How?! 

I get it—staying productive isn’t always easy, especially when we’re constantly facing distractions and our willpower is constantly tested.

Good thing there’s a hack for everything these days! Take a look at these 22 productivity hacks that will help you get more done in less time without sacrificing your focus or energy.

Why Are Productivity Hacks Important?

Productivity simply means how efficient you are in converting your inputs into outputs.

Productivity helps you measure how efficiently you can produce outputs (like your product or service) from many inputs (like money, time, or labor).

It isn’t just about getting more work done; it’s about getting more out of our time. It’s about achieving our goals and doing what we need to do without wasting time on things that don’t matter—which we’re all guilty of at times.

Take a look at some of the most common productivity killers—do any of them apply to you? 

• Too many tools or not enough of them
• Lack of boundaries 
• Poor self-accountability 
• Poor productivity planning and time management
• Sleep debt 
• Distractions
• Burnout 
• Zoom gloom

It can be tough to stay productive when distractions are constantly pulling us in different directions. Between checking our phones, emails, social media accounts, and the endless list of “to-dos,” it’s easy to lose focus on what’s important.

So while we can’t always have full control of our workdays, we can start establishing smart work habits mixed with effective productivity hacks to keep us from getting derailed from getting our important and urgent tasks done and hitting our goals!

22 Best productivity hacks to get you through your workdays

Getting things done seems like an uphill marathon race these days—it burns slow and requires tremendous effort due to all the distractions, endless (so it seems) Zoom meetings, increased incoming emails, and so on. 

If you can relate, then it’s time to explore these productivity hacks to help you get things under control and boost your productivity battery!

Mindset Productivity Hacks

You know that feeling when you’re in the zone? When you’re so focused on what you’re doing that time seems to fly by, and before you know it, you’ve accomplished a lot? That’s the goal we’re striving for here.

The problem is, for some of us, it’s difficult to concentrate and power through every type of task. It can be especially challenging when there are a million things going on at once and deadlines are looming. 

Here are a few tips for hacking your mindset to help you maximize your brainpower and get things done effectively! 

1. Dedicate power working hours and be present

  Blocker: Are you having trouble staying creative and focused on your high-priority tasks?

Solution:

• Batch high-focus and low-focus tasks
• Avoid multitasking to optimize brainpower, attention, and focus
• Turn on the Do Not Disturb or Focus mode on your phone and laptop to pause notifications
• Follow email organization best practices like the OHIO method or setting specific times each day to check email, so it doesn’t distract you all day long

2. Meditation and get some quality sleep

  Blocker: Feeling like your thoughts are tangled in your mind or unable to think clearly (or at all )?

Solution:

• Clear your head before going into work-mode
• Allow time for yourself before the workday begins (self-reflection/alone time to center yourself)
• Get quality sleep and get in tune with your circadian rhythm

3. Change your environment from time to time

  Blocker: Are you having difficulty focusing on the task at hand or doing the task you least enjoy?

Solution:

• Go outside, a different workspace, etc.

The first battle of fully productive mode is getting your mindset in the right space—try these hacks to get your head in the game. And I get it, for others, getting in the right headspace can be challenging, especially when you have ADHD symptoms (like I do).

If that’s relatable to you, check out these tips to help you optimize ClickUp and make it work for you! 

Physical Productivity Hacks

You know that old saying, “move it or lose it?” Well, when it comes to brain power, that’s actually true! 

Recent studies have shown that sitting for long periods of time can actually lead to a decrease in cognitive performance because what we do with our bodies has a direct impact on how well our brains function.

So if you’re like most of us who work in an office, you’ve probably found yourself sitting at your desk for long periods of time with little to no movement besides your fingers typing and hand reaching for your fourth cup of coffee, then it’s time to establish a new habit and get your movement breaks in!

You have to get up and move your body if you want to optimize your brainpower. After all, your brain craves body movement because it’s one of the ways it gets oxygen and promotes the production of brain cells for better cognitive performance, aka your productivity and efficiency.

TL;DR: If you want to be your most productive self, you need to move your body. 

Here are movement hacks to keep your mind and body working in unison to get sh*t done:

4. Exercise first thing in the morning 

  Blocker: Are you lacking motivation and energy to start your workday?

Solution:

• Move your body in the morning before work to spikes brain activity prepares you for mental stresses and complex situations for the rest of the day and increases retention of new information
• For those who aren’t morning people, carve out time to work out in the middle of the day to refuel your brain for the afternoon

5. Get a short movement break in

  Blocker: Lacking the enthusiasm and willpower to complete non-exciting tasks?

Solution:

• Go for a quick walk outside, take a stretch break (or a quick desk dance break?)

6. Use a standing desk

  Blocker: Feeling mentally fatigued due to excessive sitting?

Solution:

• Try using a height-adjustable office desk to break up long periods of sitting and to remind you to move your legs for better blood and oxygen circulation, which powers up our brain!

With our increasing work responsibilities, we often forget to set up our bodies for optimal work efficiency and performance. Exercise is an effective method for boosting cognitive function and tapping into your productive mode by moving your body.

Organization Productivity Hacks

How often have you started working on something and then got sidetracked because of the mess on your desk? How many times have you been unable to find what you need because your digital workspace is scattered and unorganized? 

If you’re like most people, the answer is, “a lot.”

The truth is, if your workspace is cluttered and disorganized, it will be difficult to focus and get anything done.

It’s time to reorganize your workspace—check out these hacks!

7. Use the Eisenhower matrix to organize your task by priority

  Blocker: Having trouble prioritizing tasks? 

Solution:

8. Clean up physical workspace 

  Blocker: Are you easily distracted by things around you?

Solution:

• Keep your desk and office area free of clutter like trash, miscellaneous items, and basically anything that doesn’t have anything to do with the work you’re doing

9. Declutter and organize your digital workspace 

  Blocker: Do you waste time constantly searching for your tasks, documents, etc.?

Solution:

• Create folders, group files, tasks, etc. based on project type and categories for quick searches

• Use a consistent and relevant naming convention for your folders, tasks, documents, etc.
• Do a digital audit every week and move unnecessary files into the trash bin   

The importance of performing a weekly audit of the digital workspace and office space cannot be overstated; don’t let things pile up. Organizing both areas from time to time will help you avoid future distractions, and frustrations, and clear out unnecessary items that may interfere with your flow and concentration.

Workflow and Process Productivity Hacks

When it comes to being productive, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. What works for someone else may not work for you, and that’s okay!

Establishing a routine and creating a system can help you tap into your most productive self mode. 

Take a look at the hacks below to see what you can start implementing in your work life:

10. Plan the following workday before bedtime

  Blocker: Do you become overwhelmed and frantic as soon as you open your laptop in the morning?

Solution:

A productivity hack that improved my work and reduced stress is planning my task before sleeping. 

Before I go to bed, I note down the tasks to do the next day. So when I wake up in the morning, I don’t have to worry or look to do anything new–I already have ‘work’ to do.

It is always a new thing or a surprise that disrupts plans and productivity. You should ignore the updates and focus on your work. You catch up on all the notifications in the evening and plan the next day accordingly. This way, you sleep well knowing what you will do the next day, and the morning feels welcoming. With strategy made the previous night, you left the execution for the morning.

11. Eat the frog method

  Blocker: Feel mentally drained by midday and have trouble completing the rest of your tasks?

Solution:

• This method suggests that you should get your most important and biggest tasks done first thing in the morning to maximize your brain power, and as Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day”

Bonus: Getting big ticketed tasks done early= Dopamine levels =alertness, focus, creativity, concentration, and activates long-term memory

12. Consolidate your work apps

  Blocker: Overwhelmed by the number of apps you have to handle every day?

Solution:

• Reduce toggling time between apps and bring all your work into one place—a centralized hub. You can also take advantage of app integrations to connect all your most-used apps together for a seamless workflow. This will open up more time for important and deep work and clear your way to productivity land

13. Break down tasks into subtasks 

  Blocker: Feeling overwhelmed by the complexity of a project and don’t know where to start?

Solution:

Here’s Daria Maltseva, Head of Product at KeyUA, for more insight into how subtasks can help you get on the productive track:

Instead of giving different tasks individually to your employees, you can try creating a single goal and dividing subtasks among the team members.

This method is more likely to work better as each of them has a specific thing to do, they’ll give their best and better time to complete the tasks. Plus, it won’t feel like a burden when working collaboratively as a team.

Time Management Productivity Hacks

14. Use the Pomodoro Technique

  Blocker: Do you feel as if your attention span is constantly short, or as if you spend too much time focused on one task?

Solution:

• Work in intervals of 25 minutes to maximize attention and focus
• The Pomodoro technique is a time management technique that works great for those who have a hard time focusing on one task at a time, procrastinators, and for self-claimed perfectionists who take too much time revising or thinking about a task

15. Start time blocking

  Blocker: Are you constantly fighting against time? 

Solution:

• This is an effective time management hack that forces you to block out time for specific tasks and focus solely on that task instead of multitasking
• Block out nonnegotiable and uninterrupted time on your schedule to limit distractions, avoid looking at other tasks, and get your mind into your “productive flow state”

16. Block out ‘focus time’ on your calendar

  Blocker: Are Zoom meetings taking up your productive time and leaving you with ‘Zoom gloom’?

Solution:

Take it from Nick Churcher from Scribe:

It’s easy to fall into endless zoom meetings when in remote and hybrid working environments.

The barrier to scheduling a zoom meeting is so low that your calendar quickly fills up with meetings that could easily be carried out asynchronously. Frequently switching between heads down, individual work, and meetings can be highly disruptive to your productivity.

To combat this, block out ‘focus time’ on your calendar to ensure you have sufficient time in the day to get done what you need.

Productivity hacks and ClickTips

17. Get a goal tracking app

Blocker: Have difficulty connecting your tasks to your goals or feeling stuck, unproductive, and uninspired due to a lack of goal structure?

Solution:

• Setting weekly goals with measurable targets will help keep you on track by giving you a structured approach 
• When you can clearly see what your goals are, you’ll be able to align your tasks and schedule your workdays accordingly

Pro Tip: Use ClickUp Goals to stay on track, hit your goals with clear timelines, measure your progress, and more!

18. Utilize task templates

  Blocker: Is your productivity power being blocked by inconsistent processes and wasted time due to rebuilding tasks over and over again? 

Solution:

• Use the task templates in ClickUp to create reusable templates for you and your team. Easily create, save, and edit task templates for bug reports, landing pages, blog posts, and virtually any type of project

19. Automate routine work

  Blocker: Are repetitive and manual tasks taking over your workdays and taking up space in your mind, rent-free? 

Solution:

• ClickUp Automations do the busy work and create consistent processes so you and your team can devote your productive time and energy to other creative and important tasks

20. Label your tasks according to importance

  Blocker: Do you need a clear way to see your urgent tasks and show your team how time-sensitive each task is? 

Solution:

21. Clean up your tabs

  Blocker: Are you keeping too many tabs open (aka tab hoarding) to the point where you have to click on every tab to find the one you’re looking for?

(It’s ok, we’re all guilty of this at some point )

Solution:

Line up and keep your important tasks in your Task Tray to easily jump to and from tasks in ClickUp. This hack will help you stay focused, organized (and sane) when working on multiple tasks within ClickUp. You could even use it as a “Do it now or do it later” system. Can you tell us more about that, Holly?

If I can do it in five minutes or less—I do it and clear the notification.

If it requires a longer set of time or is a bigger project, I put the task in my Task Tray and close it out when all the action items in the tasks have been completed!

22. Remove unnecessary clicks

  Blocker: Are you finding yourself constantly switching to and from pages the same pages in ClickUp? 

Solution:

This feature lets you quickly hop to your most used and popular Workspace locations to help you save time and mental energy. 

Easily create your favorite lineup that is unique to your workflow and preferences and find your favorites in your Sidebar or pinned to the top of your Workspace.

Our ClickUp crew loves this feature. Check out how some of us use it:

I keep the Calendar pinned from the Quick Actions button so that I can quickly view my calendar from anywhere in the platform without having to leave the current page I’m on and go to the Home screen where the calendar lives.

If you’re using pinned favorite views, change their name to an emoji or abbreviation—it allows more favorite views to be visible.

About 90% of my day-to-day ClickUp navigation is through the favorite bar.

Looking for more productivity hacks? Check out our Reddit Productivity Roundup!

‘Productivity’ Hack Your Workdays With ClickUp

There’s always more work to be done than there is time in the day to do it.

We all know that feeling of being overwhelmed by the number of tasks on our plate and the looming sense of dread that comes with them, and it’s easy to get sidetracked (or unmotivated), especially when we’re trying to focus on a task that we don’t find particularly interesting or inspiring. 

It’s a great thing there’s a hack for everything these days!

Try these productivity tips out and use the features in ClickUp to help you work smarter, beat procrastination, train your brain to increase your attention span, and tap into your productive mode—on demand!

The post 22 Productivity Hacks to Get Work Done (+ Expert Tips & Tricks) appeared first on ClickUp.

Fortunately, you can use incident management software to get instant alerts when an incident occurs and to track issues and bugs.

Issue tracking refers to reporting and managing issues like a software bug, new feature request, or data security risk. 

It lets you identify and manage coding issues to ensure you’re not bitten by the same bug twice and resume normal service operations without losing your client’s time or the company’s dime!  

In this article, we’ll discuss what incident management software is and highlight 14 terrific incident management software, including their key features, pricing, and customer ratings. 

Let’s get started.

What Is Incident Management Software?

The incident management process starts with an end-user reporting an issue that seems to have ruined their day!

It usually ends with an IT person glued to their desk for hours or even days before tracking and resolving the issue troubling the end user. 

But with incident management software, you can report, manage, and resolve any significant incident with more efficiency (and with less wasted time, yelling, crying, and nail-biting).

Incident management tools can simplify your service workflow, from logging and categorizing issues to ticket creation and closure. In addition, they help companies establish a clear connection between issues, software bugs, requests, and incidents, making their work a lot easier. 

Here are some key benefits of using incident management software tools:

• Real-time notifications for faster incident resolution
• Streamlined operations for better incident management
• Boosts workplace safety

(More on this at the end of the list!)

Key Incident Management Software Features

There are many incident management tools to choose from. To help you decide which one is best for you, here are some key features to look out for when choosing an incident management software:

• Real-time monitoring
• Automated incident response
• Alerts and notifications
• Incident tracking and reporting
• Root cause analysis
• Security logs and access control features
• Third party integrations

By utilizing the right incident management software, organizations can benefit from improved visibility, collaboration, automation , and security. This makes incident management software an invaluable tool for businesses of any size.

Without further ado, let’s explore some of the best incident management tools and software that helps you keep a close watch on your customer requests and issues.

Top 14 Incident Management Software for 2023

Here are the top 14 incident management software tools available today:

1. ClickUp

ClickUp is one of the highest-rated productivity and incident management tools used by teams in small and large companies.

We’ve partnered with the San Diego Padres to streamline their IT team’s efficiency on and off the field!

With this agile project management tool, you can set priorities and make them transparent to the team, and you can resolve bugs in batches by adding custom Tags.

This way, you can restore normal service operations quicker, help minimize future interruptions and incidents, and keep your incident team’s spirits high.

ClickUp key features

Here are a few ways besides reporting incidents that ClickUp can help you with incident management process:

• Dashboards: get a high-level overview of your incident management workflow to knock out bugs before they cause issues 
• Sprints: power through several incident management stages with agile sprint planning 
• Board view: why get bored by regular views when you can have the Board view? Group your tasks by incident status, assignee, priority, and more
• Roadmaps: highlight high-priority incidents, the expected workflow, and set dependencies to resolve incidents 
• Syntax Highlighting: interpret tons of languages with code block formatting, automatically colorized for clarity
• Gantt Chart: get transparency on ticket status and expected timelines for incident resolution
• Custom Task Statuses: create simple statuses to understand where your team stands with respect to any security incident: ‘work in progress,’ ‘resolved,’ or ‘on a coffee break’
• Form view: avoid long paper trials by automating your bug submission process 
• Proofing: proof, annotate, and leave additional markers for all your design files within ClickUp
• Email ClickApp: communicate via emails directly within the ClickUp task without switching platforms
• Assign Tasks: make sure incidents go to the right technician within minutes
• Templates: ditch boring incident report templates and bring in the fun with awesome templates for Bug Queues

ClickUp pros

• Create Mind Maps to visualize plans  
• Document bugs and record test plans and test cases with Docs
• Manage and keep track of an incident’s life cycle with Portfolios
• Easily make bulk edits across multiple incidents and save loads of time with the Multitask Toolbar
• Manage your incident workflow hands-free with Automations
• Boost IT customer service efficiency by assigning several incidents in one go with Multiple Assignees
• See who has more issues than a magazine with the Workload view 
• Create end-to-end Checklists for ticket creation, incident categorization, and resolution, so your team never misses a step
• Automatically attach GitLab activity to your ClickUp tasks with the ClickUp-GitLab Integration
• Import issues from Jira into ClickUp to streamline your incident management workflow

ClickUp pricing

• Free Forever Plan (best for personal use)
• Unlimited Plan (best for small teams ($5/member per month)
• Business Plan (best for mid-sized teams ($12/member per month)
• Business Plus Plan (best for multiple teams ($19/member per month)

ClickUp customer ratings

• G2: 4.7/5 (2,900+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (2,200+ reviews)

2. AlertOps

AlertOps offers you smart features for countering and crushing all kinds of incidents like service outages, data breaches, malware attacks, and more.

This incident management software helps you run a tight ship and prevents your team from drowning in a flood of customer complaints. 

Unfortunately, you won’t map out that idea with this app since AlertOps doesn’t come with mind maps. 

It seems like it won’t be all smooth sailing after all!

AlertOps key features

• Get an overview of your incident management team’s performance with dashboards and reports
• Get alerts when your incident monitoring tools become unresponsive
• Create and update ticket status automatically or with a single click 

AlertOps pricing

AlertOps has a free plan, and paid plans start at $5/user per month.

AlertOps customer ratings

• G2: 4.6/5 (20+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (10+ reviews)

3. GitLab

GitLab is an incident tracking software that lets you triage incidents in a list view and gives your team all the necessary information they need to stomp out bugs.

The incident management system lets you create a corrective action plan, which essentially lays down the steps that your team can follow to resolve similar issues in the future.

This way, your team won’t have to undergo the difficult process of resolving the same issue again. But, unfortunately, it can be pretty hard to get to grips with the tool since it’s super complex to use.

GitLab key features

• Create on-call schedules for incident response teams
• Send alerts about incidents via Slack and email 
• The status page informs stakeholders about the latest updates on any reported incident

GitLab pricing

GitLab has a free plan, and paid plans start at $19/user per month.

GitLab customer ratings

• G2: 4.4/5 (300+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (580+ reviews)

4. Datadog

Datadog helps your team identify, manage, and track incidents with their centralized user interface and incident responses tools.

This incident reporting software lets you create automated workflows and allows you mute all alerts with a single click during system maintenance and updates (or when you want to catch a quick power nap).

Unfortunately, the reports are relatively basic, so you might need a different tool for data visualizations.

Datadog key features

• Uses machine learning to identify problems in your IT infrastructure
• Filters and sorts incidents by key info tags such as team, severity, status, etc. 
• Tag team members and assign roles for real-time collaboration

Datadog pricing

Datadog has a free plan, and paid plans start at $15/host per month.

Datadog customer ratings

• G2: 4.2/5 (210+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (100+ reviews)

5. Freshservice

Freshservice can help any incident manager identify bottlenecks in their incident management workflow.

The app also offers insightful reports and tons of integrations with various other business applications like MS Teams, Jira, Zapier, and more.

Too bad that it doesn’t offer any free plan, though.

Let’s see if it can still keep your customer relationships fresh.

