“I’m not sure what that does.”

That’s what she said (multiple times) as we walked through her project management system. It’s not uncommon though.

In fact, most companies only use about 25% of the functionality in their technology. All of these feature bloated systems and they only use the tip of what they can be useful for.

Did you know that —

• you can track goal metrics in Clickup?
• you can create multi-sequence workflow automations in Airtable?
• you can create intake forms in Asana?
• you can send emails to create tasks in Marvin (did you even know there was a Marvin)?

Yep. And that’s just the surface of what these apps can do.

But the point of a project management system isn’t to confuse you and get you bogged down with things you don’t need. Which is why it’s important to know why you need one and how you will use it.

It could look like a number of different things — pen and paper, a whiteboard, software — you just need to be able to use it.

>> side note: email is not a project management tool. It’s not a planning tool. It usually derails your plans. So if you are working within email to manage what you’ve got going on daily – move it somewhere else.

When deciding on your system, you need a way to:

• track projects you need to complete
• track delegated work
• keep people accountable
• 3 things to collect (who owns the task, what are they delivering (action word), when is it due)
• a place to keep it public

Finally, what questions should you ask when choosing a system?

• How many projects can it manage?
• What do I need to track? Time? Tasks? Assignments? Communication? Progress?
• How many are using it and who needs access? Who’s inputting? Who’s monitoring? Who’s managing? Decision makers?
• How do they access? Computer? Phone?
• When/how often? Continuous conversation? Daily updates? Weekly updates? Monthly? etc.?
• Budget?

It will take a little trial and error to find the right system for you, but if you want a jump start to help narrow down some of the most popular project management systems for your business, I created a quick quiz for ya: What project management app is right for your small business.

Take the quiz to get a list of apps that match your choices (and I even give you the full list for those of you brave enough to explore them all).

Do you already have a favorite app? Are you using all the features? Let me know!

Until next time,