SmartSheet Debrief Notes
7/10/2017 - ID Team Meeting
How does the team utilize Smartsheet on a regular basis? Did you use the worksheets once for the staff retreat vs. actively update them weekly for team meetings?
How does the team utilize Smartsheet on a regular basis? Did you use the worksheets once for the staff retreat vs. actively update them weekly for team meetings?
- Updated regularly for team meetings with management
- Mixed opinions whether Smartsheet would be used if not required for Team meetings
- Useful for accountability and documentation during discussions with Team and Management
- Helpful to think through projects timelines in stepwise manner and identify any questions with processes before beginning projects
- Contingencies allow for visualizing how project delays early can affect overall timeline
- Helpful to keep products, procurement information, etc in one place for APRs
- Good for personal project management, not very conducive for driving team meetings
If you don’t actively update Smartsheet, why not?
- Not universally used for funded areas because time consuming and not set up well for unfunded areas
What aspects of Smartsheet do you like or are the most useful?
- Pros:
- Attachments are helpful to have products, progress reports in one place in anticipation of reporting
- Comments allows for documentation of progress, challenges or project delays, and decisions
- Flexibility in the spreadsheet and allowing for detail within projects (sub topics) allows you to make the tool as in depth as you want
- Cons:
- Some formatting difficult to deal with, not necssarily user friendly when starting from scratch, or using a sheet someone else started
- Excel may be more user friendly, if we aren't using some of the interactive features
- Cannot easily see all text within boxes (viewing panel?)
What project management needs currently are not met by Smartsheet?
- Not interoperable with our finance portals
- Not interactive outside program staff - often results in different/duplicative processes and communication methods for relaying information about projects within the office (e.g., meetings WuFoo, international traveler tracking spreadsheet, contracts spreadsheets, IT Tickets, etc)
Describe any changes to the Smartsheet template that you think would improve this year’s staff retreat.
- Consider tying more closely to fiscal awareness (PO#'s, spend down) - this may be done by staff individually; would require transferring information from Captiva and/or Quickbooks to Smartsheet unless the programs are interoperable (?)
- Check Boxes: Not helpful for staff - may be helpful for admin; understand at what frequency these reports are pulled so that we know what information Admin has at a given time; if reports are not/will not be pulled, remove from template
- Retreat is a good opportunity to identify/discuss challenges (before and after project completion).. having a column for challenges may help with discussion during the retreat and reporting after project completion
- Consider discussing pros/cons of paring down template to allow staff to customize more to meet their needs... minimal required variables for consistency with options for additional information as necessary
- Consider aligning more closely with Co-Ag narratives for consistency in reporting
- If Management is actively using Smarsheet - maybe adding a "needs approval" or "approval status" drop down would help with keeping track of where things are in approval process, what is waiting for approvals
Other feedback:
- Who is actually looking at/using Smartsheet besides program staff for their own projects? Management? Admin?
- Depth missing from retreat because Smartsheet is very linear; missing project context which would lend the retreat to being helpful for others participating
- If Smartsheet is a priority for the retreat, may be helpful to encourage using Smartsheet as an outline for presentation, but to provide more in-depth descriptions for projects (background, outcomes/PH impact, etc)
- For developing project timelines, it would be very helpful to have approval timelines and chart
- Also guidance for when/if items can move forward when someone in the approval process is not available (vacation, travel, etc)