All posts by Hansani Bandara.

Whether you work hybrid or remote, having to switch contexts and apps multiple times during the day is part and parcel of a typical workday. Creately’s latest integration with Microsoft Teams introduces a better way to work with teams and collaborate. We’re truly excited that this integration creates a seamless platform for teams to brainstorm, plan, run projects or document knowledge that’s always linked to the current context.

Our Approach with MS Teams

When you work with remote teams, smoother communication, work management and real-time collaboration is key to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks. Thus, when we started working with Microsoft, we approached this problem with a few ideas.

• Visuals make a huge impact in making things easier to understand
• The collaborative content you create must be easily found and referenced
• When people have the big picture, then they need the details. And it should always be ready at hand
• Meetings are essential, but the context of pre, during and post-meetings are also important and need to be planned if we are to improve the overall efficiency of teams around meetings

So with those in mind, we think we have a winner in our hands with Creately for Microsoft Teams.

What We Bring to the Table

A Collaborative Free Form Canvas for Teams

With Creately there are no rigid structures or limitations such as docs or sheets. We provide a free-form visual workspace for you to collaborate with remote teams in real-time. Simply pin any Creately workspace or folder to an MS Teams channel and you are good to go!

A Place to Pin Ideas or Discuss the Problem

Drag and drop anything from docs, sheets, JPEGs or PDFs into the canvas to unify all information related to a particular task/project in one place to analyze. Bounce ideas off team members and get instant feedback. You can edit any Creately workspace within MS Teams without having to switch back and forth between apps.

The Best Way to Get Everyone on the Same Page

Share workspaces in live meetings and use Creately’s superb whiteboarding capabilities with asynchronous editing.

How to Install?

Activate Creately in MS Teams

• Select the ‘Manage Apps’ in MS Teams and search for Creately in the Teams App Store.
• Click on the check mark next to Creately and select Allow.
• A dialogue box will appear. Click Allow to let users access Creately in Teams.
• You can click on the application to view or change its permissions.

Adding Creately to Team Channels

• Select the Apps icon on the left sidebar of the Teams window.
• Search for Creately
• Click on the application and press the Add button
• Sign in to Creately, and you are on track to supercharge collaboration with Creately and MS Teams.

Add Creately to MS Teams to stay in sync and top of your task list. Work visually with over 1000+ templates to get a head start. Manage your work the way you want with a free-form, flexible infinite canvas that you can set up according to your preference. Unify all information related to a particular project under one workspace and easily share it with the team, with multiple access levels and roles.

Learn more about Creately for MS Teams.

No matter the team or the industry you are in, Creately can help you build workflows, manage processes, manage work, ideate and plan projects so that you will be able to uncover new trends and new ways to work. 
Install Creately for MS Teams today by visiting the Teams App Store!

Working remotely does not need to be a disruption to foster meaningful relationships between mentors and mentees. There are multiple whiteboard and remote collaboration tools that enable you to continue training and mentorships with ease in real-time.

Creately, together with Gren Gale at PM Results held a Twitter chat to explore ways of training and mentoring remote employees to enhance the productivity of the workforce. Given below is a curated version of the discussion.

Q1) New remote employees usually struggle with reduced access to an ‘over the shoulder’ instructor support; how to overcome this problem?

Gren Gale points out that many companies do not have clearly defined processes. Often only a few people know how exactly the processes work. He says that this may lead to confusion among new remote recruits.

“I recommend companies analyse and document their processes. While this isn’t a five-minute job and may divert busy people, it’s work you should definitely undertake. I recommend you look at Lean Six Sigma to analyse processes and you can use Creately to collaborate on and document them.”

He further suggests that both office-based and remote workforces should build a knowledge base.

“All of your processes should reside on a knowledge base together with the expert knowledge that resides in people’s heads but never gets written down. The work hygiene stuff like expenses, payroll and HR policies should be there too.

It’s a good idea to include authors for each page in the knowledge base and a contact icon so people know who the experts are to ask questions.”

Q2) How to make information easily accessible to remote employees, especially online?

To this end, Gren Gale highlights the importance of having structured meetings – which are minuted – for remote teams on a daily and weekly basis.

“Questions like how are you doing? Are you stuck with anything? Or how do you feel about work? should be asked. Setting goals and then measuring how well new employees are doing is essential for both the management and the morale of a new employee.

