E-mail for internal teamwork is dying
Our team first built Tasks to help us scratch our own itch. We noticed that as our team grew it was becoming more and more difficult for us to work together to get things done.
Our biggest challenges with getting work done over email:
- The requests for work were often unclear
- Requests lacked clear assignees and due dates
- We weren’t able to keep track of the progress or status of work
To help, we started off by using an off the shelf IT ticketing system for all of our work requests. Over time, this led to building our own task management app, now available in SenseiOS®.
Designing for requests that are clear
If you’ve worked on a team that’s used a task management system you know how it forces you to focus on actionable requests.
- What work do I need done?
- When do I need it?
- Who do I need to do it?
Why? Let your team focus on clear action items, task owners, and due dates.
Creating a Task
Designing for Accountability
Unlike an email, a Task can only have one assignee at a time. The Task assignee is the person who is the current “owner” of getting the work done.
Although a Task only has one assignee, you can have many “checklist items” in a task, each with their own assignee.
Why? Task management systems don’t do work, people do.
Jay assigning me as the owner a task
Designing for visibility into the status of work
By default, a Task’s status can either be open or closed. Once you close a Task, it’s clear to everyone involved that the work is complete, or in some cases no longer needed.
If you change your mind, you can always go back and re-open a task.
Why? We hate status meetings as much as you do.
A task I assigned to Tara, then Jay, and is now closed
