Managing projects via Basecamp
Question: Who spends an entire afternoon working on a coverletter, only to notice AFTER sending, that he’s mislabeled the opening as proJECT manager, rather than proDUCT manager?
Answer: Yours truly.
However, that brings to mind an important point; we ALL need an editor. Whether it’s writing code, designing interfaces, or scripting a storyline, collaborating with others will result in a stronger product.
I think that we have a tendency to try and do everything on our own, in order to prove just how talented we are. The problem with that line of thinking is that you could miss an obvious problem.
Let’s use IndyMoms.com as an example. When I first designed the look for that site, the color scheme was based around the color orange, which I liked a lot. However, when I showed it to my wife, she had a very different reaction and I was a bit miffed at that. She suggested an alternative, violet/tan scheme.
As much as I wanted to be right, it was more important that the site be perfect, so we asked several people in the targeted demographic which they preferred. The purple design won 8-0.
The point is that we must encourage a culture of interdependency, where we can bounce ideas off of others.
Our Innovation and Development group uses Basecamp for just that purpose. We set up projects in it and then use writeboards to shape the requirements. For the visuals, we post jpegs and then use the commenting feature as a way for team members to suggest improvements. We also utilize Basecamp to track todos, milestones and documentation for all projects. Y
Basecamp takes a fresh, novel approach to project collaboration. Projects don’t fail from a lack of charts, graphs, stats, or reports, they fail from a lack of clear communication. Basecamp solves this problem by providing tools tailored to improve the communication between people working together on a project.
You can also give people outside your organization access to as much - or as little - of the project as you need. For example, Basecamp features a simple permissions system that allows you to specify who can see which projects. For example, if you want Employee-X to see only 5 of your 13 projects, just uncheck a single checkbox on the projects you don’t want them to see.
My favorite feature is that it saves me time in the note-keeping and meeting-holding departments. People can access the files at the leisure and they document their comments themselves - saving me time.
Now if only I’d posted that cover letter on Basecamp, first.