Freshservice key features

• Offers users multi-channel support, including email, a self-service portal, mobile apps, chatbot, and feedback widgets
• Build a knowledge base with solutions to incidents that can be used by both technician and employee 
• Assess team performance with a customized incident report

Freshservice pricing

Freshservice offers paid plans starting at $19/user per month.

Freshservice customer ratings

• G2: 4.6/5 (840+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (420+ reviews)

6. HaloITSM

HaloITSM is aligned with the ITIL process and assists teams with risk management by tracking incidents and investigating their root cause.

It systematically stores the information related to all the incidents that have ever occurred. 

This way, if a related incident pops up and says, “hello, it’s me, again,” you’ll have all the info you need to resolve it in an instant. 

And your team can stand there with a golden halo for all that quick help.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have too many native integrations, so adding to your existing workflow could be challenging.

HaloITSM key features

• Track every stage of your incident management workflow with granular reports
• The SLA (service-level agreement) management facility ensures you never violate any service agreement made with your client
• Attach multiple incidents to a problem request and update them with a single click

HaloITSM pricing

Request a custom quote from HaloITSM.

HaloITSM customer ratings

• G2: 4.8/5 (10+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (10+ reviews)

7. Issuetrak

Issuetrak is a powerful incident management app that helps you with issue tracking, complaint management, and ticketing.

The app automatically escalates issues if any team member hasn’t addressed them. This prevents your team from missing any issues or customer service targets!

In other words, it helps you douse the fire so that you don’t end up burning bridges with your client. But, unfortunately, you have limited customization when it comes to assignees.

Issuetrak key features

• A customizable dashboard that gives you the latest updates on all open issues
• Organize issues by grouping them under categories such as product support, customer relations, IT, etc.
• Lets the end-user and IT agent pre-fill certain information for quick handling of incidents

Issuetrak pricing

Request a custom quote from Issuetrak. 

Issuetrak customer ratings

• G2: 4.1/5 (60+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (150+ reviews)

8. Opsgenie

Opsgenie, included under Jira Service Management, notifies your team about new incidents via multiple channels (email, SMS, mobile push, and more) so that they can take it up right away. 

It also uses robust incident reporting and analytics to highlight severe issues and give you an overview of your team’s performance.

However, you can’t make bulk edits across task statuses and assignees with this tool. 

It looks like this genie may not have the power to grant all of your incident management wishes…

Opsgenie key features

• Use incident management templates to set up different workflows for incidents, based on their urgency
• Automatically notify stakeholders about incident resolution 
• Streamline your issue-tracking process by connecting the app with Jira

Opsgenie pricing

Opsgenie has a free plan, and paid plans start at $9/user per month.

Opsgenie customer ratings

• G2: 4.6/5 (5+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (120+ reviews)

Opsgenie is a part of Jira service management. If you want a deeper look at Jira, check out our in-depth Jira review. 

9. PagerDuty

PagerDuty is an incident management software that aims to improve customer experience with insightful incident learning and end-to-end response automation. 

It helps teams identify changes or errors that are the likeliest culprits of incidents. This incident management software comes on duty when anything seems out of order.

However, the free plan is limited, which means you’d have to opt for the pricey-paid plans.

PagerDuty key features

• Track dependencies, share status updates, and view incident data
• Perform root cause analysis of past incidents to get better at resolving and preventing them
• Build and customize workflows with the extensible PagerDuty APIs

PagerDuty pricing

PagerDuty has a free plan, and paid plans start at $21/user per month.

PagerDuty customer ratings

• G2: 4.5/5 (570+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (180+ reviews)

10. ServiceDesk Plus

ServiceDesk Plus gives you the ultimate control when managing IT issues to fix your client’s plight and saves your team from sleepless nights. 

How does the incident management app do this? By giving you access to a knowledge base of articles on advanced technical solutions. 

You can also keep your clients informed on issues with automated notifications. 

This way, you can avoid long email threads!

Unfortunately, it has minimal reporting capabilities.

ServiceDesk Plus key features

• Set custom statuses to manage and track incidents
• Automatically assign incident tickets based on the technician’s expertise
• Use email templates for better and faster communication with the end users

ServiceDesk Plus pricing

Request a custom quote from ServiceDesk Plus.

ServiceDesk Plus customer ratings

• G2: 4.2/5 (160+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.3/5 (150+ reviews)

11. SolarWinds

SolarWinds Service Desk is an incident management solution that empowers teams with automated processes.

However, you can’t visualize your incident workflow progress since the app doesn’t have Gantt charts.

Let’s see if this tool can help you wind up your work early and efficiently… 

SolarWinds key features

• Automatically categorize, prioritize, and assign incident tickets to the right team member
• Uses artificial intelligence (AI) for faster incident closure & resolution
• Integrates with popular cloud applications like Google Workspace, Zendesk, and more

SolarWinds pricing

Request a custom quote from SolarWinds. 

SolarWinds customer ratings

• G2: 4.3/5 (240+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (500+ reviews)

12. Spiceworks

Spiceworks is a web help desk software that helps IT teams to track, manage, and close every incident. 

It drives service desk teams towards success instead of being driven crazy by endless requests and issues.

Too bad that it doesn’t come with a kanban board which means you can’t group tasks by status, assignee, priority, and more.

Still think this tool can add some spice to your incident management workflow?

Spiceworks key features

• Get monitoring features, alerts, and custom ticket attributes to manage incidents
• Use the website down checker when you think the app is down
• Receive push notifications and latest ticket updates directly on your phone (iOS and Android) or tablet

Spiceworks pricing

Spiceworks is a free incident tracking software.

Spiceworks customer ratings

• G2: 4.3/5 (290+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.4/5 (490+ reviews)

13. Splunk Technology

Splunk Technology is a problem management tool that automates incident responses by routing a particular incident type to the right team member. This essentially reduces service downtime (and gives your customers more time to applaud your efforts)!

However, as it’s super-comprehensive, it also has a very steep learning curve and is expensive.

Splunk Technology key features

• Streamlines on-call schedules to quickly respond to incidents and outages
• Supported by advanced analytics to fix issues faster
• Identify urgent incidents using predictive machine learning

Splunk Technology pricing

Request a custom quote from Splunk Technology.

Splunk Technology customer ratings

• G2: 4.2/5 (280+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (130+ reviews)

14. Zendesk

Zendesk is an incident management system software that lets you solve customer complaints and increase customer satisfaction by connecting multiple incidents to one problem ticket. Additionally, the agent can address that particular problem ticket and resolve multiple issues at one go. 

Unfortunately, it’s hard to export your data to other tools.

Will this incident management system help your team become more Zen?

Zendesk key features

• For ease of resolution, the app classifies tickets into four types: a question, problem, incident, and a task
• Comes with its own knowledge base to empower support teams and improve incident management
• Initiates workflow triggered by ticket changes or time-based conditions
• Zendesk integrations

Zendesk pricing

Zendesk offers paid plans starting at $49/agent per month.

Zendesk customer ratings

• G2: 4.2/5 (2,700+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.4/5 (2,600+ reviews)

Benefits of Using Incident Management Software

Incident management software can be a powerful tool, providing IT teams with the ability to quickly detect and resolve outages. This type of software has become increasingly popular in recent years as organizations want to better respond to customer incidents and efficiently manage their resources. Here are some of the benefits that make incident management software an essential part of any business:

1. Increased Visibility: Incident management software can provide IT teams with greater visibility into their systems and services, helping them detect incidents more quickly and take appropriate measures to resolve them. With an incident management system in place, it’s easier to see the status of outages or other issues before they become major problems.

2. Improved Collaboration: Incident management software can facilitate collaboration between teams, enabling them to quickly respond to customer incidents and share resources more efficiently. This makes it easier for organizations to address issues in a timely manner, resulting in better customer service and improved customer retention.

3. Automated Processes: Incident management software offers automated processes that can help streamline incident management and ensure that all steps are taken in a timely manner. This eliminates the need for manual processes, saves time, and reduces errors.

4. Security: Incident management software offers features such as security logs, notifications and real-time alerts that can help organizations better secure their data and systems against malicious attacks

Minimize Issues with Incident Management Software

With incident management software, your IT team can automate ticket assignments and use pre-built response templates to boost productivity further. 

And while we did mention some decent apps, ClickUp is by far the most comprehensive tool that’ll keep your IT system and customer base stable.

With this product management software, you can manage incidents, classify them based on incident severity, stay on track with ClickUp Goals, and keep track of your team’s performance with Table Widgets.

In short, get the perfect solution to all the IT nightmares keeping your clients (and you) up at night! 

Switch to ClickUp for free to avoid stalling and keep your organization running smoothly like a well-oiled machine. 

The post Best 14 Incident Management Software for 2023 appeared first on ClickUp.

Here’s the thing: At ClickUp, we’re process people. And you should be too! Do you know why?

Well-defined business processes assist organizations in identifying how they operate. And they also help leaders understand how to run companies more efficiently.

But the greatest beauty of business processes lies in their ability to leverage businesses. After all, what successful business has an inefficient functioning? That’s right! None.

Then all you have to do is learn the ropes of process management—business process management (BPM), to be specific. And that’s why we put together this article for you.

You’ll learn what business process management is, why it’s important, and what it entails. And you’ll love the templates and examples we compiled for you and our suggestions for optimizing your business processes with the right tools.

Let’s start right away so you can speed up your business processes as sons as possible!

What is Process Management?

Process management analyzes existing processes within an organization, defines and describes new ones, and controls the execution of both existing and new processes to ensure they’re completed as described.

And the ultimate goal of doing all the above is improving—or optimizing—the business processes. Now, what’s a business process exactly?

A business process is a sequence of tasks (or steps) performed by one or more roles to produce output and thus achieve a goal. And if, for instance, the goal is reaching a milestone, then a business process is a definition of how to get from one milestone to the next.

Example of a business process

You can easily conclude that business process management is an expression of teamwork as it may involve multiple people. And it’s their work together as a team or organization that makes the business process come to life.

Here’s an example of a business process to fulfill an online order for donuts:

1. A customer places an online order for 100 donuts
2. The store manager accepts the order and the customer can check the order status
3. Are there enough donuts ready to pack
   • Yes: Your staff packs the donuts
   • No: An employee makes enough donuts to fulfill the order, while another preps them
4. An employee issues a receipt, packs the donuts, and updates the order status to Ready
5. An employee hands over the packed donuts to the courier
6. The courier updates the order status to Delivered

If you’re wondering about what’s missing or what could go differently in the process, we’re proud of you! Because you’re tuning into the spirit of business process management.

Bonus: Process Mapping Tools

Why is business process management important?

If you take work efficiency seriously—like we believe you do—you must be into business process management. That’s how you’ll hit your business goals smoothly, faster, and with fewer resources.

Without proper business process management, not everyone knows who was responsible for which tasks in a project. This only gets more challenging when additional teams are added to the equation.

Teams absolutely need visibility into the process at all stages when multiple groups are involved. And process management ties in all the moving parts of an organization to deliver value to project stakeholders and, ultimately, the business.

What Are the Stages of Process Management?

Process management processes that waste unnecessary time or resources are inefficient. And you must either make them efficient or eliminate them.

But here’s the catch: Identifying and improving inefficient processes is challenging. Because you know that when a process gets ingrained in an organization, changing it triggers resistance, to say the least. Unfortunately, you have to continuously improve the processes in your company anyway.

To do that, follow the business process management lifecycle:

Stage 1: Plan

In this phase, you must start by analyzing the company’s business strategy. That’s the direction your organization wants to take so it accomplishes its goals in the future. And this knowledge will guide the entire business process management lifecycle—it’s its cornerstone.

To get a process management plan in place, you first need to:

1. Understand the company’s current business goals, objectives, and strategy
2. Identify the business processes existing within the organization and distinguish between what has already been analyzed, defined, and described and what hasn’t
3. Discover the business rules that govern all of those processes
4. Uncover if and where each process has weaknesses, such as bottlenecks, redundancies, or a high expenditure
5. Determine if each process aligns with your findings from No. 1

Then, depending on the insights these steps give you, you have a few options for what to do next. You can either:

• Design and document the identified existing processes
• Update or complete the processes that don’t align with your goals, objectives, or strategy, miss important business rules, or contain weaknesses and inefficiencies

^{RINSE AND REPEAT}
Pro tip: Make sure you repeat the process planning stage at least once a year because new processes might emerge. This way you’re always up to date on your business process.

Stage 2: Model

During this phase, you must design and represent business processes, keeping in mind that they orchestrate the actions of different roles, systems (not necessarily always technological), information, and objects (depending on your business).

And by designing we mean conceptualizing each process and literally drawing a workflow (or set of workflows) for it. Visually, those are diagrams or flowcharts, which can be built into advanced project management tools like ClickUp!

If you read or hear about workflow management, that’s because business processes are represented with workflows (sometimes, many workflows). But business process management is more than creating and optimizing workflows, which is the focus of workflow management.

Also, beware that often, process management professionals create workflow diagrams with the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN).

Check out our finest selection of workflow examples!

Stage 3: Execute

To implement the business processes you previously designed, you must use a BPM tool. And here are the two gold steps we recommend you follow when executing the processes with the tool you choose:

1. Test each newly designed process with a few participants from a single team or department
2. Gradually allow the rest of your organization to adopt the process

This cautious approach to process execution will minimize the impact of possible design flaws.

Stage 4: Monitor

Are your business processes running? Okay. Then you must analyze them to see how exactly they’re running.

Process monitoring helps you identify bottlenecks, repetitive tasks, and other problems you must fix. On a deeper level, monitoring a current process means thoroughly examining each of its parts. Automating business processes cuts out the manual work of these repetitive tasks.

The goal is to pinpoint which parts are working well and which ones need improvement (plus the kind of improvement they need). Analyzing your customer or client onboarding process is an effective way to determine how its execution might be affecting your customer engagement levels.

And you might get signs that something is wrong with the process by mining event log data from the information systems involved in onboarding. That’d be a data-driven approach to comprehending process performance.

And it could enable you to automatically discover new processes from process analytics data. But how do you actually analyze processes? With a business process monitoring tool.

Just like a blood test report, such a tool assesses the health of your processes. For instance, it might evaluate customer satisfaction, cycle time, revenue, productivity, and many other metrics.

However, like a health check-up, you must repeat it every few weeks or months. Otherwise, you might only realize your processes have inefficiencies until it’s too late to avoid process failures (with all the associated costs and downsides).

Ensure business process automation tools are used to cut down the time it takes to do your day-to-day work. Your entire process management plan needs attention in specific spaces—more so than others.

Stage 5: Optimize

The optimization stage—or control stage—is about fine-tuning the business process needed for improvement. That’s how you keep them efficient and achieve your company’s business goals and your overall process management plan.

Some examples of process management optimization might include:

• Eliminate redundant tasks or processes
• Automate workflows
• Improve communication between process intervenients with appropriate business tools

And don’t forget to monitor the processes that you optimized! After all, this is a cycle.

Process Management Templates to Get Started Now

Let’s go back to the idea that you can optimize business processes by streamlining workflows. And that you streamline workflows with automation.

Well, process management templates are one of the foundations of workflow automation. And the three templates below are those we recommend you take a look at when you first get into workflow management.

1. ClickUp PDCA Process Whiteboard Template

If you’re into quality management, you already know the plan, do, check, and act (PDCA) cycle—or continuous improvement cycle. But this ClickUp PDCA whiteboard template will elevate your PDCA process management plan to a whole other level.

Use it to categorize tasks into the four stages of the PDCA cycle. It might sound silly to do with a template instead of pen and paper but trust us.

This whiteboard template uses business process management software and does more than break down tasks into smaller steps. The PDCA whiteboard supports the execution of PDCA processes for better project management.

2. ClickUp Company Processes Document Template

With ClickUp’s process document template, documenting business processes got so much easier. Use the template to document standard operating procedures (SOPs), such as the steps to request time off for process improvement.

Because it’s one thing to define the tasks in your workflow, it’s another thing to know exactly what to do to complete the task.

3. ClickUp Process and Procedures Template

Once your company starts executing business processes with BPM software, use this process and procedures template by ClickUp to get an overview of your internal processes by:

• Getting process improvement details through due dates, priorities, completion rates, and the number of completed tasks (with the processes grouped, for instance, by department)
• The tasks that require the creation of documents and the stage at which those documents are
• How the processes are going to flow into one another through a project management system

Optimize Process Management Using BPM Tools

A BPM suite—composed of many BPM software options—help you implement all the stages of business process management. So, before we go, let us tell you about a few strong points of BPM and project management tools (such as ClickUp).

• They automate workflows: Bring all of a company’s business processes to life and eliminate manual and repetitive work with predefined and custom automations.
• They support collaboration: Clarify procedures without losing the process’s context or emails like a needle in a haystack. BPM tools allow team members to comment on tasks and attach files to those tasks. They even enable you to convert comments into tasks!
• They offer reports: Provide comprehensive process data you can rely on to verify if you designed your processes effectively. These reports break down a team’s performance, enabling you to check their productivity over a certain period.

And usually, you can customize the reports with widgets that inform you of tasks completed, the number of tasks worked on, members with unfinished tasks, time estimates, time tracked, and so many other measures.

Try out ClickUp and drop us a line to say what you think of it. We can’t wait to learn where you need to go with business process management!

The post What is Process Management? Examples & Templates appeared first on ClickUp.

What do you get when you cross Human Resources (HR) with the power of modern project management? Software designed to streamline onboarding, benefits, payroll, and new hire processes.

HR software is a must-have for businesses of any size, especially those focused on growth and putting their employees first!

We’ve created a list of the 15 best HR software for your business including key features, pros, cons, pricing, customer feedback, and user ratings. Plus, a dive into HR software FAQs and categories to guide you on your search.

What Should You Look for in HR Software?

HR software helps leaders and team members align on company goals, manage employee benefits, streamline daily processes, and distribute their time more efficiently. In many cases, this software is also used by employees to manage their time cards, submit requests, view important tax and payroll information, and much more. 

Your HR software should be flexible enough to keep up with your company’s growing headcount and structural changes without forcing you to invest in yet another tool to get the job done. Features to look out for in your next HR software include: 

• Onboard new employees
• Manage payroll
• Access the company practices and policies
• Track time spent on tasks and billable hours
• Schedule tasks among employees
• Manage and request use for employee benefits
• Track applicants in the recruitment process
• Manage employee reviews and HR goals

The characteristics that make HR software so valuable aren’t limited to this list. Tools to manage tasks, track progress, plan projects, and collaborate with the team will make everyone’s day-to-day a little easier and run smoother using your ideal HR software. 

The 15 Best HR Tools

We’ve done our homework to gather a list of the 15 best HR software alternatives for every category, including their benefits, key features, customer feedback, user ratings, and pricing.

1. ClickUp

Category: Best overall HR software solution

ClickUp is the only all-in-one productivity platform powerful enough to provide wall-to-wall solutions for teams of any size and industry. With hundreds of customizable features and over 1,000 integrations, ClickUp can centralize your work across apps into a collaborative workspace—perfect for HR teams managing employee data, time, and goals. 

Whether you’re streamlining your recruitment process, onboarding new employees, or tracking their progress toward goals, ClickUp’s flexible platform has everything you need to simplify and optimize long-held HR processes.

ClickUp’s HR features

Multiple views

Over 15 ways to visualize your workflows, tasks, and projects in ClickUp including several key views that your HR team will love:

• Table view for a spreadsheet-like experience managing data
• List view with multiple sorting, filtering, and grouping options
• Form view for turning employee survey responses, requests, and feedback directly into an actionable task
• Calendar view for managing schedules, time off, daily agendas, and virtual meetings
• Workload view for managing your team’s capacities

Automations for HR processes

There are over 100 ways to automate your HR processes in ClickUp so your team can focus on what matters most—your people! Automations in ClickUp can trigger task creation, assign tasks, populate and assign comments, change task statuses, and more.

