Those who work in Public Relations wear a lot of hats. On any given day, team members can be writing press releases, posting on every social media platform there is, designing graphics, recording and editing video, dealing with the media, putting out fires, attending more meetings than one can count, updating the organization’s website and coordinating events with stakeholders— and this is just one department. Our gears are constantly shifting from day-to-day assignments to long-term projects and campaigns. With all of this work competing for our full attention, how are we able to manage our workload and goals? Through a project management system— the kind, of course, is up to the project manager.
At my previous job, my director loved the collaborative organization tool Trello. And when I say loved, it is not an over exaggeration. She happily spent the day reminding her staff of 10 to update boards, cards and lists with every project we had— no matter how big or small the assignment.
This week, I was tasked with exploring different kinds of project management styles such as design thinking, waterfalls, hybrids and Kanbans through different platforms like Asana, Podio or Trello. I naturally chose Trello because it’s what I have been using for work on and off over the last five years. The difference though, is I didn’t want to create the same issues my previous supervisor did. Because she wanted every aspect of our day tracked, our department board was one big, convoluted mess. There was no organization to the overall board and there were several repeated cards that often confused the team.
I wanted to use the experience I had from my work board to create my ideal project management system, which would also work to my advantage not just for this class, but for the remainder of my time going through this graduate program. And while I wasn’t using Trello personally, I was using a version of it via my iPhone’s Reminder app. I know it wasn’t exactly the same, but it did make things easier to plan out and design my board in a way that would help me visually see the overall picture, not just my day-to-day.
In creating my personalized Trello board, I went through a few different versions before opting to create one list that organized each module for the course with its respective card. Within each card, I organized my week into two checklists (or three checklists for the case of module four and our two assigned blogs this week): “To-Do this Week,” which was an overview of everything I had to complete, and “Blog Checklist,” which was a detailed list of what I needed to do for each blog. I also input tasks from previous weeks so I could take a look at everything I did once the semester ends, and color coded them green to show it was “Completed” and yellow to show that card was “In Progress.”
Because Trello mimics the KanBan method of project management, I was able to organize my cards into “To-Do, Doing and Done” though checklists and my green and yellow labels. Again, I did not want the same issue I had with my work Trello board and have an infinite number of lists that scrolled on forever, so I wanted to be organized in how I would see the deliverables I needed to accomplish for each module. It was great being able to see everything I needed to do for the week in one place (or card).
Additional lists I created were “Resources,” which had two cards of contact information in case I ever need to get in touch with our university’s Technology Department or Library Services. I also created a “Final Blog Submissions/Assignments” list and divided each course module with its corresponding card so I can have a compiled location for everything I’ve turned in for the class, which included my PDFs and bog links. The final list I created was “ICM Courses.” Right now, it has a single card and that’s “ICM501: Foundations Graduate Studies” because I’m hoping to move all my cards and lists there when this class ends so I can create a new working area for my next class.
Each of my cards and lists holds important information for completing each of my tasks and due dates (and who doesn’t love seeing that green box checked when you complete all deliverables or when each item on the checklist dances upon completing an entire list).
Overall, Trello is an extremely user-friendly tool and I do like how its boards remind me of my Pinterest days. It’s great that it’s customizable so everyone can create a layout in the way that best suits their needs and projects. For those of us who do have to work as a team, it’s a great platform to collaborate, and keep track of group projects. I can see how it will be helpful to plan out my time in this program because it allows me to see my day-to-day work, but also my long-term projects. After using the app on and off for about five years, I’m glad I finally found a way to make it my own.