rules used to carry out a project with popular examples being Kanban, Waterfall, and Lean practices.

Processes may entail mini-projects. For example, an opening of a big branded store, let’s say Apple, is something that has happened more than a few times, so it’s assumed that the company follows a process when doing so. However, setting up a shop in a new location can be considered a project as leasing property in different locations requires various procedures and regulations to follow. Quality, time, and cost come into play, and there’s risk involved.

Project vs Process Tools

Here’s a look at popular task management tools to see where they fall in the project vs process space.

Kanban board

Kanban is a scheduling system that visualizes the workflow process, and a Kanban board is its main attraction. It highlights all the work passing through and helps to identify bottlenecks so that they can be rectified early on in the process. Its aim is to help produce a high-quality product or service.

A Kanban board is a tool that can be used for both projects and processes. A popular instrument in delivering agile projects, they can help establish efficiency through visual cues that signal various stages of the development process.

As vital as they are in certain projects, Kanban boards can also be useful in representing processes. In a project, using a Kanban board usually indicates the last part of the project. Because a lot of planning has to be done prior to the project start, when it comes to using the Kanban board, project teams would have already planned and coordinated the backlog.

To-do list

Also known as a task list, a to-do list is a tool that can be used for organizing just about anything in life. Whether you’re using a software application or simply using pen and paper, they can alleviate the stress of having to remember what needs to be done.

To-do lists are helpful assets in projects. They document tasks in prioritized order and highlight the things that have been done as well as the things that still need to be done.

While they can seemingly do the same for processes, a more fitting organization tool would be a checklist. A checklist sets out the required steps developed for a process with the objective to reduce error by compensating for the limits of human memory. It emphasizes “how to do” something as opposed to a to-do list highlighting “what to do”.

Gantt chart

A Gantt chart is a bar chart that visualizes a project schedule. It represents the work breakdown structure of a project and the relationship between the activities in a vertical task list against a horizontal time scale.

The ideal tool for project management planning, Gantt charts can help you determine important details such as the duration of each task, who will be responsible for what, and anticipate any problems that may arise. Gantt charts can help project managers visualize all facets of a project, including setting up the task dependencies and determining the project’s critical path.

But Gantt charts have a place in processes, too! Creating the work breakdown structure is essentially a process, project managers have to follow a standard series of steps to coordinate tasks into the Gantt chart.

Final Thoughts

After explaining each concept and their benefits, as well as describing their differences and similarities, I hope you now have a better understanding of projects vs processes. Both are practices that essentially provide structure to tasks that aim to add customer value.

So the next time you are assigned a task, keep in mind whether it’s part of a project or a process. It can help determine how you approach it and what objectives to strive for.

Do you know if your current task is part of a process or a project?

The post Project vs Process: How to Determine the Difference appeared first on Zenkit.

Kanban and Scrum are two popular project management methodologies that are commonly used by teams looking for an agile approach to delivering a product. But do you know when to use which?

While this article is titled “Kanban vs Scrum”, our intention is not to battle the two methods up against each other, but instead, to detail the similarities and differences so you understand the best circumstances of when to use either method.

So, without further ado…

What Is Kanban?

Kanban is a scheduling system that visualizes the workflow process and the work passing through. Part of Lean and Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing was derived from the manufacturing industry by Toyota employee, Taiichi Ohno, in the 1940s. Since then, Kanban has evolved into the visual scheduling system that many of us are familiar with today.

The Kanban method aims to reduce waste, continuously improve the process, and increase overall productivity. While there are no established rules of how Kanban works, there are six general practices that should be applied to ensure optimized Kanban use. They are:

1. Visualization
2. Limit work in progress
3. Flow management
4. Make policies explicit
5. Use feedback loops
6. Collaborative or experiment evolution

The visual nature of Kanban allows you to identify any bottlenecks early on in the development process, enabling you to deliver a higher-quality product. It does this with the help of Kanban tools such as a Kanban board, Kanban cards, and sometimes even Kanban swimlanes.

Kanban board

A Kanban board is what is used to visualize the development process. A typical board features at least three columns, titled “To Do”, “Doing”, and “Done”, which represent various stages of the process.

The board can either be made with a whiteboard, sticky notes, and markers, or you could use an online Kanban board, for which there are endless software options.