Dashboards for HR tracking

Ideal for tracking project Milestones, targets, and HR KPIs, Dashboards in ClickUp gather all of your work into an instant and high-level overview. Dashboards are customizable, highly visual, and always meeting-ready to present to stakeholders and other managers. Plus, there are over 50 widget variations in Dashboards that can be created for any HR scenario positions filled, time to hire, and team performance.

HR Templates

This HR SOP Template by ClickUp is the perfect resource for introducing your team to processes using ClickUp Whiteboards. This template applies a colorful, organized, and easily edited table to your collaborative Whiteboard to help HR managers train the team, establish recruitment tasks, manage hiring processes, and more. 

ClickUp pros

• All of these powerful tools are found in one dynamic platform, so you won’t have to invest in separate products or a suite of software to access all of ClickUp’s functionality
• Over 1,000 integrations and hundred of pre-built templates to extend and streamline your experience using ClickUp
• 24/7 customer support, learning resources like ClickUp University, webinars, and Help Docs to make your transition as smooth as possible

ClickUp cons

• Does not provide specific benefits packages but can manage the data in a secure platform
• Can be a bit of a learning curve adjusting to ClickUp’s rich feature list

ClickUp Pricing

• Free Forever
• Unlimited: $5 per user, per month
• Business: $12 per user, per month
• Business Plus: $19 per user, per month
• Enterprise: Contact ClickUp for custom pricing

ClickUp ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.7/5 (5,030+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (3,210+ reviews)

2. Rippling

Category: Best for employee management

Rippling offers a suite of products to simplify HR, IT, and finance processes using its cloud-based software. Its HR software is enjoyable to use, easy to learn, and has a ton of features that span from payroll to employee feedback surveys, and more.  

Rippling features

• Workforce reports and analytics to track hiring, headcount, and progress
• Workflow automation across consistent tasks 
• Role-based permissions and policies with customized access and approvals
• Compliance management with local, state, and federal recommendations 

Rippling pros

• Hundreds of templates that you can customize as needed
• Built to manage a global workforce with localized payroll, tax, and compliance features
• Tons of integrations to extend functionality into every HR category

Rippling cons

• Integration required to manage employee performances and reviews using Rippling
• The background check feature through Rippling is expensive
• Customization and multiple views are only extended to admin, so most of your employees will not have access to those features

Rippling pricing

Rippling starts at $8 per user, per month but all pricing plans require a custom quote from Rippling and are created for each team based on the features you need. 

Rippling ratings and reviews 

• G2: 4.8/5 (1,470+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.9/5 (1,840+ reviews)

HR leaders have a tough job. They have to find the best talent and manage them in a way that makes the company money. This is why HR leaders need the best HR software! I chose Rippling for its user-friendly interface and affordability. It also has features that other HR software programs don’t have. Rippling allows me to track employee performance and create custom reports. It also helps me connect with other HR leaders to share best practices, and the system automatically tracks vacation and sick days, and it makes it easy to view employee records.

3. Workday

Category: Best for large enterprise companies

Workday merges finance processes with HR, planning, and analytics to deliver a well-rounded experience for a variety of use cases. With features tailored to professional services using billable time, education management, and sales operations, this HR software suite helps mid-sized and large enterprise companies adapt processes to keep up with their growth.

Workday features

• Analytics and reporting to track HR task progress, payroll, and benefits
• Employee time-tracking and management
• Workflow automation for professional services

Workday pros

• Multiple products to serve companies across industries
• Built to manage HR processes for large enterprise teams with lots of data, frequent changes, and thousands of employees
• Self-service options through personal employee portals

Workday cons

• Not intuitive, difficult to navigate, and dated-looking interface
• Can be a lengthy implementation process, especially for larger companies
• Expensive and not an accessible option for small businesses

Workday pricing

Contact Workday for all pricing inquiries.

Workday ratings and reviews 

• G2: 4/5 (1,290+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.4/5 (980+ reviews)

4. Gusto

Category: Best for small businesses

Gusto is an HR tool for small and mid-sized teams to manage payroll, employee benefits, performance reviews, and onboarding. Like Workday and Rippling, Gusto offers insights and time and attendance features for a self-service experience across employees, but provides more in the way of hiring and talent acquisition including job postings, feedback requests, and offer letter templates. 

Gusto features

• Full-service payroll including compliance, automated tax filing, and contractor payments
• Employee management to oversee candidates from their application through onboarding
• Medical, dental, 401K, vision plans, and more provided

Gusto pros

• Multiple templates for various use cases like offer letters, hiring, and job postings
• Can organize and manage all things related to payroll and benefits
• Great for new businesses and small businesses looking for their first-time HR software 

Gusto cons

• There is a steep jump in prices between paid plans and no free plan offered
• Can take a bit of time to learn the platform and adjust to its UI
• Not all of the features from its web application are available on the mobile app

Gusto pricing

• Simple: $40 per month, plus an additional $6 per person, per month
• Plus: $80 per month, plus an additional $12 per person, per month
• Premium: Contact Gusto for a quote

Gusto ratings and reviews 

• G2: 4.2/5 (650+ reviews)
• Capterra: 5/5 (1 review)

We found that Gusto is the best HR software for our needs and has been instrumental in helping our workflow run smoothly. Gusto makes employee satisfaction the number one priority, which is essential for us. It has easy-to-use features like compensation management, employee onboarding, and a self-service portal. It also includes time off and benefits management, which is important in a small business to ensure that within our small staff, these tasks are still handled professionally.

5. BambooHR

Category: Best self-service option for employees

BambooHR is the payroll, benefits, and employee data trifecta of HR software that revolves around the employee’s personal experience accessing their related tasks. Built for small and medium-sized businesses, BambooHR helps teams focus on employee retention through a tool that lets members easily use their benefits, collect feedback, set performance goals, and more. 

BambooHR features

• Reporting for company management, growth, retention, and employee satisfaction
• Multiple personal and public calendars to calculate time off and view who’s out for the day
• Built-in onboarding packets including electronic signing

BambooHR pros

• This company practices what they preach in the way of putting employees first and prioritizing work-life balance
• Creates a space for HR teams, recruiters, and managers to collaborate on new applicants
• Multiple features for employees to track their performance through assessments, feedback, goals, and training

BambooHR cons

• Outdated UX and UI
• Limited metrics in its reporting feature
• No built-in scheduling feature

BambooHR pricing

All BambooHR pricing is customized per team and available upon request. 

BambooHR ratings and reviews 

• G2: 4.4/5 (1,210+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (1,920+ reviews)

BambooHR software is easy to use and amongst one of the best HRIS options for small to mid-sized businesses. BambooHR is user-friendly for HRIS professionals and employees alike. The workflows are customizable and the reporting functionality is straightforward. BambooHR makes onboarding new employees fun and helps get them to engage with the company from day one. One of my favorite features is the ability to create workflows cross-departmentally. For us, this simplified the new hire equipment process by streamlining communication between HR and the IT department.

6. Namely

Category: Best HR software for mid-sized teams

Namely is an HR software for mid-sized businesses to stay on top of their payroll processes, manage benefits, and track their working time. 

Namely features

• Reward and recognition features to motivate employees
• E-signature and E-verify functionality to streamline onboarding processes
• Tons of integrations with the option to build your own through its API

Namely pros

• Very easy for employees to view their time and paystubs through their personal portals
• Simple interface that mimics many social media platform feeds
• Designed for mid-sized companies with 25-1,000 employees

Namely cons

• Lacking powerful and intuitive employee reporting and performance features
• The platform struggles to manage data for larger companies and almost exclusively is built for mid-sized teams
• Time reporting can be difficult to manage for hourly employees

Namely pricing

All pricing information for Namely is available only upon request. 

Namely ratings and reviews 

• G2: 3.9/5 (270+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.2/5 (410+ reviews)

7. Oracle

Category: Best for industry-specific features

Oracle offers a suite of cloud-based applications for enterprise companies to manage everything from resource planning to content, customer experience, supply chain processes, and more. Among its handful of products includes Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM—AKA, its HR software for human capital management. 

Oracle features

• A digital assistant to help manage benefits, workforce predictions, and strategic company planning
• Career development and performance management features including checklists and modules
• Pre-built and custom HR KPIs and dashboards

Oracle pros

• Payroll localizations for a global workforce stretching from Mexico to China
• Industry-specific features for a tailored HR software experience
• This software is built to help companies scale and implement Agile practices into HR processes

Oracle cons

• Most of the drawbacks stem from Oracle being such a large software. The setup and the learning curve can be very time-consuming
• Lots of different applications in each product get expensive quickly
• The interface feels outdated and is not intuitive

Oracle pricing

Contact Oracle sales for detailed pricing information.

Oracle ratings and reviews 

• G2: 3.7/5 (100+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.2/5 (50+ reviews)

8. HR360

Category: Best for compliance resources

HR360 is a digital resource for people management. It helps businesses keep track of employee information, performance data, and compliance with HR regulations. 

HR360 features

• Automated job description and interview question builder
• Employee cost calculator and salary benchmarking tool
• A library of interactive guides to align with HR compliances and best employee practices

HR360 pros

• Additional apps to extend its feature functionality
• An entire online library of all federal and state laws
• Over 500 downloadable template forms 

HR360 cons

• This software relies on separate apps to access its features
• This tool is helpful for HR teams but less valuable for employees across departments
• Not the best option for mid-to-large teams

HR360 pricing

Contact HR360 for all pricing information. 

HR360 ratings and reviews 

• G2: N/A
• Capterra: 5/5 (2 reviews)

I chose HR360 because it offers a comprehensive suite of HR features, including an employee self-service portal, an onboarding module, and a performance management system. HR360 is also highly configurable, so it can be customized to meet the specific needs of my business. Additionally, the price is competitive compared to other HR software programs. Overall, HR360 is the best HR software solution for my business.

9. Clockify

Category: Best for managing employee time off requests

Clockify is a time-tracking software that HR teams can use to categorize and track employee progress during work days. Clockify gives the HR department insight into employee performance, current projects, and general activity. It also gives employees a private work calendar for requesting paid time off for future dates or day-of requests. On the admin side of things, your HR department and managers have access to an annual timeline with everyone’s approved and pending requests.

Clockify features

• Multiple timekeeping features for entering hours, marking billable time, setting a stopwatch, and overseeing your timesheet
• Invoices created by tracked time, expense, and hourly rates
• Multiple views to oversee time off, project schedules, the team, and progress

Clockify pros

• Helpful for tracking and managing the team’s workload
• Helps employees take full ownership and accountability for their working hours and off-time
• Some project management features including milestones and assigned tasks

Clockify cons

• Lacking many key HR features for managing benefits, employee portals, and hiring
• Limited time tracking automation features
• Clockify would be helpful for some departments but not all of them which isn’t ideal for an HR software

Clockify pricing

• Basic: $3.99 per user, per month
• Standard: $5.49 per user, per month
• Pro: $7.99 per user, per month
• Enterprise: $11.99 per user, per month

Clockify ratings and reviews 

• G2: 4.5/5 (130+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (4,290+ reviews)

Aside from performance management, the HR department can efficiently distribute tasks, track progress, and address everyone’s needs in a timely manner with Clockify. They can also use Clockify’s reports to determine who may be overworked and help out team leaders to distribute tasks and projects. Clockify’s time tracking data also helps HR learn more about their employees’ work habits, especially if the company relies on a remote/hybrid work system.

10. Compt

Category: Best for managing employee stipends

Compt is an employee stipends platform that gives people the freedom to choose the lifestyle perks supported by their company. Helpful for HR teams managing employee benefits, Compt’s employee stipend and rewards software is customizable, IRS-compliant, and can support global teams.

Compt features

• Multiple benefits categories to reward your employees with office supplies, health and wellness classes, food, and development benefits
• Thorough bonus feature for compensating employees during career milestones

Compt pros

• A modern take on employee benefits that every team member can and wants to use
• Great for showing appreciation for remote and global employees

Compt cons

• Lacking other key HR features for hiring, retention, analytics, and performance tracking
• Focused only on stipends and perks rather than full benefits plans

Compt pricing

Contact Compt for all pricing information. 

Compt ratings and reviews 

• G2: 4.9/5 (20+ reviews)
• Capterra: N/A

As the future of work sees a push toward hybrid and fully remote work environments, HR teams are navigating a categorical shift in how they deliver corporate perks. These extras traditionally included staples like healthcare and retirement benefits, and now include perks like free team lunches and group fitness classes. Compt allows teams to create stipend categories like “health and wellness” or “family.” Employees then pick services in those categories and get reimbursed by uploading receipts via Compt’s application or integrations.

11. Scribe

Category: Best for sharing training materials

Scribe is a handy HR tool for documenting your processes for you. The tool auto-generates visual step-by-step guides with text and annotated screenshots. Teams can create SOPs in seconds, then share or embed Scribes in any knowledge base to streamline onboarding, training, and tool adoption processes.

Scribe features

• Automated documentation that records processes through your browser
• Customize your step-by-step guides with annotations, text, redactions, and branding
• Easy sharing options via PDF, embedding, URL, or additional exporting options

Scribe pros

• This is a helpful tool to quickly show and teach new team members how to follow standardized company processes
• This would be a great tool to use in addition to your current tech stack across departments
• Scribe does its primary function incredibly well, including screenshots and instructions in their automated step-by-step guides

Scribe cons

• Scribe takes transcription to the next level but will not stand alone as a full-service HR software
• You will be reliant on integrations to use Scribe to its fullest extent
• No time-tracking, benefits management, or employee performance tools to align Scribe with your HR processes

Scribe pricing

• Basic: Free
• Pro: $29 per user, per month
• Enterprise: Contact Scribe for custom pricing

Scribe ratings and reviews 

• G2: 5/5 (50+ reviews)
• Capterra: 5/5 (5 reviews)

Any user can create and share unlimited Scribes (step-by-step guides). They are easy to create, duplicate and personalize for every employee. Scribes live in an easy-to-organize workspace, but also embed in any knowledge base, wiki or CMS.

12. Evergreen

Category: Best for rewarding your team

Evergreen is an HR tool that hinges on positivity. Its principle features motivate employees and maintain healthy workplace morale through peer-to-peer recognition. Plus, the more you recognize your team, the more trees Evergreen will plant on your behalf—so wholesome!

Evergreen features

• Track your achievements and your team by the number of achievements given and the number of trees planted
• Multiple integrations including Microsoft Teams and Slack

Evergreen pros

• Every time you give back to your employees, you’re also giving back to the planet
• This software is wholesome and entirely based on positive reinforcement

Evergreen cons

• This is a fun tool to offer your team but when if you’re trying to pinch pennies, it’s not necessary
• Lacking critical HR software features including benefits, payroll, performance, and talent management 

Evergreen pricing

$2.99 per user, per month—that’s it! Nice and easy. 

Evergreen ratings and reviews 

• G2: 4.7/5 (50+ reviews)
• Capterra: N/A

Evergreen is the only peer-to-peer recognition app that lets teams recognize a job well done while planting trees for the planet. For the ultimate positive, feel-good team culture. My favorite features are the public peer-to-peer recognition inside Slack or MS Teams, great analytics, and the fact that company values are visible in daily operations.

13. DeskTime

Category: Best for tracking employee time at work

DeskTime automatically tracks the time you spend on the computer by logging your arrival, departure, and time spent on projects or tasks. Managers can see where their team’s time goes and gives employees proof of their time spent at work. While many of the HR tools on this list offer an array of time and attendance features, DeskTime’s primary function is to make detailed accounts of the time your employees spend at work and what is accomplished in that time. 

DeskTime features

• Cost calculation for assigning hourly rates to make payroll calculations
• Shift scheduling to distribute your team’s time evenly and give employees the option to request specific shifts
• Booking tools that let team members reserve desks, meeting rooms, parking spaces, or office equipment
• Absence calendar to track time off 

DeskTime pros

• DeskTime has several time-tracking features to promote a healthy work-life balance
• Supports time-blocking strategies like the Pomodoro technique
• Great for small businesses and freelancers

DeskTime cons

• So much visibility into your team member’s time can lead to a micromanaging and distrusting relationship between employees and managers
• This is mainly a time-tracking tool that has some crossover into common HR software features
• The UI feels very dated

DeskTime pricing

• Pro: $7 per user, per month
• Premium: $10 per user, per month
• Enterprise: $20 per user, per month

DeskTime ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.5/5 (140+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (340+ reviews)

DeskTime is an automatic time tracker and workforce management system that helps to plan team resources, oversee workloads, prevent burnout, and much more. It’s employer- and employee-friendly with both team management solutions and features to ensure a healthy work-life balance.

14. 15five

Category: Best for performance management

15five is an HR software solution that focuses on performance management and employee enablement. It supports four products named for the problems they aim to solve: Engage, Perform, Focus, and Transform. 

15five features

• Manage and plan check-ins, 1-1s, assessments, and reviews from within the software
• Goal and OKR tracking on a live dashboard

15five pros

• A strong community of leading HR professionals to lean on for tips and strategies
• HR managers can oversee employee progress using OKR-driven SMART goals

15five cons

• Limited customization in the platform
• No benefits management or payroll features

15five pricing

• Engage: $4 per user, per month
• Perform: $8 per user, per month
• Focus: $8 per user, per month
• Total Platform: $14 per user, per month

15five ratings and reviews 

• G2: 4.6/5 (1,720+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (850+ reviews)

15. Trakstar

Category: Best for giving feedback

Trakstar is a performance management HR software for managers to gauge employee progress and goals through constant and direct feedback. 

Trakstar features

• 360 Degree Feedback through a continuous feedback loop for employee accountability
• Goal feature for setting SMART goals, objectives, achievements, and tracking progress
• Reporting insights and dashboards

Trakstar pros

• Multiple ways to track HR progress through applicants, job postings, goals, and analytics
• Tracks the entire employee lifecycle including learning management and performance

Trakstar cons

• Lacking benefits and payroll features
• You will be reliant on multiple products to solve different daily HR processes 

Trakstar pricing

Contact Trakstar for a custom pricing quote.

Trakstar ratings and reviews 

• G2: 4.3/5 (220+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.4/5 (280+ reviews)

Benefits of HR Software

Now that you’ve learned about the best HR tools on the market take a moment to understand the benefits of using an HR software for your team.

The benefits of HR Software include:

• Increased employee data security
• Optimized HR processes
• More organization
• Improved onboarding
• Minimize errors in employee tracking

Types of HR Software

To create a more narrowly tailored experience for different use cases, most HR tools can be divided among a handful of software types.

Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS), Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS), and Human Capital Management (HCM) all refer to a category of HR software that typically involves a suite of products that work together to target individual HR functions like payroll, benefits, and employee onboarding. 

Core HR and HR administration software also fall under the HRMS, HCM, and HRIS umbrella, so if you’re seeing those terms used to describe your prospective HR tool, no need to worry—you’re on the right track.

If your company structure blends HR processes with talent acquisition, you may also benefit from talent management systems to streamline your workflows. These tools include features to help teams focus on recruiting new candidates, managing employee performances, providing learning and development opportunities, and overseeing compensation.

Choose the Best HR Software for Your Team

But which type of HR software will your team be most likely to engage with and introduce the most benefits for your organization? The type that does it all, like ClickUp! 

Ranked first on this list as the best overall HR software and widely used by teams across industries, ClickUp is the only tool flexible and powerful enough to provide wall-to-wall solutions for your entire company. It’s packed with hundreds of features to streamline your HR processes related to onboarding, performance reviews, employee requests, talent development, and more.

Plus, ClickUp is as powerful as it is cost-effective. Access unlimited tasks and members, ClickUp Docs, Whiteboards, 100MB of storage, and tons of pre-built HR templates on ClickUp’s Free Forever Plan.

Sign up for ClickUp today and start creating HR processes that truly put your people first.

The post 15 Best HR Software for HR Teams – 2023 Review appeared first on ClickUp.