It’s a good principle to organise daily team ‘stand up meetings’ and invite new employees to these. Employee engagement packages formalise these arrangements and I’m a big fan of these for remote or hybrid work.”

He also mentions that an organizational chart is also an essential tool for new employees.

“Try finding your way around a remote team or worse still, around a client of the remote company without any sort of organizational chart and you’re in big trouble. You need a chart that shows what people do and who they work for and how to contact them.”

He also recommends the use of employee engagement software to ensure that new employees are being supported by their managers and lets senior management know otherwise. Furthermore, organizing social events, face-to-face and online, will help new team members socialize with the rest of the team.

“I’m a big fan of a ‘wall of fame!’ whicis is somewhat similar to an org chart. The wall of fame contains images of people on the organisation chart with a short description of their background and hobbies.

It lets everyone on the team know what their colleagues look like and provides scope for small talk. Hey you’re a movie buff, keen cyclist or music lover. It opens up everyone’s background and interests and that helps inculcate the feeling of being in a team.”

Q3) What qualities qualify a person to be a good mentor to a remote employee?

Qualities such as being patient, being prepared to listen and making sure you are knowledgeable about the subject area or know where to get the information are both common to one-on-one and remote mentoring.

However, Gren Gale highlighted some skills that are specific to remote work.

“Both mentors and employees are required to be totally comfortable with the remote work technology, have an understanding of how the company is organised and who does what, and have an idea about the sorts of insecurities and frustrations remote workers might experience. A common feeling for new remote workers is imposter syndrome – are they good enough?”

He stresses that it is vital that mentors are sensitive to and understand this. it’s a lot harder to measure your performance against others when you’re remote. He adds that people leading teams remotely in particular can suffer from imposter syndrome.

Q4) How to find the right balance between overloading a mentee with information and expecting them to achieve their goals with the highest level of accuracy?

Gren Gale states that it’s important to give people simple tasks to do as soon as possible so they can feel they’ve achieved something and that they are able to find their way through this new organisation and make stuff happen.

“Imposter syndrome can lead to demoralization of new employees. As I mentioned earlier, I would recommend making use of employee engagement packages. They help with goal setting and reviewing. The strength of these packages is that employee satisfaction or unhappiness or lack of one-to-ones is flagged up in reporting to senior management – it ceases to be invisible.

He points out that it ultimately comes down to good management. However, being a remote manager is a whole lot harder than being office-based. It is important to make training a priority for all of your managers.

“I’ve managed a large team spread right around the world and I can honestly say I found it twice as difficult as managing face-to-face.”

He added that it is also important to train and support managers for remote work or their stresses may rub off on new employees and turn them off and demoralise them.

Q5) How important is it to match the mentee with the right mentors?

The short answer is, extremely important! It is also essential to find mentors who are comfortable with the technology and with the concept of remote mentoring. Gren Gale points out that many companies resorted to remote work during the past 18 months as a temporary measure, rather than a long term pattern. Therefore, it is possible that mentors may not have a lot of experience in remote mentoring and how people may react to what they are trying to convey. Hence, patience on the part of both mentors and mentees is vital.

“This needs to be on the 1:1 agenda with your manager. How is your training going? How are your mentors? The same thing needs to be asked of mentors. If it’s not working, change it. Getting mentors together also makes sense. There’s lots of learning to be gained and the more these guys talk and review what they’re doing the better they’ll get at it.

As is the case for managers. It’s worth considering training mentors in what they need to consider for remote mentoring to give everyone a better chance of making it work.”

Q6) What advice should a mentor give when helping mentees to align their goals with that of the organization’s?

To this end, Gren Gale states that communicating goals to all employees via available communication channels is incumbent on the senior management. This is why it is vital to have a clear line of communication in place.

“Goals should cascade down from the top with each level completing the goals set for the level above. Managers should always be delegating goals that align with the organisation’s goals. Once again this comes down to simple, good HR principles. Set people measurable goals and monitor their progress against those.”

Ensure that goals are measurable, achievable and fit with the objectives which your manager has been given by his/her manager.

Q7) How can a project manager keep track of assigned tasks in bigger and dispersed teams?

Gren Gale points out that the most effective solution is to use an appropriate project or task management package which allows you to stay on top of things with real-time alerts and notifications.

