How to Empower Remote Teams with Project Management Tools

Remote teams have wildly adopted project management tools amidst the COVID-19 lockdown. Also, early reviews of user behavior show quite a shift in the way businesses have used cloud task collaboration tools to

• sustain customer retention
• improve customer experience
• boost remote team productivity

Teams globally, had to challenge the status quo and re-look their strategy, work patterns, work hours and overall rules of engagement to keep their businesses sustainable.

Thought there were several collaboration tools used across a company, the requirements & usage varied.

Teams picked what they liked the best. E.g. on team using zoom and the other using google meet while another team was entirely dependent on slack for all things collaboration.

There has been a significant change is user login patterns too.

• Project Managers and team leads signed in on an average 42% less in the pre-COVID era.
• Over 89% of businesses never invited their clients to their internal project collaboration tools.
• 82% users used to do only weekly time tracking.
• 64% users would just update task status without posting comments or progress notes.
• Overall usage of project and task management tools used to be around 57% with team sizes between 150 -500 users.

More on that later, but let’s check how things began to change.

What encouraged remote teams to adopt project management software?

Days of water cooler discussions, shoulder taps, instant messages, conference room meet-ups and coffee-talks were things of the past.

Getting me-time and face time reduced significantly.

For some, it was about running projects on their own with zero to minimum team help.

Teams had never fathomed a day when they would be 100% remote and have zero human touch.

The whole concept of work, running operations and customer connect had to be reworked and it is still a huge challenge for teams all around.

Sounds a little harsh, but true and nothing to feel bad about it. Not all could have anticipated it, not all businesses required a remote work policy.

Conversely not all businesses required an office space.

So basically the entire canvas of the business world had to be kind of redrawn in early 2020.

Hence, quite a few aspects of team management taken for granted so fare were suddenly turned into challenges and a nightmare too.

Basically,

• Getting quick answers within seconds wasn’t so easy.
• One cannot just walk over to the next person for help.
• Work-life balance went for a toss.
• Not having a home office felt like a crime.
• Tracking the team’s work wasn’t so easy anymore.
• Customer deliverables were delayed.
• Meetings and presenting to customers became an issue.
• Having control of the overall project plan was a nightmare.

And the list goes on.

Simply put teams that went remote were in a state of chaos, anxiety, confusion, distrust and fear.

Business owners and project managers were suddenly had the burden of innovating solutions within seconds. Not only for themselves and their loved ones but for their teams and customers too.

Each one of them was required to be on top of all work activities and run the show business as usual.

Moreover, they have to demonstrate their leadership skills, stay put in the driver’s seat, be the man with the plan and be seen as dependable for their teams.

Easier said than done.

What did the remote teams need immediately?

To start with, settings things in order was the first order of the day J

Hence, project teams decided to bring everyone aboard a central project management platform to streamline:

• Task tracking
• Information exchange (files, designs, presentations, worksheets)
• Time tracking
• Resource management
• Customer interactions
• Progress tracking
• Issues discussions
• Share quick wins & expected delays

Lastly, maintain a single source of truth and reduce the hassle of shuffling between apps rather than shifting work forward.

Empowering the remote teams

Keeping the teams focused on the end goal of customer retention, satisfaction and optimum customer experience at all times is crucial.

Once you have a centralized platform for all your project planning, execution, monitoring and communication you give the teams hope and clarity.

Thereby, they know what to do, when and whom to contact and how.

Thus reduced chaos, minimum effort and precious time spent on getting to the crux over multiple calls.

When your teams know what’s up next and the expected outcomes they channel their efforts in the right direction and on things that matter most.

Distraction free work is most important to remain effective and efficient.

It’s not so much about clocking time as it is about outcomes.

Hence, ensure that your remote teams can:

• Collaborate seamlessly among themselves
• Access the required info as and when needed
• Track & share progress
• Raise or point to risks as soon as identified
• Have clear timelines for delivering their tasks
• Maintain a clear time log as required by the business or customer
• Ask for help without fear
• Know the team’s availability to schedule project meetings & discussions

Tools like Orangescrum provide holistic capabilities for all remote teams to manage their projects, time, task and resources effectively.

You minimize the need to have multiple apps, multiple logins, and disparate data sources and thereby reduce your CAPEX & OPEX costs given the current economic slowdown.

How empowered is your remote team today? Signup Now to find out!