And scrum is one such framework that’s gaining popularity in agile project management. It makes it easier to break large projects into smaller, more easily managed tasks and keep track of how those tasks are progressing. 

Properly implementing Scrum can help team members stay on task and complete projects faster and with fewer errors. Project managers can make use of templates to ensure that their scrum workflow follows the framework accurately.

In this post, we’ll present nine scrum templates that will fit a variety of use cases and workflows.

What is a Scrum Template?

A Scrum template is a pre-formatted document or tool that is used to help teams organize and plan work within the Scrum framework. Scrum templates provide a consistent, structured approach to managing tasks and progress, and they can help teams stay on track and achieve their goals in the agile project management framework.

Some examples of Scrum templates include Sprint backlogs, which list all the tasks that need to be completed during a specific sprint, and Product backlogs, which list all the tasks that need to be completed for a particular project or product. Other templates may include meeting agendas, burndown charts, and retrospective reports.

These templates are designed to support the Scrum process, ensuring your software development team has a shared understanding of the work to be done, and how it will be accomplished.

Why are scrum templates important to an agile business?

Scrum templates are essential to a business dedicated to the agile workflow as they provide structure and consistency in the way work is organized and planned. This helps a scrum master manage the software development agile team so everyone stays on track and achieves their goals more efficiently.

A team may think they understand the Scrum process and may know the definitions of all the Agile Scrum terms by heart, but still not be provided the proper amount of focus to execute a scrum task properly.

A scrum template solves this for agile teams:

It ensures all autonomous teams have a shared understanding of the work to be done while improving visibility into project plan progress. This streamlines the process to minimize the time and effort spent on organizing and planning work. They allow software or agile marketing teams to respond quickly to changes and adapt to new challenges, which is crucial in an ever-changing environment.

What makes a good scrum template?

A good Scrum template is easy to use and clear to understand. Often used within a team’s agile tools, it provides a solid agile framework for following the Scrum process. The following are some factors that make a good Scrum template:

• Easy to use: The template should be easy to understand, fill out, and update. It should have an intuitive design that allows employees to quickly get started while sticking to the agile methodology
• Clear: The template should communicate information about the Scrum process and the project’s current status within that process. It isn’t enough just to be easy to understand, it must highlight the Scrum workflow.
• Supports the Scrum process: Many templates can provide a brief overview of Scrum concepts, but a good one will go a step further. It will make it easy to track who is working on what, what their role is, and how far along they are on each of their assigned tasks.
• Customizable: Not every project is the same. While the Scrum process is simple, its real strength comes in its adaptability. Although some Scrum templates will be designed for specific tasks within the Scrum framework or specific types of projects, each should allow enough customization to fit all necessary use cases.
• Automated: Automation of some templates can save time and increase accuracy. The template should be automated to the extent that it allows for easy updates and monitoring of progress.
• Provides visibility: A good Scrum template should provide visibility into the progress of the project, allowing team members to easily see what has been done, what is currently being worked on, and what still needs to be done.
• Data-driven: The template should be data-driven, meaning it should be able to collect, store and analyze data. It should also allow for easy extraction of data and reports.
• Actionable: The template should include clear, actionable next steps and help focus the team’s work on the overall project plan. 

By following these guidelines, a good Scrum template can help teams to stay on track, work more efficiently, and achieve their goals—all with the right agile tools.

9 Scrum Templates to Consider for Your Team in 2023

These templates are for the planning and execution phases of the scrum workflow. We have a separate list of templates that will help your team organize the Sprint Retrospective.

1. ClickUp Agile Scrum Management Template

Our Agile Scrum Management Template includes all the essential elements of the Scrum workflow. It will help project managers track backlogs, sprints, test management, and retrospectives. This template covers scrum management from a broad level and is designed to support teams who need to keep track of complex projects and stay on track with the scrum goals that have been laid out.

The template provides a clear and consistent approach to organizing and planning work. Additionally, this scrum template includes a “How to get started” doc. In it, project managers and team members alike will find detailed information on how to effectively use the template.

Using the guide ensures that teams can quickly understand and implement the features and custom fields provided by the template, making it easy to start using it right away in your agile project management process.

2. ClickUp Agile Scrum Bugs List Template

Our Agile Scrum Bugs List Template provides an additional look into the base Agile Scrum Management template mentioned above. The bugs list view makes it easy to track and manage bugs as they come up, using the scrum workflow. When you use this template, you’ll find a clear and consistent interface that provides tools for identifying, prioritizing, and resolving bugs. 

It lets team members record all the critical information needed to document and resolve bugs, with sections for the description of the bug, the priority level, the person responsible for resolving it, and its current status. This template can be used in conjunction with other scrum templates on this list to ensure that bugs are identified and addressed promptly.

With the use of this template, your scrum team can improve their ability to identify bugs, prioritize them according to the impact they’ll have on the final product or its current phase, and keep track of the progress made to resolve them.

3. ClickUp Scrum Board Template

This Scrum Board Template is another additional view of our Agile Management Template. Within the scrum workflow, the scrum board is an effective way for teams to visualize and organize their work—whether it’s user stories or tracking bugs.

A scrum board provides a visual representation of the tasks that need to be completed, tracks the progress that’s been made, and makes it easy to see the status of each task. This view of the management template is divided into columns that allow an at-a-glance look at where each task stands in the process.

You’ll find columns for tasks that need to be done, and those that have been accepted or rejected. There are also columns for tasks that are pending or waiting for approval. 

Unlike physical scrum boards, the one in this template is easily updated and automated. It can integrate easily with other tools in your tech stack so information about your project’s progress is always exactly where you need it.

4. ClickUp Agile Scrum Backlog Template

The Agile Scrum Backlog Template presents another look into our Agile Scrum Management template and provides a view of the scrum backlog. Backlogs are an important part of the scrum workflow. This particular view is concerned with the sprint backlog, rather than the product backlog.

The sprint backlog is used by the development team to track the progress of a sprint. They’ll fill in the tasks of the backlog (again, not necessarily the product backlog) during the planning phase of the sprint.

This template makes it easy for them to track which tasks in the current sprint have been completed, and what stage of completion those that haven’t are at. 

5. ClickUp Agile Scrum Bugs Priority Template

Just as a hospital must prioritize emergency room patients based on the severity of their affliction, development teams must prioritize bugs based on their impact on the project. The Agile Scrum Bugs Priority Template provides them with the tools to do just that.

Developers will be able to label bugs by their severity and view them in that format with this view of the original Agile Scrum Management template. This gives a glance at how many of which type of bug is remaining and allows team members to quickly identify which bugs should be worked on first.

By properly using the bugs priority view, development managers can avoid or properly manage technical debt and reduce the chances of negative effects from improperly prioritized bugs.

6. ClickUp Scrum Sprint Planning Template

Now it’s time to move on to another template and have a look at some of the views it provides.

Our Scrum Sprint Planning Template does for the sprint planning phase what the management template did for its execution phase. Before each sprint, careful planning must take place to ensure that the tasks to be completed move the project toward its goals in the most productive way. 

This template allows sprint planners to keep track of the tasks that’ll need to be completed during the sprint, the goal of the current sprint, and other information that will help set up scrum teams for a successful sprint.

7. ClickUp Scrum Active Sprint Template

The ClickUp Scrum Active Sprint Template within the previously mentioned Scrum Planning Template will show you information about the currently active sprints. Sprints are organized into columns showing what’s in development, ready for review, awaiting deployment, and more.

For each task in a column, important information about its category, development status, timeframe, and goal are readily viewable without any additional steps.

8. ClickUp Scrum Meeting Template

Scrum meetings are another key element of the workflow. These meetings usually occur daily. They allow the team to assess the work that has been completed and what still lies ahead.

They are important to the agile nature of scrum because they are where roadblocks and other newly discovered obstacles are accounted for and fit into the sprint schedule. Our Scrum Meeting Template will make it easy to plan and execute these meetings. 

This template provides an easy way for team members to contribute to the meeting with details about what they accomplished since the last meeting, what blockers they’re currently facing, and what they plan on doing for the day.

9. ClickUp Sprint Events Template

Our final template of the list is the Agile Sprint Events Template. This template provides a central location for documenting details about the entire sprint process. Scrum teams will be able to keep track of all event meeting notes, decisions, events, and learnings that occurred during the sprint process.

This makes it a convenient document to share with any stakeholders, to get a quick overview of how the entire process went, or to refer back to as a learning exercise for future sprints. 

Streamline Your Scrum Process with ClickUp

Scrum templates are a powerful tool for organizing and planning projects that will make use of the Scrum framework. With the templates we’ve highlighted in this guide, your team can gain valuable insights into your project workflows and position themselves for greater productivity.

However, it’s important to remember that a template is just one aspect of the scrum process. To get the most out of a template,  the tools you use to implement it must also be of high quality.

ClickUp provides a central platform where teams can organize tasks, track progress, and communicate with each other. It offers a variety of integrations and customization options, making it flexible and adaptable to the specific needs of your team.

Give ClickUp a try and see how it can help improve your team’s productivity and achieve success in your projects.

The post 9 Free Scrum Templates to Track Your Workflow appeared first on ClickUp.

But its importance goes beyond that as well. Every type of business planning, from action plans to sprint plans and resource planning, ultimately derives from the larger strategic plan. That means one thing above all: you have to get your strategic planning process right.

To get there, you need to start somewhere. The many resources related to planning are a great start. But even more specifically, you need a template that can help you plug in information, digest that information, and come up with a plan that everyone in the organization can follow.

What exactly that ideal template looks like depends on your needs and existing software. That’s why in this guide, we’re sharing our 10 favorite free strategic planning templates you can start using (almost) immediately.

What is a Strategic Planning Template?

A strategic planning template is a roadmap to your business roadmap. It provides business leaders with the exact steps needed to build a plan that can outline the near- and long-term future of the business.

At its best, the template is a measurable tool that everyone involved in the planning process can follow. It helps you solidify where you are, and where you want to go.

And, just as importantly, it helps you consolidate that information into an actionable, measurable, and easy-to-process strategic plan that everyone in the organization can use.

Of course, there is no simple best business strategy template. Just like a project plan can differ from a product roadmap, you’ll need a template that matches the way you work and the type of planning you’re doing.

That’s why this guide highlights not just one, but 10 free planning templates to cover a variety of needs.

What Makes a Good Strategic Planning Template?

A good strategic planning template accomplishes a few key goals:

• It establishes a clear timeline for the planning process
• It outlines the goals of the strategic plan and derives any actions and strategies from those goals
• It clearly outlines the individual tactics and overall business strategy underlying those goals
• It establishes a way to measure the progress and outcomes of implementing the plan
• It outlines clear responsibilities for individual tasks related to the planning process
• It provides check-in points and opportunities for the team to review and adjust as needed
• It’s customizable enough to make tweaks that can make the plan more relevant for your organization and business planning process

Most importantly, though, the strategic plan template streamlines the entire process. Whereas in processes like capacity planning, details matter above all, business strategy planning should focus on a broader viewpoint that helps every stakeholder involved quickly gain an overview of the plan and its connection to the business.

10 Strategic Planning Templates to Use for Your Team

If every strategic plan has the same goals, you might think that most of them are nearly identical. You’d be surprised.

Much like project planning, different templates can lead to very different outcomes. That’s why it’s best to consider a few free strategic planning templates before selecting the one that works best for your business and situation. To help you get started, these are our 10 favorites to use for your next strategic plan.

1. ClickUp Strategic Roadmap List Template

It’s a basic template with potential power behind it. The roadmap helps you visualize how your organization can get through its strategic plam, with custom fields ranging from the duration of individual tasks to the progress of those tasks, their impact, and their ease of implementation.

Within ClickUp, you’ll be able to view your Strategic Roadmap as a progress view. But, once tasks and deadlines are assigned to individual tasks, you’ll also be able to see a timeline or even workload view to ensure continued progress. While it’s a primarily list-based template, we especially enjoy the Gantt chart as a way to see how the individual tasks interact with each other regarding the larger timeline.

2. ClickUp Strategic Roadmap Timeline Template

If you’re thinking of your strategic planning as basically bridging the gap between your company’s present and desired future state, this is the template for you. It’s more complex than the list-based template mentioned above, providing you with a more nuanced strategic roadmap once built.

The template defaults to a Gantt chart with sections for individual departments. From there, you can view a progress board and outline your current capacity. Meanwhile, a number of custom fields help you better plan through each of these efforts:

• Completion %
• Effort
• Expected Outcome
• Impact
• Strategy Progress
• Team Members

It might not be the right template if you’re just getting started with strategic planning. But for experienced leaders looking to take that planning process to the next level, it’s just the right outline.

3. ClickUp Grand Strategy Matrix Template

It’s simple but beautiful. The grand strategy matrix allows you to build a four-quadrant view of the strategic environment surrounding your organization, with a framework designed to help you understand what the path to your organization’s future might look like.

How you get to that path, of course, is up to you. The quadrants can be used for a simple SWOT analysis or for more complex planning processes, like finding market growth niches and opportunities in a tight competitive environment. Some of these options are pre-built into the template, while others can be customized to match your exact marketing plan or whatever else you need your strategic planning process to be.

4. ClickUp Strategic Plan Whiteboard Template

For the visual thinkers among us, this template is a perfect choice. Above all, it’s a visual road map that easily shows not just what steps are necessary for strategic planning, but also how those steps can (and should) flow into each other in the context of the larger project.

Of course, you can still assign different tasks and stages to individual members of the team to keep responsibilities intact and obvious. But the template’s flowchart nature and whiteboard feel also mean you can seamlessly adjust the process as needed.

The chart’s color coding ensures that anyone working on it keeps a clear overview of what’s needed and when.

5. ClickUp Strategic Marketing Plan Template

A strategic plan isn’t just relevant organization-wide. A solid business strategy is just as important for individual units, and this template shows just how those differences can manifest themselves.

Think of this free template as a more practical opportunity to plan your marketing efforts. The default list view is sorted by the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) method, sorting tasks into defined overarching objectives for the larger marketing effort. 

But that’s only the beginning. Custom fields allow you to define the channels through which you’ll approach executing the plan, while the timeline view helps you keep track of progress. And of course, the Progress Board allows you to see how those stages you’ve defined ultimately lead to achieving your strategic goals.

6. ClickUp Event Strategic Plan Template

Planning an event is hard work, and countless tasks will need need to be accomplished to ensure its success. A strategic plan template for that event, on the other hand, can keep a clear overview of the tasks needed and accomplished, and how everything connects to achieve core goals.

ClickUp’s Event Strategic Plan template accomplishes that through a wide range of custom fields, from channel to budget, hashtags, the voice used, and more. It’s designed to plan multiple events at once, all overlapping to create an event-based strategy that helps to elevate your business or your marketing strategy.

Because of the complexities involved, we’re especially fond of the board-based Event Status view. This strategic plan template has a simple overview of where all events stand, and what still needs to be done.

Of course, the list and calendar-based views can also be helpful to get into some of the deeper nuances of event planning.

7. ClickUp Action Plan Template

Strategic planning is not universally liked, in part because it tends toward the theoretical. Goals and tasks alike tend to be lofty for a true business strategy, focusing on the 30,000-foot view rather than the on-the-ground needs of the organization or your business partners.

That’s a major reason why we love this action plan template. It’s a note-based system that folds all necessary tasks to move your strategic plan forward into three sections:

• To Do
• Doing
• Done

Within that structure, tasks are separated into daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly reviews to account for their varying complexities and timelines. The result is a simple overview of everything that needs to be done, which also does a great job highlighting existing successes and accomplished tasks for the entire team to see and celebrate. Now that’s a strategic plan.

8. ProjectManager Strategic Planning Word Template

What if we told you that you can build a strategic plan entirely in MS Word? That’s what this template seeks to accomplish, through easy-to-digest sections all designed to streamline the business strategy as much as possible:

• An executive summary that introduces the context and background of the strategic plan.
• A spot for your vision and mission statements to anchor your plan into your organization’s core being.
• A SWOT analysis to take an honest look at your organization and its environment (think vision statement)
• Business goals to define exactly what the strategic plan should accomplish
• A marketing plan that outlines the promotional side of the business strategy to hit those goals
• An operations plan that serves as the actionable road map toward achieving your goals
• Financial projections of the future with the goals for the business strategy (and business growth)
• The team that will be responsible for executing the strategic, marketing, and operational plan

Keep in mind that this plan is customizable to match your needs. It requires a bit more manual work than some of the other examples shared in this guide but can provide a nice overview of the plan you’re building.

9. PowerPoint Strategic Planning Template

If part of your strategic planning process includes presentations for stakeholders (and for most organizations, it does), why not go straight to the software in which those presentations will eventually happen?

This template is, at its core, a roadmap timeline similar to others we’ve discussed above. This business strategy template focuses on the individual milestones needed to get from goal setting all the way to execution. But it’s designed specifically for PowerPoint, with customization options that make it easy to dive in and tweak.

The download is free and easy, and customization only requires basic PowerPoint skills. The timeline is set to one year by default, so you might need to make some tweaks if your strategic plan spans multiple years across your vision statement.

10. Excel Strategic Planning Template

MS Excel is not always user-friendly, but its cell-based build has enormous customization potential. It’s no surprise, then, that our final template on Excel is also one of the most comprehensive options in this guide for your business strategy needs.

The worksheet itself divides into three areas or tabs:

• Goal identification to identify key elements like goals for your organization through focused brainstorming.
• Goal setting, using the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely) business strategy template for business goals.
• Action planning, converting those goals into tactics, and tracking the progress of those tactics towards attaining your goals.

Keep in mind that, thanks to its MS Excel nature, this is largely an internal planning document and not designed for external presentation. But within that context, the key elements of this business strategy template can be immensely helpful to get and keep your strategic planning on track.

Supercharge Your Strategic Planning With ClickUp

It’s impossible to build a strategic plan in isolation. No matter the organization, chances are it’s a team effort. So why not expand that team to include the right tools? 

This is not an exaggeration: the right strategic planning template can make or break the process for you. Whether you’re trying to hit business objectives, run competitive analysis, or perform SWOT analysis, a clear outline lets easily build a plan that the entire organization can follow.

And when that template is free? All the better.

And here’s the best part: the software powering most of the templates we’ve shared above, ClickUp, is free to try as well. It’s a project management and productivity tool built for teams, which works out perfectly if that project is your next plan to create your overall business strategy. 

Ready to get started? Try ClickUp for free today.

The post 10 Free Strategic Planning Templates in ClickUp, Word, and Excel appeared first on ClickUp.

Luckily, there are ways to combat our lack of telepathy in the workplace—especially when it comes to design concepts that we imagine so vividly in our heads, but have no idea how to recreate IRL.

What’s the solution? Writing detailed and practical design briefs, of course!

Like placing an order at a restaurant, design briefs tell the designer what you want out of a request. It’s how they understand what the project is, what the task requires, and where to start.

The key to a highly effective design brief is to be both clear and concise—which is challenging when you’re dealing with complex tasks or multiple non-negotiable project requirements. But we’re here to help with tips and examples to take your design briefs to the next level.

Whether your design team is looking to standardize your briefs and requests, or you’re part of an agency commissioning a company project, this article has you covered. Read along for a fresh take on writing efficient design briefs including the essential elements, how-to breakdowns, a customizable template, and more! 

What is a Design Brief?

A design brief is a written document that lays the groundwork for a design project with the outlined goals, scope, and approach for the request. Similar to your project roadmap, the design brief is a designer’s guiding light when it comes to the where, what, when, and why of a specific request. 

Design briefs typically pass through many hands before they land on the designer’s to-do list. With approvals from all project managers and stakeholders, the brief should be thorough but to the point, identifying the approved timeline, end product, and budget (if applicable).

On a deeper level, briefs are also a way for the designer to connect and align with the person making the request. In this sense, try to use your brief as a collaborative tool for eliminating the general confusion that comes with additional back-and-forth phone calls, messages, and emails.

