The best project management tool

There is a plethora of online project management software available. The best of them are sharp, efficient, well thought out, with a great interface (UI) and user experience (UX). But sometimes you can find those few gems that have the power to make you look forward to using them on Monday morning.

Monday all week long

We moved to Monday in January 2018 simultaneously with our adoption of the Scrum method. Since then we've built up a good amount of expertise and have deployed it to clients. With this article, we share our enthusiasm for spreading the word about a tool that will, for most teams, change the way they work.

Read about: How to choose a project management solution

Simply beautiful

The quality of an interface is essential. A well thought out interface reduces cognitive load and increases efficiency. Not to mention the importance of UX in the adoption of a solution by users.

The first thing that strikes you about Monday is the simplicity of its interface. The designers have pushed all the mechanisms to perfection. There is no information overload, no overload of actionable elements. Most of the actions can be done in one or two clicks where it might take three or four elsewhere.

Flexible and versatile

Monday integrates a number of features quite impressive for its category. As each board (a board is a virtual whiteboard where you can manage the elements of a project) can be composed as you wish, Monday covers a very wide spectrum of possibilities. This is what makes it unique.

You manage your workflows and processes, whether they are macro or micro. General management of activities, annual strategy, monthly team planning, task and project management, prospecting, offer management, marketing campaigns, procedures, recruitment and on-boarding, production, design, invoice validation, vacation requests... And anything else you can think of.

You compose each board to your liking, the interface of each board sticks to the targeted need.

How it works Monday

Monday is presented in the form of boards. When you create a board, you can start with the template gallery or start from scratch. Then you compose or modify your board at any time by adding columns (with dozens of column types to choose from: status, people, votes, timeline, deadline, texts, check boxes, etc.).

Then, it's child's play: add lines (pulses), move them, reorganize them, assign people to them, add comments, change statuses, files, updates...

The table display is doubled by the very good "Views" mode which allows to display timeline views, kanban tables, create forms, etc.

Transparency first

As mentioned in our article How to Choose a Project Management Solution, 2013 research conducted on over 40,000 respondents shows that, above all else, transparency is the number one contributor to employee satisfaction. A culture of transparency is essential to building a culture where people are motivated, engaged and accountable. Transparency has a significant impact on morale, performance and - ultimately - the bottom line.

Monday puts transparency at the center. This significantly improves collaboration, information and employee involvement. By default, you don't have to worry about permissions: each employee can access each board and subscribe to it if they want to receive update notifications. You can of course create private boards as well as shared boards to invite customers and partners.

Involving stakeholders

Involving stakeholders, such as your client, early and closely is consistent. For example, when we make a new offer, we create a board (based on one of our models) that will contain all the steps and services as well as the estimated time. This board is then shared with the client who will be able to see and understand our price. And this, even before the establishment of the formal offer; since it is this board that serves as a basis. This transparency has two advantages: the bond of trust is established more quickly and the prices are less discussed.

Example of a board shared with a client

Obviously the board will then be used for the project. The client retains access since he is a stakeholder, will follow the progress, will be assigned tasks and deadlines.

By involving stakeholders more closely, projects move forward better, deadlines are shortened and collaboration is made more fluid. And most importantly, it's very easy to get them to buy into the software because it's so easy to use. At most, we take 10 minutes to give them a quick overview.

As part of the digital transformation

A software like Monday is an excellent medium to support the digital transformation of an organization or, at least, to change the way it works. It is a tool that can be deployed alongside what the company already uses; where G Suite and Office 365 replace what is installed. The reluctance to change is therefore low for employees, and the decision to change is easier for management.

Employees are experimenting with much more collaborative processes, exploring ways of doing things that radically improve their work. They discover that there is a colorful world outside of Outlook, Excel and software from the 90's, a bit crumpled by age. On the management side, the economic benefits of more transparency and collaboration are very often touched upon. Add to this a little coaching or workshops on good practices in personal organization, daily routines, agile principles for teams, and you transform productivity and satisfaction for all.

Monday always with you

Finally, with the iOS and Android mobile application, Monday remains in the pocket of employees. Work and collaboration is no longer compartmentalized in the office. You offer yourself the mobility of project management in the same way as your emails and your agenda.

New features galore

The developers of Monday developers are adding new features at a rapid pace. Dashboards and automation (both within boards and with popular cloud solutions) are among the latest and most powerful features. Automations take the possibilities for your workflows to a whole new level!

 

What about the price?

Monday curiously has a pricing by user levels - 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, etc. Its cost per user will range from $15 to $8 for the Standard model and $18 to $10 for the Pro model. A 2-year subscription offers an additional discount.

Once confronted with the all-encompassing gains that this type of solution brings, its price becomes anecdotal. On average, the monthly cost is less than 20 minutes of your hourly cost.

In addition, the versatility of Monday will allow you to save money by regrouping processes previously managed by other software. Depending on the case, production, sales force, collaborative platform for example can be advantageously replaced by Monday.

To try is to adopt

Will you share our enthusiasm? Try Monday for free for 14 days (no credit card required). Don't hesitate to contact us to give us feedback, ask questions or receive some advice.

 

Photo credits: Monday.com & Axxun Evalua