When you start a new project, how you manage it will dictate its overall success.
Depending on the size of your project, there could be tens, hundreds, even more moving pieces. Being able to fully account where each piece is within the progression of the project is how you can gauge whether it's being managed properly. Fortunately, you can do this from the convenience of your Gmail inbox, by using the right tools.
The Importance of Communication in Project Management
Effective communication allows team leaders to control the performance of the project while measuring and comparing its status outlined during the conception phase. With the right tools, this phase can be effortless for the project manager. Without the right tools, it can be extremely stressful and it’ll jeopardize the delivery of the project.
Granted timelines can change because of delays in delivery and other unforeseen complications, but if everyone is on the same page other parts of the project can be addressed until the issues are resolved. This is where real-time, accountable communication becomes so valuable.
If you can manage a project with a tool which is easily accessible by all team members, is designed for collaboration, and allows for seamless communication, it’ll make it that much more manageable. Even better if that tool happens to be integrated with email, the leading business communication tool for teams.
Consider Gmail, the leading email platform is available globally, which addresses the accessibility part of the equation. Add the power of Gmelius and you now have a robust collaboration, communication, and project management tool - one that seamlessly operates from your Gmail inbox.
4 Tools and Tips to Manage Projects from Gmail
Here are four strategies for managing projects from Gmail, which are proven to work.
1. Kanban boards
Kanban Boards are just one of the features Gmelius integrates into your Gmail. Elegantly placed on the left-hand pane of your Gmail inbox, boards are designed to provide you with a clear visual representation of your inbox and the projects that stem from emails.
Gmelius boards go several steps further. To start with, they allow you to manage your inbox activity in a visual and transparent way. Each of your Shared Inboxes and Shared Labels can have a board view.
Going further, boards allow project managers to integrate automation features and task assignments, with the ability to monitor performance, by team member, as they follow the project through to completion.
After you create your project board you can add cards with a list of to-dos and assign them to team members with due dates. Task cards will give you clear visibility on the status of your projects, arrange them as needed and use the drag and drop feature based on the progression and status of each assignment.
If you want to add a comment to a task, it is as easy as clicking on it. And if a subtask is required, which there always seems to be when managing projects, you can simply add more items by clicking on it.
Gmelius also lets you add priority tags and share the boards with specific team members to address different parts of the project.
Kanban boards are not a new concept. You can find tons of external Kanban tools for project management. Trello is one of them and is trusted by millions. The only issue is that Trello, like other kanban tools, is disconnected from your inbox.
The difference with Gmelius is that it places kanban boards within your inbox. And, it also does a whole lot more. Easy to access, easy to use, and built for team collaboration, Gmelius boards also integrate with Trello.
With our 2-way integration there is no need to switch between Gmail and Trello. Each teammate can work from their preferred tool and Gmelius will keep your teams and data in sync, in both apps. With Gmelius you can easily monitor emails in Trello and manage your Trello projects directly from your inbox.
Our users love their kanban boards, they are an integral part of their day-to-day workflows. But where Gmelius really shines when managing a project is with the automated sequences tool.
2. Turn emails into actionable tasks
Gmelius allows you to turn any email into a task card with one click, and add that card to your chosen kanban board as “contact made” for example. From there you can assign the task to a team member, add a due date, add notes for context, and monitor the task as it progresses across your project board.
If you are turning the emails you receive into tasks without ever leaving Gmail, think about the time you, your team, and your organization will save. And you can use these tools in any industry to improve the efficiency of all your projects effortlessly.
3. Create sequences and automations
Your project is up and running and your team is busy carrying out the tasks you’ve assigned them. During the flow of a project actions will need to be taken, some expected and some not. Sequences allow you to account for those actions and pre-configure the chosen response.
Every action connects to a task, gets automatically updated onto your project board and communicated in real-time across your team.
Sequences will let you create an automated email drip to external partners that contribute to your project. You set the workflow according to their reactions and let Gmelius do the rest.
Incoming emails can be tagged in that flow at any time and you can send them to the designated Kanban Board with custom follow-ups.
Conditional filters such as if opened, if not replied, etc., can be applied to ensure the message gets to the intended team member. With Sequences, you will be sure the emails you send will reach their targets at the right time to keep your project moving forward.
The Gmelius AI agent can write automation rules based on your natural language commands so that you don't have to configure complex automations manually.
4. Use notes to collaborate with team members
Running a project means having various stakeholders, this can be a client, a supplier, or the company’s CIO. And when they want to communicate something, it is generally through email. With Gmelius, you can add more context to these emails with email notes.
While you are in the Gmail inbox, you can use Gmelius Notes to further explain the email to your team member. Notes run in a chat-style thread alongside each email, providing a distraction-free space to move the conversation forward.
In the same flow, you can assign the email to a team member, add a note explaining the concern of the client and post it on the Kanban board for further visibility.
The Power of Gmelius When Installed into Gmail
From the beginning, the goal of Gmelius has been to bring teams together by consolidating a rich set of collaboration and automation tools and seamlessly integrating them into Gmail. Before Gmelius teams were forced to manage several outside of inbox platforms, which further disconnected and fragmented their workflows.
There are hard and soft costs that come with switching back and forth between platforms. Attention switch is a cost that hurts your teams' bottom line of productivity. Gaps in communication between email and chat and disconnected collaboration hit businesses where it hurts the most - the real bottom line of profitability.
Since Gmelius lives and works in Gmail - the learning curve is minimal.
And the less time any team has to spend on how to use an application, the more time they can dedicate to finishing the project successfully, on time, and under budget.
While Gmail is a great email client it lacks the tools necessary to manage the moving parts of a project and all the associated communications. Gmelius bridges the gap created by external emails and internal communications like chat while connecting them to project management tools designed for team collaboration.
More than 100,000 professionals depend on Gmelius to empower their team workflows. We transform their inbox into a work hub of collaboration and effective communication - allowing them to work better from Gmail.