But while it’s important to include key details and context to your requests, your design brief should still be, well, brief. You want it to be long enough to describe the project and communicate your request without overwhelming the designer with a multi-page pamphlet that runs margin-to-margin.

How do these ideas come together in a design brief? We’ll show you! 

How to Write a Design Brief (With Examples)

In an exciting turn of events, there’s no set-in-stone format you must stick to when writing an effective design brief.

Your team will find the type of brief that serves your design project management style best in terms of length, detail, and work style. Small requests or smaller-scale projects may not require as hefty of a brief, but there are still key elements that all briefs share. 

Relying on a template, a survey-style request, or a standardized document structure are all great ways to collect the necessary information to build a design brief. The key is to keep it consistent! Here is our step-by-step guide for writing effective design briefs with real-life examples.

Follow these eight steps from top to bottom—or skip to the next section for a free customizable template to make the process even easier!

Step 1: Choose your design brief project management software

Design projects are collaborative by nature and your ideal design project management software will have the features to support that! Powerful design tools will alleviate some of the stress and streamline daily processes involved in your design workflow with the ability to organize, edit, share, and manage projects of any size. 

And since design briefs are commonly formatted in a document, your chosen project management tool will likely include a built-in document editor or integrations to bring all of the right information together across apps. 

Example:

Think of your design brief as a reliable source of truth—a document that you can refer back to at any time for the most accurate information and progress updates. The best example of this? ClickUp Docs.

ClickUp Docs are your destination for all things text-based in your Workspace. In true ClickUp fashion, Docs offer a ton of features like nested pages, Slash Commands, styling options, embedding, and advanced settings to customize the look and functionality of your Doc.

You’ll love how far your can take your design briefs with real-time editing, @mentions in comments, and secure sharing and permissions via a simple link. Plus, Docs can be connected to your workflows so any updates that happen in your document are automatically reflected in related tasks and other areas of your workspace. 

Step 2: The design brief project description

Context is everything and this section of your design brief should give exactly that! 

Give a brief but descriptive overview of what your project is and what it will be used for. This doesn’t have to dig too deep, but a sentence or two that clearly states your request and what you’ll be using it for is a great starting point for the designer.

This section may also include a bit about the company or client commissioning the design. What the company does, its primary services, values, and brand identity are common details to find in this section. 

Example:

Our social media marketing agency is redesigning our website to feature a new home page, blog section, and portfolio. We are a small team of eight members who work with 50 businesses in our area, and all of our work is currently clustered together on our outdated webpage. We have matured as a brand since we created our initial website and grown as a company, and we want our new website to reflect that. 

Step 3: The design brief objective and SMART goals

Describe the problem this project will address and the big-picture idea that you’re hoping to achieve with it. Be direct with the purpose you want the project to serve and use this section to align the design team with the client’s overall vision and objective through SMART goals. 

P.S., SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. 

Want to learn more about SMART goals and why they’re so important? Check out our goals resources to write and implement goals across departments! 

Example:

We want our redesigned website to reflect our brand identity better, drive more traffic to our services, and increase email newsletter sign-ups by 25% by the end of our next fiscal quarter. 

Step 4: The design brief’s target audience

The next section of your brief covers the who of it all. Not so much related to who you are as a company requesting a design, but who the project is targeted to.

This is where the client commissioning the project will describe their ideal customer, audience, user personas, and use cases. This design is like your first impression—a way to show customers that you have a solution to a specific problem they are facing and that your project meets their needs.

It is crucial for the designer to understand who you’re trying to reach through this request to meaningfully connect with those customers’ needs. 

Example:

Our target market audiences are female entrepreneurs in the San Diego area in the 25-34 and 35-44 age ranges. These clients want to grow their business by investing in paid ads on social media platforms and want resources to improve and increase their online presence. 

Step 5: Your budget and timeline

Now we’re starting to move into the details and logistics sections of your design brief.

Make sure the timeline provided is realistic and feasible for what the brief is asking. If there are any budgetary or resource constraints, this is the time to lay them down. 

Designers need to know when the project is due for its first round of edits, when they can expect feedback from the client, and any key milestones, task dependencies, or deadlines tied to the request. This will help establish clear communication between the designer and the client so all of their expectations are met, and avoid potential bottlenecks while the project is in progress.

Pro tip: Also note if there is any flexibility with the expected budget and timeline.

Example:

Our ideal timeline from start to finish is six months. We are announcing our new website at an event in March but want to quietly launch the website a month prior. This extra month will give us some wiggle room if there are any setbacks. We would like to approve the mockups and wireframes, and go through two rounds of edits before we launch.

Step 6: The expected deliverables

This section is all about the file details and formatting in which you want to receive the project. If necessary or applicable, specify the size, file type, naming process, and deliverables you’re expecting. AKA, what is your preferred type of video, image, or software to work with and how should they share it with you?

Example:

We will approve initial ideas and designs from our digital whiteboard software and review all wireframes in Figma.

Step 7: Anything else you deem important! 

To make sure that all of the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed, add any other relevant information to the end. This may include key contacts to reach out to if the designer has any urgent questions, approval process details, key dates, client mockups, and more!

This is a great time to specify anything that you do not want to see from this project and inspo images to give the designer a clear idea of what to work off of. 

Example:

Check our virtual whiteboard for recent work we’ve done with our clients, rough sketches of what we’re imagining for our new website, some research, media, and more!

Our suggestion? ClickUp Whiteboards!

ClickUp Whiteboards are highly visual, collaborative, and productive! What’s more, they’re also the only whiteboard software on the market that can convert any object on your board into a customizable task and connect it to your workflows. 

With tools for drawing, uploading media, embedding, styling, and real-time editing, ClickUp Whiteboards are built to capture your ideas the moment they happen so you can act on them instantly. Seriously, Whiteboards are every designer’s dream.  

Plus, your Whiteboard stays updated at all times, wiping out the need for multiple tabs, constant refreshing, and confusion caused by lengthy text-based descriptions. 

Step 8: Share it with the team

RE: Step 1—design briefs are collaborative! 

You need the ability to quickly share, edit, and update your design briefs via custom permissions and convenient sharing options like a simple link. This will get the entire team quickly get on the same page (literally) and stay on target.

Design Brief Template

Like in a bad game of telephone, inconsistent design briefs gloss over key ideas and eventually lose the main point of the project entirely. But customizable templates are a surefire way to guarantee every detail is clearly stated.

Think of pre-built templates as a springboard for standardizing the way you write your design briefs. They’re created to simplify and streamline the design brief process so everyone involved can focus on what matters most—the project itself. 

The Design Brief Template by ClickUp is your one-stop solution for writing thorough and valuable creative briefs. This template applies a designated List to your Workspace with separate views for managing tasks, timelines, and your overall direction. 

In your design brief List view, you’ll find pre-made customizable tasks for everything from client sessions to gathering assets, and seven custom statuses for total transparency. But the coolest feature of this template is definitely the creative brief Whiteboard with colored sections, sticky notes, and diagrams to solidify your project vision, brand, resources, notes, and more. 

This template also comes with a thorough how-to ClickUp Doc to walk you through every feature to ensure you’re using it to the fullest extent. 

Pro tip: 

The Help Doc in the Design Brief Template shows off a ton of styling and formatting features to use as inspiration when writing your design brief Docs in ClickUp. 

Set banners at the top of your Doc and throughout the page for a clear outline of information, embed videos, add a table of contents, and more. Or, layer another one of ClickUp’s pre-built templates on top of your Doc to keep the process moving along.

Write Your Next Design Brief in ClickUp

There you have it! Not only are you set up for success with the eight essential steps for writing design briefs, but you’ve got a flexible, free, and customizable template to lighten the load. 

The take-home idea though is not just how to write a functional brief, but how to make the most of it. And that’s where ClickUp can help you take your processes to new heights.

ClickUp is the ultimate productivity platform for teams to bring all of their work together into one collaborative space, no matter your use case or work style. Its feature list is loaded with hundreds of time-saving tools to make work management easier and more convenient than ever—with 15 ways to visualize your projects, over 1,000 integrations, in-app chat, and more! 

Access everything you need to write effective design briefs including ClickUp Docs, Whiteboards, 100MB of storage, unlimited tasks, and more at absolutely no cost when you sign up for ClickUp’s Free Forever Plan. 

And when you’re ready to boost your productivity even further, unlock even more advanced features for as little as $5.

The post How to Write a Design Brief (With Templates and Examples) appeared first on ClickUp.

It’s exciting to prepare for a new product launch—especially as you get ready to give your customers something fresh. It’s all about keeping them engaged and boosting sales with something shiny and new. At the same time, you need to ensure the product launch goes smoothly from initial planning to release. 

To help you excel with your successful product launch and product management on the whole, consider using these templates for guidance and tracking milestones as you progress.

What is a Product Launch Template?

A product launch template is a tool to plan your product launch from beginning to end so you cover every step. Working off a template gives you clear guidelines to ensure you don’t miss any aspects as you build your audience, develop promotional plans, and prepare for a successful product launch.

What Makes a Good Product Launch Template?

A good product launch template will be easy to implement and help you develop a complete product launch strategy, enabling you to follow a checklist, build a plan, set milestones, and perform other critical tasks.

There are many templates available, but not all of them are of the same quality or include the same extensive features. Some are more suitable for a complete product launch strategy than others, making it important to select the right product launch plan for your next project.

Also, some templates aren’t shareable or they require you to invite your team to use them, which can be beneficial if you don’t want just anyone to access them.

10 Product Launch Templates to Consider for 2023 and Beyond

If you’re not sure what template to use, there are plenty of options available to meet your needs and get product teams on the same page.

Here you’ll find a list of 10 of our favorite product launch templates that include every type of feature you could ask for. Regardless of what your product launch strategy entails, the following templates will help keep your project consistently smooth from conception to ongoing promotion.

Let’s dive into these options, shall we?

1. ClickUp Product Launch Checklist Template

One of the best product launch templates available is the ClickUp Product Launch Checklist Template, which can serve as your complete product launch planning template. Whether you need a template to help guide a new or existing product launch plan, you’ll find every must-have feature in this fully-loaded template.

This template includes five statuses to help you track the progress of your product launch strategy, including Complete, In Progress, For Review, On Hold, and Pending.

Additionally, this template features two custom fields for further organization: Task Category and Duration. You’ll also benefit from six comprehensive view types, which include Milestones, Gantt, By Category, Timeline, Activities, and a Getting Started Guide.

This product launch plan template uses color coding to help visualize and keep track of every element of your launch process. Ultimately, this all-in-one solution should cover all bases for product marketing teams. 

2. ClickUp Gantt Chart Product Launch Template

The Gantt chart remains one of the most popular project management templates for organizations to follow. This chart format displays activities against timelines to help gauge progress throughout a project.

ClickUp’s Product Launch Checklist Template also includes a Gantt chart template to help you follow along as you plan your next product launch strategy. This Gantt chart template makes it easy to view each activity and task you must complete against a timeline to visualize your project launch plan.

You can view this timeline from start to finish and determine precisely when you need to complete each task. For example, you can see a number of tasks in a Week/Day view that lets you know which tasks you must complete every week, including defining your target audience, surveying customers for feedback, and reviewing your analytical data.

If you want a complete Gantt chart to help you strategize your product launch strategy, ClickUp’s Gantt view will be invaluable to your process.

3. ClickUp Product Launch Timeline Template

Using the same ClickUp product checklist template, you’ll also gain access to view the Product Launch Timeline. This will help ensure you’re able to stay on track with your project to meet your objectives and achieve key results. 

The Timeline view in our template allows you to easily see how far you’ve come along in your project and how much farther you need to go. You can see where you’re at during each stage of your product launch strategy with a Task Category column that groups task according to the project phase. You can then see which tasks you must complete for each category and the duration of each task.

For example, in a Market Analysis category, you might want to analyze your existing customer data in the first week, followed by defining your target audience in the second. You can cover tasks in the Target Audience category, which could include conducting interviews and surveys so you document all your customer pain points.

4. ClickUp Product Launch Milestones Template

In the same Clickup product checklist template, you’ll find a Milestones view that establishes key steps in your project as you progress. Throughout your product launch plan, you’ll likely have specific project milestones to reach based on the goals you’ve set and the timeline you’ve built.

This particular product management tool will help you visualize each of those milestones and their progress toward your product launch event. With the Milestones template, you can clearly see a list of all tasks you must complete and their corresponding status to keep teams on the same page.

You can also see the specific start and due dates for each task, with the due dates of overdue projects highlighted in red to indicate urgency. Easily view time tracked, assignees, and categories for each task.

The five statuses for your product launch tasks include Pending, In Progress, For Review, On Hold, and Complete. Color coding also helps indicate task status. This template is a great complement to your product launch plan timeline to help prevent you from falling behind.

5. ClickUp Product Launch Categories Template

When you implement the Product Launch Checklist Template from ClickUp, you also have access to a By Category view that organizes all tasks according to their respective categories. 

Categorizing your product launch tasks is key to tracking each phase of the project from start to finish in your product roadmap. And the Product Launch Categories Template keeps this project plan process simple. You can see which tasks in each category are still pending and omit the ones you’ve already completed, giving you a clear window into what to expect for the remainder of your project.

Each category contains a list of tasks below. For instance, you might have a Pricing category that includes tasks such as “Estimate costs” and “Outline business goals.” You can see the start and end dates for each project and flag various tasks (or subtasks) to help with prioritization for a successful product launch.

6. ClickUp Product Launch Board Template

Another view you get with the ClickUp product checklist template is the Board view. This view displays all tasks according to status.

Similar to the By Category view, the Board view shows all tasks in lists under their corresponding status categories. The different statuses include Pending, In Progress, For Review, On Hold, and Complete. Again, like the Category view, you can see information for each task, including the task name, start and end dates and times, and any subtasks beneath them. 

As you complete different tasks, they’ll be removed from the corresponding task list, letting you know precisely what you need to complete as you go along. 

As an example, you might have a Pending list of tasks that includes all tasks that have yet to get started. Once an assignee begins a project, it will go into the In Progress category. This helps you keep track of workflows for effective product management.

7. ClickUp New Product Development Template

If your plan involves an entirely new product, you can supplement another product launch plan template with the help of ClickUp’s New Product Development Template. This template allows project managers to track the progress of each project based on specific milestones and deliverables.

This product launch plan template comes with plenty of features like our product checklist template. For instance, you can track progress based on four different statuses for various tasks, including Blocked, Complete, In Progress, and To Do.

Additionally, you can use several custom fields to gain more transparency into product management KPIs and metrics, including Duration (Days), Task Complexity, Impact Level, Team, Phase, and Task Effort. You also benefit from five different view types, which include Project Summary, Process Board, Timeline, Gantt Chart, and a Getting Started Guide.

Using all these features, the New Product Development Template can help successfully release a new product that impresses your new and existing customers.

8. ClickUp Product Strategy Template

If you need a complete template to cover your entire product launch plan, ClickUp’s Product Strategy Template can help you both plan and visualize your entire strategy, from development to the release management process.

This product launch template centralizes all of the details about your product strategy with in-depth visualizations. As a result, the template works as a critical piece to help decision-makers determine which steps to take and what to modify to perfect their strategy. 

The Product Strategy template allows you to see several different statuses for various phases and tasks. These statuses include Open, Complete, In Review, In Progress, On Hold, In Review, To Do, and Needs Revision. You can also set custom fields when creating tasks for automation, and you can view the included Getting Started Guide to make full use of this template.

For an all-in-one product strategy solution, use this template in combination with our Product Launch Checklist and other templates.

9. Microsoft Word Product Launch Template

Whether you have Microsoft Word or any other type of word processor, you can use Microsoft’s free MS Word Product Launch Plan Template to help simplify your product launch. You can use these project roadmap templates when launching your next product, enabling you to edit and customize the template based on your unique requirements.

You can easily organize your product launch plan from beginning to end with this exhaustive template. Include a cover page, table of contents for simple navigation, and various sections such as revision reports, goals and objectives, and more based on your project’s needs. 

This product launch template is also downloadable in a variety of formats depending on the program you use, including MS Word, Google Docs, Apple Pages, an editable PDF, or a browser version.

10. Excel Product Launch Template

Another helpful product release management tool that can fuel your product launch’s success is the Excel Product Launch Template. It offers the perfect way to visualize your product strategy at every step, with the ability to see each task on your project timeline. You can also color code the project to keep track of each task and time period along the timeline.

Like the MS Word Product Launch Plan Template, this product launch template is available in nearly any format you need. You can use it in Microsoft Excel, MS Word, PowerPoint, Apple Pages, Apple Keynote, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides. You can also download it in an editable PDF format.

Successfully Launch Your Next Product With the Right Templates for You

With the help of the right template behind your product launch, you’ll ensure all systems are good to go and ready for launch at every step. You’ll ensure no part of your strategy remains overlooked or undercooked. 

The right product launch templates will cover every aspect of your launch and make it easy to follow along as you prepare for a new release. They’ll also streamline the process in the long term with each new product or re-release you plan going forward.

If you need a high-quality product management solution for your business, ClickUp is here to give you what you need with dynamic product management software that can take your product launch capabilities to the next level.

You’ll find plenty of templates to help you plan every part of your product’s lifecycle along with thousands of integrations, unlimited members and tasks, and much more at no cost to you.

The post 10 Free Product Launch Templates in Excel, Word, and ClickUp appeared first on ClickUp.

When you unfold the different styles and ways to structure projects, you prevent them from turning into a hot mess. With the right project management structure, everyone in your team—and the teams around you—will know exactly who is what.

It’ll be so much easier to control work and make the best decisions for the project and, ultimately, the business.

In this article, you’ll learn what defines a project management structure and how to choose one. But more importantly, we’ll give you directions on how to easily create those structures in ClickUp!

Keep reading!

What Are Project Management Structures Used for?

A project management structure is used to clarify the hierarchy and, consequently, the report lines in a project. The structure outlines each project intervenient’s function and authority to supervise and make decisions.

These organizational structures take the shape of charts. And their value lies in being a reference for team members to go back to during the project’s execution.

After all, with employee attrition and turnover, project management structures change. And the same might happen during holidays and when you hire many new workers.

But the project might have just started, requiring the definition of its organizational structure. Or it might be so old that its organizational structure has changed over time.

It’s faster and more comfortable to check a chart in an accessible repository than bugging (sometimes various) colleagues asking whom to talk with to solve an urgent matter.

^{PROJECT MANAGEMENT OR PROJECT ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE?}
Some refer to these structures as “project organizational structures” instead of “project management structures.” That’s because they represent the organization of people around a project. And depending on the structure, the style of coordinating and managing the project team’s work and communication changes.

Nevertheless, any project management structure serves as a foundation for:

• Clear communication: Align all team members before and during a project on the expected kind of contribution each one will have to minimize conflicts
• Effective team collaboration: Clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and the connections between them
• Optimization of workflows: Staff, technological systems, and materials within and between projects are defined
• Removal of possible roadblocks: These might exist because of excessive or deficient resource allocation and workload

And all of the above characteristics are somehow project management principles.

Different Types of Project Organizational Structures

Let’s have a look at the three main types of project management structures. Each has a different configuration of team member roles within projects and the company.

And that determines the responsibilities and authority of each individual within the context of a project or the company. Beware that we’ll show you templates you might need to customize to your reality.

But in the meantime, check the differences between the structure types at these levels:

• The project manager’s role
• The coordination of work and people, which is either vertical or horizontal
• The line versus staff positions, considering that
  • A line position represents a team member directly involved with the product.
  • A staff position represents someone who supports the work of those in line positions without getting directly involved with the product.
• The concentration of decision-making, which is either owned by a few team members or distributed across the company

Functional organizational structure

The functional project management organizational structure organizes staff members into departments. And each one of those departments represents a functional area within the company, such as HR, finance, or marketing.

A functional manager is responsible for each one of the departments. And an executive oversees their work.