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Kanban cards

Kanban cards are what are used to depict a work item or task within the work process. It can also represent information such as the item/task’s status, cycle time, and deadline.

Kanban swimlanes

Not every Kanban board uses swimlanes. Swimlanes are a visual element on the board that flows horizontally and are used for added organization. They categorize items or tasks and enable you to further distinguish them.

What Is Scrum?

Scrum is an agile framework which focuses on developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products through collaboration, accountability, and iterative progress. It encourages collaborative decision-making and constructive feedback so a higher quality product can result.

Scrum is known for its defined team roles which are self-organizing and cross-functional, and designed to optimize flexibility, creativity, and productivity. They are:

Product Owner

The first role is the Product Owner who is the product expert. They represent the stakeholders and the voice of the customer. They are solely responsible and accountable for managing the Product Backlog.

Development Team

The Development Team is a group of professionals who deliver the product and create the Increment which is the working product functionality that is presented to the stakeholders and the of the sprint and could potentially be given to the customer. It is usually comprised of developers, programmers, or designers.

Scrum Master

The Scrum Master facilitates a scrum project. Their core duty is to ensure the team successfully executes the project according to the principles and practices of scrum methodology, and that everyone on the team understands the core aim of scrum. 

They are responsible for making sure the development team is on track by providing necessary resources and blocking out any distractions that may hinder the development process.

A scrum workflow is made up of events. Each event is time-boxed, meaning they hold a maximum duration time that cannot be exceeded.

Scrum events

Sprint

Sprints are iterative time boxes in which a goal is accomplished. The time frame doesn’t surpass one calendar month and is consistent throughout the development process.

Spring planning

This event happens at the beginning of every sprint, and it’s when the scrum team gets together to plan the upcoming sprint.

Daily Scrum

A Daily Scrum is a 15-minute time-boxed meeting that happens at the same time, every day of the Sprint. The team discusses the previous day’s achievements as well as the expectations for the next day.

Sprint review

A review is an informal meeting held at the end of every Sprint. This is where the Scrum team present their Increment to the stakeholders and discusses feedback.

Sprint retrospective

The Sprint Retrospective occurs after the Sprint Review and before the next Sprint Planning. It’s a meeting where the team consider the steps and actions of the previous Sprint and set up improvements for the next Sprint.

Scrum Artifacts

Product backlog

This is where all the requirements needed for a viable product are listed in order of priority. It includes features, functions, requirements, enhancements, and fixes that authorize any changes to be made to the product in future releases. It’s managed by the product owner.

Sprint backlog

This backlog is a list of the tasks and requirements that need to be achieved during the next Sprint. It is sometimes accompanied by a Scrum task board that is used to visualize the progress of the current Sprint.

User story

A user story is a tool used to describe a software feature from an end-user perspective. They help to imagine the type of people that would use the product. The common format that is used to initiate discussion and thought is:

As a [role], I want [feature], because [reason]. 

Product increment

The product increment is the result of all the product backlog items accomplished during a sprint. It’s the working product that is presented at the end of the sprint to stakeholders and potential customers.

Kanban vs Scrum

Kanban and Scrum are work methods that aim to reduce waste. While they both adhere to the agile principles of collaboration, continuous improvement, and flexibility, you can see that Kanban and Scrum are their own methodologies. Their main differences include:

To dive deeper into the last point, a key difference between Kanban and Scrum is the workflow and how items are managed. In Scrum, the work you do during a sprint is determined before the sprint starts. Then you do all the work during the sprint and after a few weeks (no longer than a month), your queue is empty.

In Kanban, only the size of the queues is limited, known as the WIP (work in progress) limit. This means there are no time restrictions as to when you are able to change the items in the queue, and there’s no such thing as a “sprint end”. This allows the work to continue flowing.

Kanban is a tool that can be used to visualize project workflows to improve performance and quality. It doesn’t have a strict set structure in place, so it can be used with whatever process your team has already implemented. It can even be applied to personal productivity purposes.

Scrum, on the other hand, is iterative and incremental which means it’s ideal for teams who want a more enforced method of working. It’s also more suitable for teams with less than seven people.

Can Kanban and Scrum Be Used at the Same Time?

Kanban and Scrum can be used at the same time, most commonly by Scrum teams using Kanban. This method is known as “Scrumban”.

