December 28, 2016
Case study: how we helped Storyminers to complete one of their most complex projects
Mike Wittenstein runs one of the world’s first experience design firms, ‘Storyminers’. He and his teams have helped over 700 companies in 25 countries; here’s how DropTask [now Ayoa]* has helped Storyminers to complete one of their most complex projects of 2016.
In his own workplace, Mike was fed up with a disorganized amount of messy papers that landed on his desk when new client work started. Reminders, tasks for others, copy points, strategy notes, and other ideas seemed to be floating everywhere. The proper communication of key actions to others sometimes slipped. Then, he stumbled across DropTask [Ayoa], which helped him to organize and track the company’s entire workload in one productive workspace.
He says: “One morning I found myself at my desk with several piles of papers over an inch thick, with each stack and page mixed up within a disorderly pile which was getting me down. I needed to convert all of the information on the pages into my new Business/Marketing Plan for the New Year, but I just couldn’t get the information to flow into the new picture of the way that I wanted things to work. The problem I had was that the picture was in my head, and no-one else could visually understand the way I wanted the company to progress forward.
Then I came across DropTask [Ayoa]. As soon as I created my first project, I felt more in control. I had all of the tools that I needed to work quickly and think nimbly. DropTask [Ayoa] comfortably shaped itself around my working needs, and its visual nature of displaying tasks as circles showed me that it was different from other tools on the market. No matter when or where my ideas came to me, I could instantly input them into DropTask [Ayoa] and watch them come to life as the new business model took shape. The ability to nest categories within one another made it easy to share the relationship each idea had with others on my team and let me quickly assess where my time needed to be spent.
We also use DropTask [Ayoa] to plan new accounts. Typically, the work begins in the Canvas view where all of our tasks are displayed as engaging circles which are easily accessible by using the drag-and-drop feature. Initially, we use this view to code everyone’s ideas in real-time. If members are having a 1:1 conversation, they simply use the ‘@’ icon, which notifies one another that they’ve been mentioned in a comment. As a team, we view the entirety of the year’s project, including its minor details, by zooming in and out of the Canvas, giving us the bigger picture of who’s working on what and what is yet to be completed.”
“It feels like we’re all on the same page, because we literally are!”
“We have planned one of 2016’s most complex projects in DropTask [Ayoa], including one of our key workshops, the ‘Reason for Being’. This workshop is part of the work that we do to help our clients to understand, in one sentence, whom they serve and what their value is to their clients. It sounds easy but it’s really hard work. Now, thanks to DropTask [Ayoa], it’s faster and easier. Using DropTask [Ayoa] has helped us reduce the time that it takes to work on these workshops by 50%. It adds much-needed simplicity to the planning process and allows us to quickly add information to our projects without losing any detail – something that we frequently experienced when we were limited to voice notes.”
Seeing in real-time where each key thought lands on the Canvas for our new 2016 business model helped us to pull all loose ends together and form a strategy which the entire team was able to understand. There’s something special that happens when you connect your thoughts in your head and share them on screen; It not only creates a lasting association which makes it easier to remember what order you need to act upon tasks, it also helps improve everyone’s understanding of the connections between tasks.
With the help of DropTask [Ayoa], we now share all of our ideas in one creative space, communicate with one another, edit task progress and assign ownership, all before transporting our finished Project into iMindMap, in preparation for our next meeting with our clients. Now, team members and I can share the same context about work because DropTask [Ayoa] simplifies the whole process of planning, managing, and getting projects across the finish line.”
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*DropTask has now become Ayoa. Ayoa has the same great task management capabilities that DropTask provided, with the added benefits of innovative and creative Mind Mapping tools to aid your brainstorming. Find out more about Ayoa’s full features and pricing plans.
More Ayoa case studies
Want to find out more about why so many people love using Ayoa? Read more case studies from our happy customers in various sectors.