Functional managers are the decision-making authorities and coordinate projects horizontally. And for each project, they select team members from the respective department’s staff. Those team members accumulate their responsibilities within the department—for instance, payroll processing—with project work.

Recommended for: Cross-functional projects that staff can accumulate with their departmental responsibilities

Projectized organizational structure

In the projectized (or project-based) project management organizational structure, the largest divisions of people within the company are projects (not departments). And similarly, the coordination of work is project-oriented, thus vertical.

Also, the authority to supervise work belongs to project managers—one per project. And they allocate staff members to projects, which means that those members are dedicated to projects (instead of departments).

Recommended for: Small agencies and young startups

Matrix organizational structure

A matrix structure is a grid in which project team members have two report lines. There are variations of this structure that include:

Weak structure

At first glance, this matrix organizational project management structure looks the same as the functional organizational structure. But there’s a difference: Staff members coordinate the project’s work across departments (instead of a functional manager) in this matrix structure.

Balanced structure

Balanced matrix structures don’t have full-time project managers. Instead, a project manager is also a staff member and accumulates departmental work with the responsibilities of part-time project coordination. Plus, a functional manager is still the one making decisions on project budgets, resource allocation, and other aspects.

Strong structure

The strong matrix structure contains a special department exclusively dedicated to project management. And the members of that department are all full-time, cross-functional project managers (supervised by a functional manager).

A manager of all project managers heads the project management department. And every project manager has authority over their own projects.

How to Choose the Best Organizational Structure for Your Team

Don’t know which project management organizational structure is best for you? No problem! Here are a few thoughts and guidelines to help you figure that out:

Analyze your constraints for resource allocation

When you consider your resource constraints, think about the staff and labor, but also you want to evaluate resources like software, tools, and other team expenses.

Your hiring budget affects the allocation of human resources. And it determines the functions each employee takes on. Also, the budget influences each team member’s time available for project work.

• A functional organizational structure suits staff that must accumulate project work with departmental responsibilities
• In weak-matrix structures, team members coordinate the project alongside departmental work
• Balanced-matrix structures have some staff members accumulate project coordination with departmental work
• Projectized structures require you to plan to have a project manager dedicated only to supervising project work
• Strong-matrix structures require enough budget for a full-time project manager and a project management department with a dedicated head

Realize which authority your project managers need

That’s their decision autonomy, largely depending on the project management structure you select. But the decision power also depends on the existence of functional managers in addition to a project manager.

Besides, the project organizational structure impacts the communication between staff and project managers. In other words, it defines the report lines within projects.

• In a balanced matrix structure, a project manager doesn’t make decisions on budget or hiring personnel
• A project manager in projectized structures doesn’t share authority in projects
• Matrix-like structures have project team members report to both a project and functional manager

Evaluate the size and complexity of your projects

When a project is less complex or smaller, the project manager can have other functions besides coordinating project work. They can accumulate project coordination with project and/or departmental work.

Smaller projects work best with functional, weak-matrix, and balanced-matrix structures.

On the other hand, larger or more complex projects fit organizational structures with project managers who don’t do the departmental or project work. An organizational structure that works best here includes projectized and strong-matrix structures.

Appraise your company’s maturity

If an organization isn’t mature yet, it might not have departments. And this means that departmental duties are residual, so personnel is dedicated to project work almost their entire time. This works best for young startups.

5 Project Management Structure Examples and Templates for Different Teams

Once you choose a project management organizational structure, you might need to customize it for your team. But we’re one step ahead and have some examples to save you time. Have a look at the five different project management structure examples you might run across:

1. Marketing team project management structure

This simple example of an organizational structure applies to content marketing teams. In the example, the blog manager is a project manager. The blogs are tasks in the project, and the team members are the content strategists, blog writers, and illustrators involved in creating posts.

Illustrators report not only to the blog manager but also to the creative manager. The latter decides the budget and allocations of illustrators and other creative positions to the blog project and other projects, such as social media campaigns.

Typically, the blog manager and sometimes the creative manager report to the content director (or Head of Creative). And this director reports to the VP of marketing or chief marketing officer.

2. Design team project management structure

One organizational structure might work better for one team other another—which is why a functional organizational structure is important for design teams. But we just showed you one of the possibilities, which contains a design lead among project team members.

In this structure example, each project manager supervises a project team. And the coordinator of project managers is the product manager, who defines the roadmap governing all projects related to a product.

Project team 1 develops the website. Team 2 creates design components that appear on the website. And team 3 builds software components that the computer programmer in team 1 uses.

This means that teams might be multidisciplinary yet have their own visual designer. But then a design lead coordinates the output of those designers, so it conforms to the same design guidelines.

3. Sales team project management structure

It’s common to organize sales teams and projects geographically as a sales director often supervises multiple regional sales managers, and each of the latter supervises district sales managers.

Depending on the district’s size, each district sales manager coordinates the work of one or more sales rep teams. The goal of each team is to grow the customer base and increase the revenue within the corresponding district.

4. HR team project management structure

For human resources teams, a project consists of large or complex HR work that demands a project manager to oversee it. Examples of these projects would be creating an employee onboarding experience, a handbook, or developing a severance program.

An HR department configuration with an HR director supervising an HR manager could be a functional organizational structure used for a business. Sometimes HR managers are responsible for their own teams, organized according to the nature of their work—recruiting, compensation, benefits, and learning and development (L&D).

For instance, to design an onboarding training course, the instructional designer could play the role of a project manager in addition to developing the course itself. And they’d count on the input of staff members from the other two teams to create the course, provided that the latter would maintain their recurring departmental duties, such as interviewing or payroll processing.

5. Construction team project management structure

Construction teams can have pretty elaborate project structures in place. And to create a structure, you must understand what each role within a construction project means:

• A senior project manager oversees the work of project managers and superintendents
• Project managers stay in the office, plan project goals with the senior manager, and ensure the team hits those goals They supervise both superintendents—at least one per project—and project administrators—usually one per project if the project is big enough
• Superintendents are managers on the job site responsible for defining schedules and overseeing the general foreperson
• The general foreperson—one per construction site—supervises trade forepeople and the execution of work by all the other field workers, such as carpenters, painters, drywall professionals, electricians, and plumbers
• Project administrators take care of all the paperwork that a project requires to run smoothly. That can be, for instance, requesting and tracking payments to vendors and subcontractors

How to Create an Organizational Structure in ClickUp

The two easiest ways to create a project management structure in ClickUp are through our ClickUp Mind Map and ClickUp Whiteboards features.

Using ClickUp Mind Maps to define project structures

First things first, what is a Mind Map? In the context of this article, a mind map is a visual representation of the internal structure of your organization.

It’s a diagram depicting the report and authority relationships between project staff members, managers, and other executives. You can use it to plan and set up your project and communicate the project management structure to the stakeholders.

Now in ClickUp, you can create a free-form mind map either in a Mind Map View or on Whiteboards. In the first case, add a mind map view to your ClickUp workspace. And in the second case, add a mind map to a whiteboard.

Note: You can convert mind map elements into ClickUp tasks. But if you’re working in a mind map view for the first time, we recommend you choose the blank mode (instead of the task mode).

Let’s go through the steps you must follow to create a mind map either in a mind map view or on a whiteboard.

Step 1: Draw the highest authority

Because mind maps are hierarchical structures, start with representing the highest position of authority in your project. That position is a root node in the diagram.

Step 2: Represent the first level of child nodes

Depending on the type of project organizational structure you selected, draw the root node’s child nodes. Those can be functional managers, project managers, or managers of project managers. And if it’s helpful, name each position with the person’s name.

Step 3: Branch child nodes

At this point, depending on your project management structure, do one of these:

• Add staff members and project managers to functional departments by branching them off from functional managers.
• Add staff members to project teams by branching them off from project managers.

And if you have a project management department, add project managers to that department by branching them off from the manager of project managers.

Step 4: Highlight project teams

Delimit each project team. You can do it, for instance, by using different colors for distinct project teams. There are other ways on Whiteboards to denote by shapes or colors as well.

Step 5: Mark project managers

Signal full-time and part-time project managers. For instance, tag nodes with symbols to make that distinction.

Want a faster way to get started? Use ClickUp’s Simple Mind Map template to get your project management structure in place.

And if you’re unsure if ClickUp is the right tool to design mind maps, check out our article on all of the best mind-mapping software options available on the market!

Using ClickUp Whiteboards to define project structures

Whiteboards are especially suited for collaborating remotely and in real-time with managers and other executives while determining a project management structure.

The steps for creating mind maps still apply to designing organizational structures on Whiteboards. Yet, instead of creating a Mind Map on a Whiteboard, you can spice up your structures with other visual elements and diagramming restrictions.

In ClickUp Whiteboards, you can draw shapes and link them with connectors. You can also add sticky notes and text to your project management structures and upload image files, such as headshots or symbols, to distinguish positions.

Pro tip: Use ClickUp’s Introduction to Whiteboards template to get started.

Thoughts to Keep Top of Mind

When you pick the best organizational structure for your project, you’re optimizing talent and resources. And you’re laying out the foundation for efficient workflow management and high-performance teams.

Because without those two ingredients, clear project goals, and a vision, there’s no way you’d get the desired outcomes and quality.

Connect with us! And we’ll help you set up a project management structure that makes the best impact on your projects.

The post Project Management Organizational Structures (Including 5 Examples and Templates) appeared first on ClickUp.

While there are a lot of steps in every creative project, having the right software helps you get everything under control so you meet deadlines, avoid bottlenecks, and empower teams to stay creative without too much hassle of the workflow. 

Luckily, there are plenty of options and here we’ll look at the top 15 project management software for 2023. We’ll cover key features, pros, cons, and how to choose the best software for your needs.

Read on the discover a list of powerful tools you can add to (or replace) your current tech stack.

How Different Industries Use Creative Project Management Software

Let’s be real—there are a ton of different agencies, businesses, and organizations that rely on creative work. And with that work comes a need to manage those projects. Whether it’s creative ads, copy, designs, audio, or visuals, teams need creative project management software to reach the finish line.

Here’s how the industry uses this software to work better as a team:

Tracking time and expenses

Team leaders need to keep track of the time spent on a creative project. This helps create a record of the money used on things like materials and labor.

Assigning tasks

Assigning tasks or subtasks to other team members makes it easier to work with everyone else on the project. It allows you to keep track of the progress of each individual or team, resulting in a smooth-running, successful project.

All-in-one management

A project management software program offers you the ability to create a document library for all the files related to your project to be kept in one place. This makes it easier for you and your team members to access all documents about the project without any hassles.

Efficient status updates

Creative teams often need to provide regular updates—especially when your clients request the work. You can send these updates via email or text messages, and ensure everyone is up to speed on the progress of their tasks and the overall progress of the project.

Inputs from multiple sources

It’s also essential to import information from multiple sources and use it to make better decisions. This means that you can combine all the relevant information from emails, spreadsheets, software logs, documents, and more to figure out a course of action that is best suited for your project.

Best 15 Creative Project Management Software

1. ClickUp 

ClickUp has a unique user experience that makes it highly convenient to use for any project including marketing projects. This platform offers hundreds of customizable features and over 15 ways to view your work—these features are crucial for growing businesses as they give your team the flexibility it needs as they scale.  

Aside from the customizable features, ClickUp also lets you create and save your own templates to save time and keep the process consistent, and if you need help getting started, check out the template center for a variety of ready-to-use templates.

Key features

• ClickUp Notepad: This is an exclusive feature of the software where you can create a text-based project. It can be used by companies with an online presence and need to engage with their customer base
• ClickUp Mind Maps: Mind mapping requires a particular skill, and the people in your team will benefit a lot from this feature. It enables users to build an online presence by posting ideas, thoughts, or processes instead of using just words
• ClickUp Docs: This feature allows you to create a project and assign it to a different team member. The software will help you organize your documents so that users can easily find them
• ClickUp Forms: ClickUp forms help you build online forms for your company. The online forms have various fields where users can enter the required information. These fields then become part of the database and are accessible by your team members
• ClickUp Whiteboards: This feature is similar to Mind Maps, but is best used in a team setting. It is a collaborative tool where you can add notes and share your ideas with other team members

Pros 

• Fully customizable platform
• Custom statuses and custom fields
• Ready-to-use templates and the option to save your own templates
• 1,000+ integrations
• Mobile app

Cons

• Limited ClickUp views on mobile application
• Learning curve due to the number of available features

Pricing

• Free Forever Plan: Best suited for personal use
• Unlimited Plan: Best suited for a small team. You will be required to pay a monthly subscription fee of $5 per member
• Business Plan: Best suited for medium-sized companies. A monthly subscription fee of $9 per member is required to get you started
• Business Plus Plan: Charges a monthly fee of $19 per member. Suitable for multiple teams

Ratings 

• G2 rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars 
• Capterra rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars 

2. Paymo

Paymo is a cloud-based collaborative whiteboard application. It’s ideal if you’re looking for an app with unlimited storage, high-quality presentations, and enhanced productivity, since it supports cloud storage.

Key features

• Time tracking: You can track time spent on specific tasks using Paymo’s time tracker
• Planning and scheduling: There are different methods to plan meetings, events, and other tasks
• Team collaboration: You can share whiteboard using Dropbox, Box.com, Google Drive or OneDrive
• Customization: Provides multi-language interface and global support

Pros

• Real-time collaboration
• Powerful time tracking tool
• Cloud-based

Cons

• Its user interface isn’t as intuitive as some on this list
• Higher learning curve to adopt

Pricing

• Free:
• Starter: $4.95 a month
• Small Office: $9.95 a month
• Business: $20.79 a month

Ratings

• G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars 
• Capterra rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars 

3. Flow

Flow is a web-based communication tool that supports sticky notes and similar types of markups that enhance swift visual project management on any project. 

Key features

• Tagging: You can add different tags to your ideas and share them with your team members
• Planning and scheduling: You can set up recurring calendar events, including checklists, across your teams
• Scaling up: Flow envisages scaling up to be very useful for large teams having multiple projects and has a self-hosted feature. This allows you to create new application instances for each project that you have or need to manage 

Pros

• Great for effective team organization 
• Over 300 connectors for seamless integration with Microsoft products 
• The flexibility of being an online or hybrid application to suit your functionality needs 

Cons

• Lacks a centralized orchestrator to aid in centralized deployment and monitoring

Pricing

• Flow Basic: Monthly subscription fee of $6 per user
• Flow Plus: Monthly subscription fee of $8 per user
• Flow Pro: Monthly subscription fee of $10 per user

Ratings

• G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
• Capterra rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars 

4. Asana

Asana is an excellent project management app with a streamlined and straightforward interface that allows you to create tasks, to-do lists, and projects, assign them to anyone and track their progress.

Key features

• Customizable dashboards: Powerful dashboards to monitor your progress, making it easy to see areas of focus and improvement. 
• Focus mode and individual task lists: Assign tasks and track progress in one place. Easily filter your task list for timeliness or importance, and quickly add and jump between functions and assigners. 
• Prioritization: Prioritize tasks with the drag and drop feature or use labels to streamline your progress. 

Pros

• Easy to use
• Integrates with Google Calendar and Gmail
• Customizable, with an easily searchable interface
• Free trial available

Cons

• Limited to tasks, to-dos, and projects 
• Lacks a centralized tracking system

Pricing

• Basic: It’s free and suitable for beginners
• Premium: Charges a monthly subscription fee of $10 per user or $13.49 when billed annually
• Business: Suitable for teams and companies needing to manage work across initiatives. Charges a monthly subscription fee of $24.99 per user or 30.49 when billed annually 

Ratings 

• G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
• Capterra rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars 

Bonus: See how Asana compares to Monday.com!

5. Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a task management tool that allows you to organize and collaborate over large projects and tasks. You can create tasks, workflows, notes, and dashboards and easily develop a shared calendar to keep everything in sync. 

Key features

• Project resource management: Design teams, add, manage and track team members
• Integrated collaboration: Enhances collaboration between teams by allowing them to share sheets, spreadsheets, documents, and other files in real-time
• Streamlined solution center: The solution center allows you to identify your business and work needs to efficiently access the right help and resources. You can also create your workspace and set up customized templates to fit your creative workflow

Pros

• Availability of management dashboard
• Supports tasks, to-do lists, and notes
• Integrated collaboration features
• Supports calendar and time management features
• Easily share files with coworkers

Cons

• Visual components could be more customizable
• Some think the user interface is difficult  

Pricing

• Basic: Free
• Pro: Charges $14 per month for individual use
• Business: Charges $25 per month per user 

Ratings

• G2 rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
• Capterra rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars 

6. Monday.com

Monday.com is an ideal app for projects that need to be delivered on time with minimal fuss. The app’s primary purpose is to offer a seamless and straightforward way for projects, teams, and organizations to work together.

Key features

• An intuitive user interface: The app is designed to be easy to use, so whether you’re using a desktop or mobile device, you will be able to sync your schedules with your calendars
• Prioritization of people management: You can specify VIP statuses and other specific groups of people. You can set these groups to share only your calendars, which respects the privacy of others
• Reporting and analytics: You can view the number of accepted appointments and those that weren’t. You can also view detailed analytics on who accepted a position, what time it was scheduled for, and who canceled their schedule

Pros

• Integrated mobile app for easy scheduling
• Supports social calendars
• Unified scheduling
• Supports time and text notes

Cons

• Dashboard panels require modification
• The interface needed to post on social media

Pricing

• Enterprise plan: Free
• Basic: Charges a monthly subscription fee of $8 per user
• Standard: Charges a monthly subscription fee of $10 per user

Ratings 

• G2 rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
• Capterra rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars 

See how Monday compares to Asana!

7. Notion

Notion is a great, open-source productivity project application that allows users to collaborate on projects and tasks while offering an easy-to-use interface. 

Key features

• Strings-based note-taking: Organize notes by strings and easily search across the entire app
• Fluid Kanban view: This feature outlines your tasks, projects, and to-dos in a fluid, easily navigable card layout
• Markdown support: Markdown support lets you format your notes with syntax highlighting and formatting patterns 

Pros

• Works across different devices
• It comes with a clutter-free interface with built-in customization
• Easy to use

Cons

• Text formatting is challenging via copy/paste
• It takes time to set up, especially team collaboration

Pricing

• Personal: Free 
• Personal pro: Charges $4 per month per user or $5 if billed annually
• Team: Charges $8 per user per month or $10 if billed annually
• Enterprise: The subscription fee is $15 per user per month

Ratings 

• G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
• Capterra rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars 

8. nTask

nTask is a task management tool aimed at providing team collaboration and task management in one application. It comes with several features, including task lists, pre-built board templates, and time tracking, among others.

Key features

• Kanban Board: A visual way of tracking tasks using cards and moving them through different columns
• Task management: Allows multiple users to complete a task collaboratively
• Time tracking: This allows you to track how much time you spend on each task
• Issue/bug tracking: Allows you to create, manage and track issues related to your project

Pros

• Excellent customer support and feedback system
• An easy-to-use interface that allows you to always be in control of everything 
• Great mobile apps for accessing tasks on the move
• Video conferencing facility

Cons

• Requires more customization and formatting options
• No plugin for Outlook

Pricing 

• Premium: Ideal for individuals getting started with project management. It charges $3 per user per month with a 14-day premium trial
• Business: Charges $8 per user per month with a 14-day premium trial
• Enterprise: Comes with all features of the business plan and charges $15 per user per month

Ratings 

• G2 rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars 
• Capterra rating: 3.9 out of 5 stars

9. ProProfs Projects

ProProfs Projects is an excellent project management tool that has enough features to suit even the most demanding requirements. It is also suitable for remote workers.