Scrumban is a workflow management approach that takes the structure of Scrum and combines it with the flexibility and the visual representation of Kanban. It can be used for teams who want to apply Scrum project management as a way of working and adopt the Kanban method as a way to visualize and continuously improve.

This method can also be used as an avenue for teams seeking to transition from Scrum to Kanban. Software development teams who may find an immediate shift too extreme can turn to Scrumban as it offers an easier transition period for teams. An example of the kind of projects Scrumban could work well for is maintenance ones such as a help desk or support assistance.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion to the Kanban vs Scrum discussion, it’s safe to say that they are different methodologies that appeal to different audiences. Where Scrum favours a more prescriptive process, Kanban leaves room for a more flexible workflow.

They both comply with agile principles but also have their own individual values and practices. Which side of the fence you sit on when it comes to Kanban vs Scrum really comes down to the kind of project your team has and what type of product you wish to deliver.

Have you used either Kanban or Scrum lately? If so, don’t forget to share your experiences in our comment section. We appreciate any feedback we get as it helps us to deliver the kind of content our readers wish to see!

Cheers,

Dinnie and the Zenkit Team

Image Credits: Tim Gouw via Unsplash

The post Kanban vs Scrum appeared first on Zenkit.

Waterfall project management is regarded as one of the O.G.s of software development methodologies. It’s commonly known as a strict process that doesn’t allow for any changes to occur, which kind of gives it a reputation for not being the most ideal approach. But without it, we wouldn’t have other methods such as Agile and Scrum.

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of Waterfall project management, its pros and cons, and discuss when it’s best to use it.

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of Waterfall project management and discuss when it’s best to use it.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn:

• The 6 key phases of Waterfall project management
• The pros and cons of using the Waterfall method
• How Waterfall project management differs from its Agile methodology counterpart

What Is Waterfall Project Management?

Waterfall project management is one of the more traditional software development methodologies. It follows a linear, sequential design approach where progress flows downwards in one direction, like a waterfall (hence the name!).

A project is delivered through a set of ordered stages and until all activity within the current stage has been completed and approved, advancing to the next stage or any later stages is not possible.

Known for their emphasis on documentation, Gantt charts and resource scheduling and allocation are popular Waterfall project management tools.

The History of Waterfall Project Management

The Waterfall methodology has its origins within the manufacturing and construction industries, to which you could ascribe its stringent process. Due to the structured physical environments, the process leaves little room for changes as any changes made would result in high costs. (Think about it, once you construct a building, it would be pretty difficult to go back and make changes.)

It was first formally introduced as a method for software development in an article written by Winston W. Royce in 1970, however, the term “Waterfall” wasn’t used. It wouldn’t be until 1976 when a paper was written by T.E. Bell and T.A. Thayer that the term may have been first used.

The Phases of Waterfall Project Management

There are six phases within the Waterfall methodology. You can only move on to the next phase once the current one is completed, reviewed, and approved.

In Royce’s original model, the phases are:

1. Systems and software requirements
2. Analysis
3. Design
4. Coding
5. Testing
6. Operations

Since then, there have been variations in the model depending on project context and requirements. The most common model used is the following:

1. Requirement Analysis

The first phase is about collecting information that pertains to the project’s requirements. The purpose of the product and its function is defined. Conducting brainstorming sessions are a common way to ensure the scope and requirements are understood by everyone on the team. 

2. System Design

This next phase involves creating the design according to the requirements of the first phase. The purpose of this phase is to select hardware and system requirements and to also make clear the overall system architecture. This is also when the software code that is written in the next stage is created.

3. Implementation

This phase is where the programs, which are known as units, are first developed. They are individually developed and tested for their functionality, a process that is known as Unit Testing. They are then integrated into the following phase.

4. System Testing

By this phase, the software has been designed and needs to go through testing to determine any errors or issues. The testing phase of Waterfall project management is imperative as it can ensure the customer is not confronted by any difficulties during the installation of the software. 

5. System Deployment

Once the product has been tested, it is then distributed into the customer environment.

6. Maintenance

The final phase happens after installation. The maintenance phase involves making adjustments to the system to improve performance. The modifications are per the requests from the customer or any faults detected during the live use of the product. The customer is also provided with consistent support and maintenance for the developed software.

