22 April 2020
3 Reasons we Use Favro (or any planning app)
by Kati Best
Keeping organized during a project can be hard. Trying to learn about the product we’re creating, information from the client, current features, upcoming features … it’s a lot and it’s usually all going on at once. But, it doesn’t have to be hard. There are many many planning apps out there that allow a team to manage their project together—teamwork makes the dream work! Let’s dive into some reasons why we love Favro (or really any planning app) and how we use it.
Organization
As I said, there are many things happening while a project is running and we need to not only keep things organized but keep the team organized. There are tasks, there are goals, there is the backlog, there are project artifacts, etc. Favro allows you to do this all within one board. A story mapping row, artifacts/documentation, and a Kanban row for current work. That makes it a perfect tool for planning what to do next.
Clear Documentation
Starting a project can leave you with lots of artifacts and notes while you’re trying to gain a shared understanding with your client. Everyone needs access to these to revisit notes, or reference something for a current feature—it’s right there to do so. Make a card, attach the notes, PDFs or anything the client sent your way and have it at your fingertips for the future.
Collaboration
With design and software development, you’re working through features or chunks of work, and you’re going to run into questions. Ideally, the client will be sitting right next to you to answer questions as they arise, but, let’s be honest, that can’t always happen. When you come across a question and don’t have your client with you, instead of emailing them, throw it on the card! The context of what you’re working on and everything that has happened with it is already there. Tag the client, they’ll get notified, and have a conversation right there on the card in the comments. Doing it this way keeps everything together—if you need to see what the client said about that one thing again, you don’t have to dig through old emails. It’s all in the right place.
Along with replacing email, just knowing what each team member is working on, what’s coming up, and what is ready for the client to review is a perfect way to run a daily stand up. It’s literally a visualization of the project at any point in time.
If you’re not using a planning app, act now! Start getting organized, keep track of all your documents, and collaborate even better. And the icing on the cake—they’re usually free.