Key features

• Task lists: A visual way of tracking tasks with color-coding representing their status
• Task management: Includes a robust project calendar with due dates for tasks such as research projects, reports, and assessments
• Collaboration tools: Lets you share enterprise resources across multiple teams to complete various projects in a seamless manner
• Milestone tracking: Keeps track of different planning stages and time-boxes for each milestone

Pros

• Easy to use due to its simple interface
• Great reporting features
• Great for remote workers

Cons

• Lacks customization features 
• No templates available 

Pricing

• Essentials: $2 per user per month or $480 per year
• Premium: $4 per user per month or $960 per year

Ratings 

• G2 rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars 
• Capterra rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars 

10. FunctionFox

FunctionFox is a robust project management tool that works across multiple web browsers and mobile devices. It was built to serve the needs of its users by providing simple, intuitive, and affordable tools that help streamline their daily work cycles.

Key features

• Reports: Includes a variety of information that provides detailed insight on tasks, budgets, and other areas of your business.
• Project tracking tools: Helps you keep track of tasks and reviews.
• Sync: Lets you sync projects, tasks, and files across all devices.
• Task management: A task list that keeps track of each activity in a project with so much more than just managing tasks like due dates, attachments, comments, and notes.
• Collaboration tools: It allows you to organize all your team members for different projects using the drag-and-drop feature.

Pros

• Reliable communication
• Easy to use and integrate with other systems

Cons

• User navigation can be confusing

Pricing

• Basic: Free and allows up to 10 users
• Standard: $ 7.50 per user per month
• Premium: $14.50 per user per month
• Enterprise: Averagely $20 per user per month

Ratings 

• G2 rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars 
• Capterra rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars 

11. Hive

Hive is a web-based project management software. It’s designed to help people manage projects and tasks by tracking time, work, resources, and deadlines.

Key features

• Action cards: Helps you specify actions to be taken
• Flexible project views: It lets you organize projects based on the type of work involved
• Project management: Lets you assign tasks to team members, track each
• Time tracking: Keeps track of the time spent on each task
• Resource tracking: A comprehensive resource management tool
• Attachment manager: Organize and manage different types of attachments that you can use in your project

Pros

• Over 50 native integrations
• Two-factor authentication
• Unlimited tasks

Cons

• Limited mobile functionality
• Inability to create dependent tasks

Pricing

• Hive Solo: Free and allows up to 2 users
• Hive Teams: $16 per user per month or $12 if billed annually for unlimited users
• Hive enterprise: $25 per user per month

Ratings 

• G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars 
• Capterra rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars 

12. Planview Clarizen

Planview Clarizen is a project management software that can manage projects, tasks, and time in three ways: by project, team, and time.

Key features

• Salesforce integration: Integrates with Salesforce so that you can use the software to manage your Salesforce team
• Scheduling: Creates a schedule for your project, task, or time
• Task management: Create tasks and assign them to team members
• Time tracking: Keep track of the time spent on each task

Pros

• Simple design and easy-to-use interface
• Flexible time tracking feature
• 2-factor authentication option
• Highly configurable admin panel

Cons

• Limited mobile functionality
• Can be slower to run

Pricing

• Enterprise plan: $45 per user per month
• Unlimited plan: $60 per user per month

Ratings

• G2 rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars 
• Capterra rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars 

13. Ziflow

Ziflow is an online tool that allows administrators to manage users, email, and tasks in three ways: by user, project, and task. The admin can create custom fields to collect the details needed to successfully manage user accounts, email, and tasks. The administrative team can also view the detailed project information of their Ziflow account by accessing a dashboard; the dashboard helps in multiple views like a timeline of events.

Key features

• Centralized asset management: It includes CRM for assets, attachments, files, and contacts
• Workflow automation: Automate email consent, online sign-in, signature, and signature approval
• Intake forms: Record and store a visitor’s details; capture the requirements, ideas, and feedback
• Centralized collaboration and review: Invoicing and review management tasks are automatically created, signed, and saved

Pros

• Flexible user management
• Wide range of annotation shapes, video proofing
• Convenient interface

Cons

• Some report issues with displaying notes and downloading PDFs
• Longer loading times needed

Pricing

• Personal: Free
• Starter: $18 per user per month
• Business: $45 per user per month
• Enterprise: $60 per user per month

Ratings

• G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
• Capterra rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars

14. Avaza

Avaza is an accounting and project management tool that brings these two fields together to help you complete tasks faster. 

Key features

• Project progress dashboards: Visualizes project location, task status, and cost graphs.
• Project budgeting: Organize and track budget by project, customer, location, and individual.
• Timesheet entry and billing: It records time spent on projects with billing and invoicing.

Pros

• Automate Processes
• Generates invoices from estimates and monitors project expenses
• Integrated project management and collaboration tools

Cons

• Sub-tasks lack due dates

Pricing

• Free plan: $0
• Startup plan: $9 per user per month
• Basic plan: $19 per user per month
• Business plan: $39 per user per month

Ratings

• G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars 
• Capterra rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars 

15. RedBooth

RedBooth is a project management software that allows you to create and manage your projects from any device. It is highly scalable and easy to use. It also allows you to add voice commands for context-sensitive help. 

Key features

• API: Integrates with other services such as Dropbox and Google Docs
• Collaborative editing: Share files and spreadsheets by other members
• Agile Methodologies: Richly customizable and integrated with the software’s Agile Methodologies
• Chat/messaging: Send and receive files, email, and video messages

Pros

• Provision of virtual workspaces
• Advanced reporting tools
• Provision of private cloud

Cons

• Reporting issues can be hard to track work capacity per employee
• Some users find the dashboard confusing

Pricing 

• Basic plan: $13 per user per month
• Business plan: $30 per user per month
• Enterprise plan: $60 per user per month 

Ratings 

• G2 rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars 
• Capterra rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars 

Design Your Work Life With ClickUp

Project management software is an essential tool for any business since most projects have a long schedule and need to be managed efficiently and automatically.

As such, the ideal project management software has to have all the modern and essential features that enable you to manage your project flawlessly without having to invest too much unnecessary effort. 

And when you’re collaborating and managing a creative team of designers, copywriters, and so on, you’ll need a powerful and flexible project management tool that can adapt to their workflow preferences and provide them with the customizable features they’ll need to let their creative juices flowing!

In that case, ClickUp is your best bet—enjoy a sleek user interface, get access to hundreds of high-end features, templates, and so much more!

The post 15 Best Creative Project Management Software 2023 appeared first on ClickUp.

Project Management in Video Production

Project management tools are essential for successful video production. Without them, it would be difficult to monitor all the various tasks that need to be completed to produce a video, such as storyboarding, managing information about the actors for the cast, deciding on locations, etc. 

These tools help to manage all the projects in one place, divide them by roles and priorities, and ensure that everyone meets deadlines and is kept in the loop. Working on a specific task, you can see the big picture which greatly facilitates the workflow.

The importance of a streamlined project management video process 

When it comes to video production, having a streamlined process is crucial. This is because it can be very complex; from pre-production to post-production, many details need to be managed. If one part of the process isn’t working properly, it can throw off the entire project. 

A streamlined video production process can help to ensure that everything runs smoothly and the final product is of high quality. This way you identify areas where you can improve your process and make necessary changes.

It also helps to save time and money, as a well-organized production will be more efficient and require less time to complete. You know exactly what needs to be done and avoid wasting time on tasks that aren’t essential. 

The Benefits of Project Management Tools for Video Production

Many benefits come with using a project management tool for your video production team. Some of the most notable benefits include:

Task management organizes everything

With a project management tool, you can assign tasks to specific team members and set deadlines. Video production consists of many tasks. Divide groups by pre-production, production, and post-production and create different projects for them.

One group will do storyboarding and scriptwriting, another will focus on the actual filming of the video, and the last one will work on editing the video and adding graphics. This way, everyone is aware of their responsibilities and helps to keep the video up to date.

You can see the big picture and understand how each step of the process fits together.

Resource allocation tools keep workloads honest

Effective project management allows you to see how to allocate project resources effectively. It’s great when you’re working with a limited budget.

Video teams use various equipment at every stage of the process: cameras, microphones, lights, and props for filming, editing software for post-production, and so on. Knowing what resources to use will ensure that all team members have the necessary equipment and materials to complete their tasks.

Communication is easier and more direct

Video production teams need to be in constant communication with each other. Anything can go wrong at any stage of the process: the script might need some changes, the client might want to see a different version of the video, the filming schedule might need to be changed, etc.

Everyone must be on the same page so that nothing gets lost in translation. A project management tool provides a central place for all communication to take place.

All comments and communication are typically centralized in one place, making it easy to go back and reference later on, which is a very common thing in the video production process. 

This makes it easy for team members to stay up-to-date with the latest information and avoid missing essential information.

Identifying bottlenecks helps you stay on track

It’s easy to get sidetracked when you’re working on a video production project. There are so many tasks that you need to complete, and it’s easy to lose sight of what’s the current course of action. 

A good management tool helps you quickly identify any areas that are falling behind and take steps to get back on track. This way, you can avoid any delays in your project.

For example, if the client wants to see a finished product sooner than you anticipated, you can easily adjust your timeline and reassign tasks to finish the video on time.

11 Project Management Tools for Video Production

There is a variety of video production management software available, each with its advantages and disadvantages. Here is a brief overview of some of the most popular options:

1. ClickUp

ClickUp is a cloud-based project management tool that offers a variety of features for task management and team collaboration, such as Custom Statuses, Custom Fields, built-in chat, tags, priorities, file sharing, and so much more.

The entire platform is customizable, so teams can build ClickUp in a way that works with their project needs and preferences. It can also be integrated with over 1,000 work tools to help teams streamline their workflow by bringing all their work into one place.

As for video production specifically, ClickUp offers a video production template to help users get a jump start on managing and executing all video projects.

Pros

• User-friendly interface
• Customizable workspace
• Unlimited storage in the paid version
• Can be used for personal and team projects
• Mobile app
• 24/7 live chat support

Cons

• Some advanced features are only available in the paid version
• The free plan includes only 100 MB of storage and 100 total lists per space

Pricing

• Free with some limitations
• Unlimited: $5 user/month billed annually or $9 user/month billed monthly
• Business: $9 user/month billed annually or $19 user/month billed monthly

ClickUp customer reviews

• G2: 4.7/5 (4,780+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (3,070+ reviews)

2. Trello

Trello is a production management tool that uses Kanban-style boards to help you visualize your projects and track progress. It offers features like creating checklists and custom fields, commenting on cards, setting due dates, adding attachments, and more. For video production teams, you can create a more specific board with each team member having their own card listing tasks they need to perform.

Pros

• Free to use
• User-friendly interface
• Great for visual learners
• Unlimited storage

Cons

• Attachment size limitations: 10 MB in the free version and 250 MB for paid plans
• No task dependencies
• Limited integration options

Pricing

• Free
• Standard ($5 user/month) 
• Premium ($10 user/month) 
• Enterprise ($17.50 user/month)

Trello customer reviews

• G2: 4.4/5 (12,810+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (21,230+ reviews)

Check out these Trello Alternatives!

3. Asana

Asana is a project management tool designed to help teams better collaborate on tasks and projects. You can create task lists, manage calendars, view Gantt charts, make kanban boards, and more. Asana also has a variety of integrations with other productivity tools, such as Slack, Dropbox, and Google Drive, which greatly helps creative teams share files and track progress.

Pros

• Easy to use and navigate
• Great for managing collaborative tasks
• 200+ app integrations

Cons

• No in-app time-tracking features
• Can sometimes be overwhelming as there are too many task features
• Assignment limitations: 1 user per task

Pricing

• Free for teams of up to 15 people
• Premium ($10.99 user/month)
• Business ($24.99 user/month)

Asana customer reviews

• G2: 4.3/5 (8,830+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (11,360+ reviews)

Check out these Asana Alternatives!

4. Wrike

Wrike is a cloud-based management platform that’s designed to help teams better collaborate on projects. It offers a variety of features, including task tracking, file sharing, and real-time editing. This program can help video production teams centralize communication during their video projects, keep track of essential tasks and increase transparency by offering a range of project review options.

Pros

• User-friendly and easy to learn
• A wide range of features to fit the needs of any team
• Automation

Cons

• The free plan is quite limited
• Delayed notifications
• Some features can be confusing to use
• Limited mobile app

Pricing

• Free
• Professional ($9.80 user/month)
• Business ($24.80 user/month)
• Enterprise (contact Wrike for a quote)

Wrike customer reviews

• G2: 4.2/5 (2,590+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.3/5 (1,790+ reviews)

Check out these Wrike Alternatives!

5. Kanban Tool

Kanban Tool is a visual management app that can help optimize your workflow. It offers features such as creating task boards and swimlanes, using templates, real-time analytics, and more. Kanban Tool is great for video production as it can help ensure a smooth and efficient workflow by allowing team members to see the big picture and manage several tasks simultaneously.

Pros

• Flexible and easy to use
• Suitable for many industries
• Offers a wide range of templates

Cons

• Can be overwhelming for some users
• The free version is limited to 2 boards and 2 users
• Limited add-ons

Pricing

• Free trial
• Team (€5 user/month)
• Enterprise (€9 user/month)

Kanban Tool customer reviews

• G2: 4.7/5 (20+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.8/5 (100+ reviews)

6. Proofhub

Proofhub is a great solution for managing projects as it offers a variety of features like built-in time tracking, Gantt charts, and file management. You can organize your projects into folders and easily share files and comments with your team. Proofhub offers a custom workflow feature that can be used to create a specific process for your project as video production.

Pros

• No learning curve
• Mobile-friendly
• No per-user fee
• Quick support

Cons

• Limited integrations and import/export options

Pricing

• 14-day free trial
• Essential ($50/m billed monthly)
• Ultimate Control ($99/m billed monthly)

Proofhub customer reviews

• G2: 4.5/5 (60+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (60+ reviews)

7. Scoro

Scoro is all-in-one management software that can help streamline your video production. It can be used to manage both small and large projects as it scales according to your needs. With Scoro, you can track real-time progress, tasks, dependencies, events, and more. This is a great tool for managing video production projects as it helps to track incomes, adjust budgets in real-time, forecast, and maintain target profit.

Pros

• Easy to use and incorporate into your business
• Good visual representation of tasks and data
• A wide range of features

Cons

• Can be expensive for small businesses
• Slow synchronization with some integrations

Pricing

• 14-day free trial
• Essential ($28 user/month)
• Standard ($42 user/month)
• Pro ($71 user/month)
• Ultimate (contact Scoro for pricing)

Scoro customer reviews

• G2: 4.5/5 (320+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (170+ reviews)

8. Workzone

Workzone is an excellent task management choice for businesses of all sizes. It supports secure file sharing, image markups, and file versioning which is perfect for team collaboration. Video teams can make use of robust Workzone’s reporting features, enabling them to track progress and identify potential issues quickly and easily. In addition, they can use save their video projects as a template for future use.

Pros

• Complete flexibility and customization
• Cost-effective
• Great customer service
• Useful integrations

Cons

• Can be complex to learn and use for beginners
• Clunky task management
• Lack of some minor features
• No free trial

Pricing

• You can request a WorkZone demo
• Team ($24 user/month)
• Professional ($34 user/month)
• Enterprise ($43 user/month)

Workzone customer reviews

• G2: 4.3/5 (40+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (170+ reviews)

9. HubSpot

HubSpot is a powerful all-in-one solution that offers sales, marketing, and customer service tools. It can be used to increase video production speed by automating repetitive tasks, managing projects in one place, and providing a central repository for all project files. HubSpot also offers features such as reporting and analytics, which can help you track progress and identify areas for improvement.

Pros

• A wide range of features
• Flexible and scalable
• Can be customized to fit your needs

Cons

• Expensive
• Very limited features in the free version
• No A/B testing on the Starter plan

Pricing

• 14-day free trial
• Starter Plan  ($50 user/month)
• Professional Plan  ($800 user/month)
• Enterprise  ($3200 user/month)

HubSpot customer reviews

• G2: 4.4/5 (8,540+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (4,970+ reviews)

10. Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects is a low-cost comprehensive project management platform. It’s packed with features for scheduling, tracking, and collaborating effectively. One of its key features for video production is the Gantt chart, which offers a visual way to watch your project’s progress and dependencies.

Pros

• Very affordable
• Simple for completing routine tasks
• Great for complex schedule
• Accessible on mobile

Cons

• No built-in project templates
• Poor customization options

Pricing

• Free (up to 3 users)
• Premium ($5 user/month)
• Enterprise ($10 user/month)

Zoho Projects customer reviews

• G2: 4.3/5 (290+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.2/5 (250+ reviews)

11. Yamdu

Yamdu is used specifically by video production professionals. It is a cloud-based software that offers a variety of features to help with video production. These features involve all parts of a video production process and include a storyboard tool, cast and crew management, a budgeting tool, and more.

Everything is clear and well-organized so that the video production process can flow smoothly from start to finish. For example, you can stop sticking post-it notes to your monitor or tons of images in your production office – in Yamdu you have all your ideas and necessary elements stored in a more compact and easy-to-use way.

Pros

• Easy management
• Many options for relevant and quick movie production workflow
• The software is web-based, so it can be accessed from anywhere

Cons

• Requires some thinking and planning at the start
• The interface may be overwhelming for some users

• Some features that greatly facilitate video production are available for a higher price
• Lack of integrations

Pricing

• Free trial
• Spark ($95 user/month)
• Rise (per 25 users, $160/month)
• Start (per 75 users, $470/month)
• Signature (unlimited users, upon request)

Yamdu customer reviews

• G2: 5/5 (2 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (20+ reviews)

Common Video Project Management Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Not defining the scope of the project

One of the most common mistakes made in video production is not taking the time to define the scope of the project. When you’re speaking to your client, ask probing questions so that you can get a clear understanding of their vision for the project: 

• What is the purpose of the video?
• Who is the target audience?
• Where the video will be distributed?
• What tone and style should the video have?
• What is the budget and timeline for the project?

Once you have it, sit down and write out a detailed project plan. Taking the time to understand your client’s vision for the project will ensure that everyone is focused and will save you a lot of headaches later on. 

Not planning for Murphy’s Law

Murphy’s Law states that “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” This is especially true in video production, where a million things can break down at any given moment.

Before you start filming, think about and plan for it. For example, if you film outside, make sure you have a backup plan in case of bad weather. By planning for the worst, you’ll be able to avoid any major disasters and keep your project on track. 

Not managing your time properly

One of the most important aspects of video production is time management. Creating a successful movie is a complex process, regardless of what type of video you’re making, so it’s necessary to have everything considered ahead of time.

Give your team enough time to complete each task and build in some flexibility in case something comes up. If you’re constantly rushing, mistakes will likely be made, and the quality of the work will suffer. 

Not communicating with your team

Another common mistake made in video production is not communicating properly with your team. Each team member should be on the same page from the start so that there are no misunderstandings in the future.

Have regular meetings with your team to review the project plan and discuss areas of improvement. Don’t be afraid to delegate tasks and give people clear deadlines. Through effective communication, you’ll be able to avoid any potential conflict and create a steady workflow. 

Not testing your equipment

Test all of your equipment beforehand and prepare backups in case something goes go wrong. This includes everything from your camera to your sound system. Make sure your video editing software can handle the project you’re working on.

It’s better to be safe than sorry, and you don’t want your project to be delayed because of technical difficulties.

By avoiding these common mistakes, you’ll be well on your way to producing a successful video.

Tips for Finding the Right Tool for Your Project Needs

As you see, there are a lot of different project management apps on the market, and it can be tough to know which one is right for your team. Here are a few tips to help you choose creative project management software:

Tip 1: Define your requirements 

Before you start looking at different software, take some time to think about what your team needs. What kind of features are you looking for? What kind of budget do you have? Once you have an idea of your requirements, you can narrow down your options. 

Tip 2: Take advantage of free trials 

Most project management software offers free trials, so don’t hesitate to use them. This will give you a chance to compare different tools and see which one works most efficiently for your video team.

