Are your teams struggling to get projects over the finish line on time? Do they constantly juggle priorities while manual tasks eat up their days? Well, it‘s time to start working smarter with Smartsheet!
As a versatile work execution platform tailored for dynamic businesses, Smartsheet upgrades how your teams plan, track and manage collaborative work.
This comprehensive guide covers all you need to know to leverage Smartsheet‘s capabilities for maximizing productivity.
An Overview of Smartsheet‘s Key Features
Before we dive deeper, let‘s quickly run through some of Smartsheet‘s marquee features:
- Flexible Spreadsheet Interface – Easily break down initiatives into modular tasks with columns for assignees, start/end dates, status etc. Just like working on spreadsheets!
- Interactive Gannt Charts – Visually map out task schedules and dependencies for optimum resource planning. Adjust timelines by dragging and dropping tasks.
- Customizable Dashboards – Create single pane of glass to monitor work progress through key metrics across projects tailored to your needs.
- Work Automation – Automate repetitive status updates, reminders, approvals and more based on triggers without coding to reduce manual work.
- Robust Integration Ecosystem – Connect Smartsheet seamlessly with 1000+ other tools you use including Google Workspace, Jira, Tableau and more.
- Enterprise-grade Security – Control access strictly based on user roles and manage data retention as per compliance policies.
With these broad capabilities, Smartsheet serves as an ideal collaboration software for agile teams to thriving enterprises alike tackling work management challenges daily.
Now let‘s explore some common use cases where organizations leverage Smartsheet‘s work execution platform.
Smartsheet in Action!
The flexibility and breadth of features makes Smartsheet a versatile tool that meets diverse work management needs across teams like:
Product Development Teams
Streamline new product builds end-to-end with Smartsheet including planning sprints, mapping epics to dev tasks, coordinating handoffs and tracking release progress metrics.
Marketing Teams
Get complete visibility into campaign execution tasks right from creative development, field events, social media scheduling to results analysis.
Client Service Teams
Onboard new clients smoothly by planning onboarding tasks, accelerating information gathering using forms, documenting requirements using attachments and more.
Human Resources Group
Standardize employee onboarding processes, automate performance management cycles, track employee training and certification status seamlessly.
Executive Leadership
Make data-driven decisions faster by getting comprehensive views into work status through interactive dashboards across departments displaying key progress metrics.
The most innovative, forward-thinking teams leverage Smartsheets as their mission control driving productivity.
Now that you have a better understanding of Smartsheet’s core strengths, let me walk you through how to get started.
Let‘s Get Your First Project Up and Running!
I will focus on setting up a simple software development project plan in Smartsheet including a backlog of product features to build.
Here are step-by-step instructions for you –
Step 1: Signup for Smartsheet account
Step 2: Select template "Software Project Plan"
Step 3: Customize columns if needed or modify basic templates based on process
Step 4: Setup key milestones for planning releases/sprints
Step 5: Define features/scope statements under milestones section
Step 6: Breakdown features into development, testing tasks with assignees
Step 7: Map task dependencies that make sense
Step 8: Switch to Gantt chart view to adjust schedule
And just like that you have your first fully functional project dashboard up ready for your teams to collaborate!
Now, I invite you to explore some recommended best practices for running projects smoothly.
Best Practices for Peak Project Performance
Simply creating a project plan alone doesn‘t guarantee successful outcomes. You need to empower your teams to actively track progress in real-time.
Here are proven ways to boost team productivity:
Keep Tasks Granular
Resist temptation to lump work into giant catchall buckets. Split effort into smaller assignments for clarity and tracking.
Schedule Reminders
Prompt assignees for status updates through automatic reminders ensuring tasks don‘t slip through cracks.
Use @Tags for Urgent Alerts
Flag urgent needs by @tagging respective team members so they receive instant notification on pending blocks.
Enable Project Dashboards
Create single sources of truth to monitor project health. Share broadly across stakeholders for complete visibility to keep everyone on same page.
Integrate Related Tools
Eliminate task switching by connecting Smartsheet into other platforms your teams use daily including Jira, Excel, Gmail etc.
Centralize Information
Consolidate all key planning content, often scattered through emails and chat tools, directly in relevant Smartsheet plans.
With some dedicated leadership driving adoption, teams will inevitably enhance project delivery predictability leveraging the above best practices!
Let‘s Wrap Up
As we have seen, Smartsheet offers a powerful work execution platform enabling your teams to plan, manage and track projects with ease.
The key takeaways for you would be how Smartsheet transforms not just project delivery but also scales team productivity to the next level.
So dream big on how you want to improve business workflows and trust Smartsheet to make it happen sooner than you imagine!
If you found this guide helpful, do share it with anyone who might benefit from learning about Smartsheet.
