Better Digital Project Management with Project Boards

Do you manage projects? Internally, or perhaps for your freelance clients? Then you know that poorly managed projects cost you money, time, and sleep. Luckily, we're here to solve that – in this Master Class, we learned how to use Asana (free!) project boards to manage any type of digital project from start to finish.

*note: screenshots in presentation redacted for privacy.

Transcript

1. Better Digital Project Management with Project Boards Jeff Archibald / @jeff_archibald
2. Itinerary Introduction & Roundtable (1:00pm – 1:30pm) System overview & principles of Kanban (1:30pm – 1:45pm) Hands-on (1:45pm – 2:45pm) Break (2:45pm – 3:00pm) Showcase (3:00pm – 3:30pm) Using your new board (3:30pm – 3:55pm) Pro-tips + Wrap-Up (3:55pm – 4:00pm)
3. Introduction
4. Paper Leaf: From 2 people to 9 people, and $100 print projects to 6-figure software projects.
5. Email > Wunderlist > Asana lists > Asana projects > Asana Kanban-style project boards.
6. Why: To solve project complexity, increase efficiency, improve communication and transparency
7. Roundtable
8. Name, role, where you work, type of work/board.
9. System Overview
10. 1. Projects in Asana 2. Lanes for the stages in your process 3. Tasks for items to be completed
12. Kanban Principles
13. 1. Visualize your workflow
15. 2. Limit Work in Progress
16. 3. Manage flow of work
17. 4. Make process policies explicit
18. Hands On!
19. Jot down 1-3 potential projects you need to manage (hypothetical or real).
20. Pick one. For you, what is the highest value project to create a board for today?
21. Create a new Asana board.
22. What are your stages of work?
23. What tasks need to be completed in the project itself?
24. What are the specifications of each task?
25. What are the key milestones for your project? What can pace you to success?
26. Prioritize.
27. Date & assign.
28. Break.
29. Showcase
30. 1. What’s your board for? 2. What are the lanes? 3. Key decisions & reasoning? 4. What are you unsure of?
31. Using your new board
32. Using your new board • Invite your team to use it. • Invite your clients to use it. • Explain the process. Here’s how we do it:
33. 1. Each member claims their tasks each week.
34. 2. When a task starts, the owner moves it to “In Progress”
35. 3. When ready for review, it moves to “In Review” and is re-assigned.
36. 4. If it fails review, it goes back to “In Progress” and is re-assigned to original owner – with comments!
37. 5. When it passes review, the current card owner moves it to “Resolved/Complete” and checks it off.
38. Pro-tips
39. Be descriptive.
40. Communicate within the cards themselves.
41. Set your WIP limits.
42. Saved searches.
43. Use Asana & saved searches to run weekly meetings.
44. Asana Premium has Custom Fields & Dependencies.
45. Tasks via email: great for bug tracking or retainer client requests.
46. Kanban will increase pace, transparency, and communication with your projects.
47. It can be the difference between success and failure.
48. Organization and thoughtfulness exude competency. Your clients and boss’ notice.
49. Thanks.