Good cooperation in content marketing is easy – organisational ballast and frictional loss paralyse. Straightforward, transparent and goal-oriented planning is the basis for every successful project. These six tips show how we at The Digitale successfully organise and design our work.
Topics in this article
- Project management: tools and structure
- Personal updates for employees
- Getting meetings right
- Coordinate dates easily
- Uncomplicated communication with team members
- Access for all to the file system
1. Project management: tools and structure
As project manager, I always want to have an up-to-date view of my project in order to coordinate tasks and know the current processing status:
We like to work with Trello, but alternatively, depending on your preferences, Jira, Active Colab or Asana are also available. Via a simple ticket system, tasks (=tickets) are arranged in different “lanes” (=columns). The lanes define the status of a task from “Backlog” (=tasks to be processed), via “Doing” (=tasks that are currently being processed), “On hold” (=tasks that have been stopped) to “Done” (=completed tasks) and “Killed” (=cancelled tasks). The order of the tickets in a lane defines the respective prioritization.
The proper use of such agile project management methods forces everyone to prioritize tasks, assign goals to them, set a timing and assign tasks to an owner. Additionally, all project-relevant information is visible on the project board and is not hidden in the inboxes of individual project members. Once applied, this method of working usually leads to significant efficiency gains and less unnecessary discussions.
2. Personal updates for employees
As project manager, I would like to provide short, concise updates on projects in order to manage information efficiently:
For agile working methods, short stand-up meetings have proven to be very useful (approx. 15 min). Every morning, all project members meet and report what they have done the day before, what is due for the current day and what is hindering someone in their work. This time is usually better invested than monthly overflowing meetings with huge groups of participants and all the less results.
3. Getting meetings right
As the person responsible for the project, I would like to exchange information directly with my team so that I can discuss topics personally:
Aka “meeting.” Not a new tool, but only efficient with clear meeting rules. A meeting at The Digitale must always meet the following criteria:
Only people who are needed participate in each meeting. The group of participants should be as small as possible.
Every meeting has a goal, which is already formulated in the invitation
Each meeting has an agenda, which is also included in the invitation (so every participant can prepare himself/herself)
Each meeting has a responsible person who leads through the meeting (usually the organizer)
At the end of a meeting it is recorded who has to do what until when
Sounds simple, but the challenge, as so often, is to make it happen.
4. Coordinate dates easily
As the person responsible for the project, I simply want to coordinate an appointment and keep the organisational effort low:
Coordinating appointments between different parties (company, agency, various departments, …) often leads to endless e-mail chaos until an appointment is found. It is so easy to set up a Doodle, for example, in which everyone enters their availability. Once all participants have entered their times, it is easy to see when an appointment is possible. However, Doodle often seems to be too “unprofessional” for no good reason. There is no other explanation why this tool is so rarely used for business appointments.
5. Uncomplicated communication with team members
As project manager, I would like to communicate with members of the project team in the daily business as uncomplicated as possible:
We avoid internal e-mails that clog up the inbox and eat up time. Instead, we use Slack (there are other messenger systems that are suitable). Slack offers easy integration with dropbox functionality, is easy to use on the computer as well as on the road, and is even subject to the privacy shield in a paid version. Individual groups can be created for each project, allowing quick and easy exchange and avoiding time-consuming meetings or annoying e-mails.
6. Access for all to the file system
As the person responsible for the project, I would like to make files available in the company at any time:
Here, cloud storage such as Dropbox is suitable. Dropbox offers almost all functionalities to manage files, to work on documents in parallel (no longer five parallel PowerPoint presentations that have to be integrated into one later) and to release files to partners / agencies at the push of a button. Microsoft Office365 can be used in a similar way, a version of which is even available from Deutsche Telekom.
Many of the tools are free and can be used freely, because we are convinced that good tools do not have to be expensive and complex software solutions. The following applies: Simpler is more often effective! If you would like to add something to the list, or if you have any questions or suggestions, we look forward to hearing from you.