The Pros and Cons of Waterfall Project Management

Knowing the benefits and drawbacks of the Waterfall method can help you to recognize its value and when it’s best to use it.

Pros:

Progress Measuring
With clearly defined start and end points, measuring progress can be rather straightforward in Waterfall project management. The full scope of work is known in advance which also helps.

Simple Structure
When compared with other project management methodologies, Waterfall is rather intuitive. There are six phases to follow which are set in sequential order. There are specific deliverables and a review process. This methodological approach offers a simple structure for any newcomers to follow.

Clear Information Transfer
The emphasis on documentation makes it easier for project team members to ease into the process. The idea is to have information accessible so that if a team member was to leave during the development process, their replacement can pick up where they left off.

Cons:

High Risks Involved
Because testing the product design or architecture happens at the end of the development process, there’s a greater chance of technical risks happening. There can also be product risks as changes are made during the very late stages.

No Room for Innovation
One of the biggest downfalls of Waterfall project management is its inflexibility for changes happening within the development process. This makes it difficult for new ideas to be welcomed and included.

Lack of Customer Involvement
Following the Waterfall method means there will be little room for customer feedback and involvement. While this may not be a hindrance to every project, there are certain industries where customer feedback plays a vital role in the end result.

Do go chasing waterfalls with Zenkit Projects

Agile vs Waterfall Project Management

Agile project management offers an alternative process for software development. Where Waterfall project management adheres to strict guidelines and processes, Agile is more flexible.

Pre-Agile saw mainly the Waterfall method used for software development. Many teams, however, saw that there were issues with the method due to its constraints in design, lack of customer feedback during the development process, and a delayed testing period.

Deriving from the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto, Agile project management is a process where demands and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their stakeholders and customers.

It was created as a response to the inadequacies of the Waterfall project management. Because the software industry was becoming a highly competitive market, developers were required to constantly innovate to stay on top of the game, and the strict, sequential approach of Waterfall just wasn’t enough.

The Agile process includes six main deliverables to create the product and track progress. They are:

1. The product vision statement
2. The product roadmap
3. The product backlog
4. The release plan
5. The Sprint backlog
6. Increment

A highly visual method, it uses tools such as a Kanban board and a burndown chart to assist with progress tracking and to meet deadlines.

Agile and Waterfall project management are two different methodologies that can be beneficial to software development depending on the scope and requirements of the project. Of course, it is beneficial to know when to use each accordingly.

When to Use Waterfall Project Management

Waterfall project management often gets a bad rap. It’s notable for being stringent and inflexible which is not ideal for software development that requires a lot of frequent changes. That’s why you often see it being compared—and contrasted—to Agile project management.

The Waterfall methodology is best suited for projects that are clearly defined and require structure and strict deadlines. The project scope and requirements should be set, the product is solid, and the technology used is well understood by the project team members. As it leaves little room for changes, it makes it unsuitable for projects that involve unexplored territory and uncertainty.

In other words, it’s great for projects that have been done many times over where the prospect of surprises during development is slim.

Documenting Your Project in Zenkit

As a methodology that places emphasis on the importance of documentation, what better way to record information for your Waterfall project than in Zenkit?

Zenkit is a collaborative project management tool that allows you to create an online database without writing a single line of code. As a SaaS tool, it means you can store information on a cloud that can be accessible to users from a local network or the internet.

The software also comes with several views which allow you to store and view your data in various ways. It includes a to-do list, mind map, Kanban board, calendar, and spreadsheet-like table (and there’s a Gantt view coming soon!). The best thing about it is that there is an option that allows you to switch between views. For instance, if you feel your data doesn’t fit the current table view it’s on, in one click, you can switch it to a to-do list or mind map!

There are free Zenkit templates that can be used to structure your project’s information and processes. You can even create your own template by duplicating the collection you’ve just created by selecting the “Clone Collection” feature.

Final Thoughts

Just like any other project management methodology, Waterfall project management has its own set of principles, practices, and processes. Depending on the kind of project you are undertaking, it may or may not be the best fit.

So, if you’re after something that demands strong documentation, a straightforward structure, and a solid product, then perhaps it may be the project management methodology for you.

Have you implemented Waterfall project management lately? If so, do share your experience in the comment section below.

Image Credits: Jeremy Bishop via Unsplash

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