Tip 3: Get input from your team 

Remember that your team will be the ones using the project management tool. If they’re not satisfied with the speed or features of a certain tool, the video production process. Ask them what they think of the different options and see which one they’re most comfortable with. This will help you make a final decision. 

Tip 4: Consider ease of use 

Video production is already a complex process, so you would rather not make it more complicated by using difficult software. When looking at different options, choose an intuitive tool with a user-friendly interface and clear instructions so your team can start using it immediately. This will save you a lot of time and frustration in the long run.

Tip 5: Test it out 

Before you commit to a project management tool, be sure to test it out first. Create a dummy project and see how it works in real life. This will help you decide if it’s the right option.

By following these tips, you’ll be able to pick production management software for video production that fits your needs and helps your team be more productive.

Start Streamlining Your Video Production Workflow 

There are plenty of tools on the market, but not all of them are created equal.

When choosing video product project management software for your video production team, it’s important to consider your needs and budget. You also want to make sure that the program is user-friendly and offers the features you require.

By taking the time to find the right one, you’ll be able to control your video production workflow and get better results.  

Guest Writer:

Victoria is a content manager at Movavi. She specializes in researching complex topics of marketing, social media and blogging to make them easy to understand for other people.

The post 11 Project Management Software for Video Production appeared first on ClickUp.

A brilliant idea pops into your mind, but you’re unsure how to bring it to life. After all, there’s only so much you can remember or scribble on a piece of paper!

Have you tried to use mind mapping software? You can implement the mind mapping technique and brainstorm, gain insights, and visualize your idea with unlimited mind maps. 

In this article, we’ll cover what makes a great mind mapping tool and highlight the top 10 mind mapping software to help you choose the right one. 

Let’s jump right in!

What Is Mind Mapping Software?

Mind mapping software is a tool that allows users to visually organize and structure information, thoughts, and ideas. It creates a visual representation of information in the form of a diagram or map, connecting related ideas and concepts. This type of software helps to improve brainstorming, note-taking, project planning, and problem solving by providing a clear and concise way to connect information and ideas.

Most mind mapping tools come in different sizes to suit various needs, offering other functionality.

Generally, your average mind map maker falls under one (or more) of these categories:

• Diagramming: a technical diagram such as engineering flowcharts, architectural designs, network diagrams, etc.
• Brainstorming: problem-solving sessions to organize and present an idea visually
• Business intelligence: visualize data as charts by importing it from business applications
• Software development: prepare site map diagrams, software wireframes, etc.

Our curated list of the best mind mapping software includes a mix of these tools to help you determine the best fit for your needs.

If you’re interested in mind mapping, check out our articles:

• What Is A Mind Map?
• List of 20 Mind Map Examples

Why use mind mapping software?

Useful for any brainstorming session, mind mapping apps helps you plan and organize ideas for better clarity and understanding. It can also help you easily identify the best idea or solution from all the potentials you have.

So why not use a pen and paper instead? That would be like making a sandcastle on the shoreline, waiting for the waves to wash it away. 

Unless you want to lose your mind map to the ocean of other things you have to remember, using a piece of paper for mapping may not be the optimal way. If your idea has many moving parts, mapping it on a piece of paper can make it seem scattered and disconnected. 

Also, using tons of paper to draw concept maps isn’t the best way to fight #climatechange. ‍

Not only will a mind mapping app help you map out complex ideas quickly, but you also won’t have to worry about misplacing them.

What makes a great mind mapping tool? 

When choosing an excellent mind mapping tool, here are three key features to look out for: 

• User-friendliness: using the mapping tool should be as easy as drawing on paper. You shouldn’t have to dig through multiple menus to create a simple mind map
• Large canvas: a large digital canvas ensures that you never run out of space to draw. After all, you can’t put a limit on creativity and ideation
• Collaboration: essential for agile and scrum teams, real-time collaboration features let you share your mind maps with your entire team. This keeps everyone in the loop about the project  

10 Best Mind Mapping Software  

Here’s a closer look at the best mind mapping tools available today:

1. ClickUp

ClickUp is one of the highest-rated productivity tools and mind mapping tools used by productive teams in small and large companies.

From helping you overcome virtual team challenges to tracking in-house or remote team performance, ClickUp is the ultimate tool for remote project management. 

But wait… how will a project management software help me draw a mind map?

ClickUp offers hundreds of customizable features to help teams across industries improve their workflow and team collaboration. In fact, ClickUp has not one, but two powerful and functional tools for mind mapping: Mind Maps and Whiteboards.

Not only can you create custom mind maps, but you can store and connect them to your tasks within ClickUp, keeping all your work organized, accessible, and all in the same place.

Here, take a deeper look into what makes ClickUp Mind Maps and Whiteboards the best mind-mapping tools.

What’s ClickUp’s Mind Maps feature?

ClickUp’s Mind Maps is a visual collaboration tool that helps individuals and teams create free-form mind maps for any need. They’re perfect and useful for brainstorming sessions, outlining complex workflows or topics, organizing your thoughts, connecting tasks together, and so much more.

What makes it one of the best mind-mapping software is that it’s powerful, yet flexible, allowing you to organize information in a hierarchical way to help you visualize and analyze a central concept in great detail. Map out the concept by branching it into multiple sub-ideas; simply add more branches as you go to let your ideas run wild and free.

Plus, Mind Maps in ClickUp are easy to use. The drag-and-drop functionality enhances the user experience by simplifying the creation and editing process—just click and drag away.

You can choose to start from scratch or use ClickUp’s Simple Mind Map Template to help you get started.

ClickUp Whiteboards

Want to take your mind mapping to the next level? Well, you can with ClickUp Whiteboards.

Just like ClickUp’s Mind Maps, Whiteboards provides teams with an online canvas that can be used for brainstorming, business strategy planning, mapping out workflows, developing roadmaps, note-taking, software product development, and so much more. It also allows you to drag and drop your objects along your Whiteboard, making it so convenient and easy to use for your mind-mapping needs.

Whiteboards are especially useful for remote team collaboration. Teams can simultaneously within the same Whiteboard at any time, collaborate on concept maps, and connect their work together in an easy-to-follow way, while also giving them the complete freedom to get creative with how they organize and visually present their work.

One of the key differences between ClickUp’s Mind Maps and its Whiteboards is the ability to add objects within your canvas, allowing you to add shapes, sticky notes, and text that can be converted into a task. You also have the option to draw freely, upload an image file, and even copy and paste objects to create your ideal, most visually appealing, and detailed mind map.

If you’re new to ClickUp Whiteboards, you can start creating your mind map from a blank canvas or use ClickUp’s Introduction to Whiteboards Template to help you get going!

ClickUp limitations

• No Table view in the mobile app (yet)

Don’t worry! At ClickUp, we’re constantly brainstorming ideas to update our platform. 

Check out our roadmap to see what’s brewing.

ClickUp pricing

ClickUp offers a Free Forever Plan. Its paid plan starts as low as $5/user per month. 

What people think about mind mapping in ClickUp:

“I like the different ways I can visualize my project and related tasks. I can mind map my project, see it as a list, on a Kanban board, as a Gantt chart, or even in a table view. The app works with all the different ways I like to think and plan out my projects and tasks, giving me the freedom to plan in a way that works for me.” – G2Crowd

“I didn’t realize how much I’d benefit from the different visual representations, specifically the mind map, ClickUp offers.” – G2Crowd

ClickUp customer ratings

• G2: 4.7/5 (3,320+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (2,270+ reviews)

2. XMind

XMind is a simple mind mapping software that helps generate ideas, goals, and tasks. 

While this mind map software sounds like a psychic mutant from the X-Men series, XMind isn’t that extraordinary. 

XMind key features

• Zen mode helps you focus on a single mind map
• Equation feature lets you add mathematical and chemical equations
• Mind map template available for various needs
• Multi-branch colors to identify different nodes

XMind pros

• Protect your mind map files with passwords
• Export the mind map as PNG, PDF, or markdown files
• Mobile app for iOS and Android devices available

XMind limitations

• Large mind maps can take a lot of time to load properly
• No free plan available
• Not suitable for agile or scrum teams as XMind lacks project management features

XMind pricing

The pricing plan for this mapping software starts at $39.99 for six months.

What people think about mind mapping in XMind:

“Some of the most important features, such as sharing the Mind map with others over the internet, are not available with the free version. This is a little disappointing, however understandable. The company wants to motivate you to purchase the full software.” – Capterra Verified Review

“Very easy to learn and teach to others. Has all the basic functionality of a mind mapping tool.” – Capterra Verified Review

XMind customer ratings

• G2: 4.3/5 (30+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (70+ reviews)

3. ConceptDraw MINDMAP

ConceptDraw MINDMAP is an idea management and diagramming tool that can help organize your free-running ideas. 

But at its core, this basic mind mapping tool is just Microsoft Office Word with extra functionality. 

You don’t need X-ray vision to see that!

ConceptDraw MINDMAP key features

• Brainstorm mode with a built-in timer to help you focus
• Hypernote feature for adding multiple hyperlinks and notes to a single map
• MINDMAP editing tools help build presentations easily
• Graphics functionality lets you insert images and icons into your mind maps

ConceptDraw MINDMAP pros

• Supports 20+ mapping themes to help create a mind map template quickly
• Can add attachments to a mind map
• Can transfer mind mapping data with MS Office and other mind map software

ConceptDraw MINDMAP limitations

• Expensive pricing plan
• Outdated interface that resembles MS Word
• No mobile device support

ConceptDraw MINDMAP pricing

The pricing plan for this mapping software starts at $199 for a single-user license. 

What people think about mind mapping in ConceptDraw MINDMAP:

“Great to use when I’m starting a project. An excellent way to get all of the unorganized thoughts out of my head, and into an organized fashion.” – Capterra Verified Review

“I’ve used several MindMapping programs and this is one of the better ones. As with the rest, my main criticism lies in that it is somewhat more time consuming to use an electronic system, however, the benefit is that you are not bound by the dimensions of a piece of paper. Depending on the nature of your project, the better option between these two is readily apparent.” – Capterra Verified Review

ConceptDraw MINDMAP customer ratings

• G2: 3.4/5 (10+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.9/5 (10+ reviews)

4. MindManager

MindManager is a mind mapping app best suited for extensive brainstorming sessions. Its drag-and-drop functionality lets you create a central idea and draw related new ideas easily. 

However, it’s challenging to demonstrate hierarchies with this mapping software. 

MindManager key features

• Start a diagram from scratch or choose from 25+ in-built templates
• Gantt chart functionality to map project timelines
• MAP 3 add-in lets you use algebraic calculations and other functions
• Co-editing feature for real-time collaboration

MindManager pros

• Easy onboarding with step-by-step tutorials
• Allows creating an org chart, flowchart, and concept map 
• Supports keyboard shortcuts for creating mind maps quickly

MindManager limitations

• No free plan available
• Limited Gantt chart functionality 
• Limited selection of images and icons to choose from 

MindManager pricing

The pricing plan for this mapping tool starts at $99/year.

What people think about mind mapping in MindManager:

“I don’t think that I’ve used it enough to uncover any particular issues. The only problem I had was learning how to use it quickly enough and that was helped by the tutorials which can be accessed within MindManager itself.” – Capterra Verified Review

“It’s helped me organize, brainstorm and present in my business for many years. It’s solid and dependable.” – Capterra Verified Review

MindManager customer ratings

• G2: 4.5/5 (60+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (60+ reviews)

5. Edraw Mind Map

Edraw Mind Map (formerly known as MindMaster) is a collaborative mind mapping tool that helps give your ideas a much-needed structure. 

But will this free mind mapping software help you become a mind master, like Jean Grey from X-Men? 

Let’s take a look… 

Edraw Mind Map key features

• Brainstorming mode for a practical brainstorming session
• 12 different mind map layouts, like radial, treemap, and fishbone
• Gantt chart functionality helps create one out of a mind map
• Presentation mode lets you show your mind map as a slideshow

Edraw Mind Map pros

• Supports different node shapes and connection styles
• Export mind maps as JPG, PNG, and PDF files
• Available as a mobile app for Android and iOS devices

Edraw Mind Map limitations

• Gantt chart mode available only in the pro version 
• Limited flexibility with mapping layouts as everything is based on a template
• Can only import files from XMind, MindManager, and Edraw Max

Edraw Mind Map pricing

This mind mapping software offers a free version with limited features. The paid plan starts at $4.92/user month.

What people think about mind mapping in Edraw Mind Map:

“There is nothing I don’t like about this software. It will be great if one can import more file formats from other mind mapping software packages, but this is a minor feature.”  – Capterra Verified Review

“There is not much to say about cons in this software. I’d like to see a feature to export diagrams to XMind and Freemind, as some colleagues use these tools. It would be nice to import pictures from the Web directly as well.” – Capterra Verified Review

Edraw Mind Map customer ratings

• G2: 4/5 (5+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (40+ reviews)

6. Miro

Miro is an intuitive free mind map software with collaboration features. It allows distributed teams to brainstorm, map ideas, co-create organizational charts, and more. 

Is Miro a mind-mapping superhero? Probably not. 

Performing simple tasks like deleting unused boards is difficult in this mapping software. 

Miro key features

• Supports multiple design styles
• Built-in video and chat with @mentions
• Pre-built mind map templates
• Presentation mode to showcase your map as slides

Miro pros

• Offers an infinite whiteboard for brainstorming and creating powerful free form diagrams
• Integrates easily with other tools like Jira, Asana, and Slack
• Embed documents, spreadsheets, and PDFs in mind maps

Miro limitations

• Board owners can’t give guests access to editing
• Presentation mode offers limited designing and transition features
• Paid plans are expensive

Miro pricing

Miro offers a free plan. Its paid plans start at $10/user per month. 

What people think about mind mapping in Miro:

“I really love the new functionality around Miro smart meetings. But as this is quite new, there is some functionality missing and some other is not yet as polished as the rest of Miro.” – Capterra Verified Review

“The only con I see is that sometimes uploading media like videos can take longer to update. Also the price per license is a bit high for a small company that wants to use it, however the free basic version is quite complete.” – Capterra Verified Review

Miro customer ratings

• G2: 4.8/5 (2,060+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (490+ reviews)

Bonus: Compare Miro to Mural!

7. MindMeister

MindMeister is a popular web-based mind mapping software that lets you collaborate in real-time to brainstorm on ideas, plan projects, take notes, and more. 

But it can be inconvenient to connect different ideas using this tool. 

MindMeister key features

• Full screen presentation mode to display mind maps as slideshow
• History mode to see how your map evolved
• Multiple themes with colors, styles, and formatting options
• Comments and votes features for team collaboration

MindMeister pros

• Add notes, links, icons, images, or videos to mind maps
• Export mind maps in PNG, PDF, or Word formats
• Integrate mind maps into project management with MeisterTask

MindMeister limitations

• Free plan offers limited features
• Can’t create free-flowing maps
• Formatting gets lost when you undo a move

MindMeister pricing

This mind mapping app offers a free basic plan. The paid plans start at $2.49/user per month.  

What people think about mind mapping in MindMeister:

“Mindmeister has been really helpful with story and song planning, mapping out the recording process, keeping track of characters, locations, objects, and their relationships. It’s been a lovely experience.” – Capterra Verified Review

“The user experience on touchscreen devices is a bit iffy. Great to use on desktop, but a bit tricky to navigate and edit on mobile. This may require a different interface entirely? Perhaps workflow is best optimised to use Mindmeister on desktop and MeisterTasks on mobile, but there is a great opportunity to explore for tablet and iPad users.” – Capterra Verified Review

MindMeister customer ratings

• G2: 4.4/5 (10+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (190+ reviews)

8. Coggle

Coggle is an online tool with powerful mind mapping and flowchart features. You can use this mapping app to create processes, systems, and algorithms. 

But can it work at lightning speed like X-Men’s Storm?

Unfortunately, Coggle can feel clunky or slow when your mind maps get too big.

Coggle key features

• Drag-and-drop images onto mind maps
• Floating texts and images to annotate parts of the map
• Joint branches and loops to represent different processes
• Multiple starting points to map related topics together 

Coggle pros

• Saves all changes so you can revert to a previous version from any point 
• Supports real-time collaboration
• Share mind maps with a link

Coggle limitations

• No whiteboarding feature
• No dedicated desktop or mobile apps
• No option to auto-arrange the mind map branches

Coggle pricing

Coggle also has a free plan. The paid plans start at $5/user per month. 

What people think about mind mapping in Coggle:

“Very nice program, with room for improvement as well. Even with its few faults, it is still an important part of the creative planning process for me.” – Capterra Verified Review

“For an easy overview of any complex task, you should create a mindmap. I’ve tried a lot of software and I like Coogle the most. It is an online tool for making spectacular mindmaps. In the free trial version you can try the tool. If you need more extra feature you can get it for an affordable monthly price.” – Capterra Verified Review

Coggle customer ratings

• G2: 4.4/5 (5+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (30+ reviews)

9. Lucidchart

Lucidchart is a diagramming tool for visualizing complex processes, systems, and organizational structures.

However, this mapping tool can be confusing for new users. 

Lucidchart key features

• 500+ mind map templates
• Shape library to drag and drop shapes on your maps
• Automated layout to create diagrams based on data
• Collaboration features like co-authoring, shape-specific comments, and in-editor chat

Lucidchart pros

• Cloud-based platform that’s accessible from any device
• Integrates with productivity platforms like Google apps & Workspace and Slack
• Import data from other apps like Excel, Zapier, and Salesforce

Lucidchart limitations

• Doesn’t work offline 
• Basic plan has limited features
• Interface feels outdated

Lucidchart pricing

This mind mapping software has a free plan. The paid ones start at $7.95/user per month. 

What people think about mind mapping in Lucidchart:

“Lucidchart is one of the best drawing software in the market right now. I’ve been using it for over two years and have not regretted my purchase. I love that it’s so easy to use, even if you are newer to diagramming or visualizing concepts. The only downside is that it lacks more advanced features like more shapes to make more detailed drawings with.”  – Capterra Verified Review

“Overall pretty good and easy to use software for business process mapping for anybody that needs to pump out process maps fairly quickly. You can quickly churn out process maps with a relatively small learning curve and can access your saved diagrams through any browser.”  – Capterra Verified Review

Lucidchart customer ratings

• G2: 4.5/5 (670+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (1,200+ reviews)

Compare Lucidchart to Miro!

10. Mindly

Mindly lets you create beautiful online mind maps for brainstorming, idea collection, project planning, meeting preparation, etc. 

However, Windows users would absolutely mind Mindly. 

Why? There’s no dedicated app or web version for Windows systems!  

Mindly key features

• Different color schemes for map elements
• Option to attach notes, images, or icons to any element
• Visual clipboard to reorganize your ideas and map content
• Passcode to protect your maps and ideas

Mindly pros

• Create an infinite hierarchy of elements 
• Supports multiple devices
• Export mind maps in PDF, OPML, and text formats

Mindly limitations

• Limited integration options
• No task management capabilities
• Free version limits the number of maps and elements you can add

Mindly pricing

Mindly has a free version. The full version costs $6.99 on iOS, $29.99 on the Mac app store, and $5.49 on Android.

Mindly customer ratings

• G2: N/A
• Capterra: N/A

Which Mind Mapping Software is the Best?  

While you can always draw a mind map on paper, it doesn’t give you the flexibility or right canvas for your ideas to run wild.  

However, with the right mind mapping tools, that isn’t an issue. 

With features ranging from real-time collaboration to concept mapping, mind mapping software helps break down even the most complex ideas. 

And while tools like XMind and MindManager are decent mind mapping software solutions, ClickUp is indeed the best mind map software of the list. 

With powerful features for mind mapping, project planning, and even remote team management, ClickUp is the only tool any project manager needs.

Get ClickUp for free and give life to your new ideas!

The post 10 Best Mind Mapping Software (Pros, Cons, Pricing) 2023 appeared first on ClickUp.