Overwhelmed by a flood of requests and communicati..

[svetlanasilina]

Overwhelmed by a flood of requests and communications from different mediums like email, Slack, post-it notes stuck to your monitor or office desk drive-bys? Let’s be honest - juggling requests, updates and communications in multiple locations can feel unmanageable.

Put cohesive, complete information at the fingertips of your people by setting the expectation that all relevant work data should be entered in a single, centralized source of truth!

• Make sure that everyone knows the importance of keeping work data - like statuses, dates, details, custom forms, etc. - up to date on the associated project, task, request or other object.

• Use Updates on relevant objects, configure notification settings and tag the people that need to know about the latest information instead.

• Remember to upload documents and/or proofs to relevant objects as well - this will keep all work relevant information in an easy to find location.

Centralize data and reinforce key activities to make sure that your team can easily access the information they need - no juggling needed!

How do you remind yourself (or your team) that if it’s not in Workfront, it doesn’t exist?

[MoniqueEvans]

Workfront requests and projects are now engrained in our process but there are still a few teams that has work elsewhere. Whenever I hear about these use cases I make it a point to meet with them and try to understand why they are using this other tool and how it serves them "better". One thing I learned was because our process was so clear and rigid some teams were doing their pre-work outside of WF because the idea wasn't fully baked enough to submit a request. We are now working with those folks to change our process so that instead of getting a request last minute when all the pieces are together, we create an idea project and fill in as we go.

[CharleighLo1]

Monique,

This is wonderful, and I think a very common scenario. I've often thought about trying to bring in those items with 'pre-work' that may or may not take flight in as an idea, but wasn't sure how to manage submission, minimal custom form information since little will be known at that stage or how to mature the idea later into a full fledged project. Can you let us know what your process looks like as it shifts from idea to an active project? Is there a way to allow the original requestor to add a new custom form to the idea project once they have more information or would they have to submit a new request for have the project owner do that for them every time?

[MoniqueEvans]

This is very much still in the conception phase but the idea is that the person would sit down with the project coordinator and the PC would open a project(s) for them using the appropriate template(s) but the status would stay as Idea. The form is already attached but the only person looking at this project is the requestor and occasionally the coordinator. As they get more information, and the plan comes to fruition they fill in the custom form (none of our fields are required on the project form). This eliminates the need to ever submit a request, but that's actually what we want. Planned work shouldn't have a request, only ad hoc/rush requests. I think this will get us there, but just need to work through the concept and if there are additional fields and reporting needed for these.