“Personally, I’d rather talk to each team member about their progress, in addition to receiving the progress data they enter via the project management package. However, this can be time-consuming. If you can’t get everyone together in one virtual room, then look at how you’re going to communicate effectively on progress.”

He further added that there are innovative project management and meeting software that aims to make things fast and efficient. If a project management package is out of the question for you, then make sure to at least maintain an action list with a clear task allocation and deadlines.

Q8) How to build and maintain trust within a remote working team, especially among new recruits?

“No. 1 is don’t be a disembodied voice on a video call. Show your face! Turn on the video even if everyone else has it switched off. If you’re going to prove your professional credibility you need to be very organised. Maintain risk, issue and action lists and keep your plans up to date. Share each of these with your team. Stay on top of change.”

Gren Gale also suggests that it is always better to concentrate on making active efforts to fill the gaps in your knowledge, in addition to conducting your own research into unfamiliar technical areas, in order to stay up to speed.

“The way you act and treat the people in your team will earn you respect. You need to respect their culture, customs and personalities as well as run the project in such a way as to gain respect.

Inevitably project management involves a degree of subtle manipulation to get what you want when you need it from the wide groups of people who are involved in delivering a project.”

However, managers should also be careful not to seem like political manipulators or someone who is not aligned with the common goals of the team. The key here is to build trust.

“I’ve always found that if you trust and support people they’ll nearly always deliver for you. The most respected people are those who appear to have no hidden agenda but are working towards the common goal.”

Q9) How to set and properly communicate the expectations of a job role to a newly hired remote employee?

Issues may arise regarding the expectations of a person’s job role when there is a lack of clarity or understanding about it among employees. However, when this happens remotely, such problems can amplify in your mind. Glen Gale highlights that communication is the most effective solution to overcome this.

“Communication in remote teams is key. Managers must hold one-on-ones with each of their teams on a regular, preferably weekly basis. These meetings must include goal setting and review as well as explicit questions about how an employee is feeling.

Team meetings and short daily ‘stand-up’ meetings are also important components in communicating what the team is trying to achieve and should lead to issues with new joiners being resolved more quickly.”

Q10) What steps can both the manager and new recruit take to foster a positive relationship with each other and avoid issues?

Gren Gale stresses that honesty and openness on both sides is essential to spot any problems. This applies to office-based staff too. However, one thing that is worthy of note is that people tend to have less inhibitions on a video call than face-to-face. This may be a positive for remote work!

“It is also helpful for new employees to be able to talk about their managers with other staff to get perspective. Some managers may appear to be less approachable but people who know them may say don’t worry they’re fine after they get to know you.”

He adds that remote companies should strongly encourage social interaction between staff. This can be done by appointing social managers or social organisers in teams. They should go the extra mile to encourage new employees to take part. 

“There are so many ideas on this front both online and real-world social events and ice breakers. You’ll find some in my books or just google it and you’ll find lots more! I’m also a big proponent of team meet-ups. Organised events to get everyone on a remote team together for a couple of days. This helps everyone bond and work as a team.”

The success of a product depends on its marketing strategy. The right marketing mix can do wonders in product positioning and reaching out to your targeted customers. Whether you adopt B2C or B2B marketing strategies, your products are always marketed to human beings who are looking for relevance, context, connection and convenience.

Creately, together with G2 hosted a Twitter chat on ‘how to get your B2B marketing right.’ Being the world’s largest tech marketplace where businesses can discover, review and manage SaaS products needed for their businesses, G2 shed some light on strategies that can be utilized for effective B2B marketing.

Given below is a curated version of the chat.

Q1. A growing number of companies using content to market their brand and generate leads. How can brands stand out in their content marketing?

G2 states that authenticity is important when it comes to content marketing. The B2B content you create should be driven by two purposes – help people do their jobs better and propel consumers to “think bigger than in-the-moment challenges they are facing. The company also highlighted the importance of user-generated content (UGCs).

“That’s the stuff (content) that will position your brand as a trusted advisor and thought leader in your space. But anything you can do to leverage your customer’s voice and POV in your content strategy will move the needle more than anything. There’s a reason why UGC is a thing.”

G2

Q2. Measuring ROI is one of the top challenges B2B marketers face. What are some simple ways to measure ROI?

“As with anything related to ROI in marketing, you should always start by mapping out your ‘dream state’ for dashboards and reports. From there, you should build your infrastructure to support that outcome.”

G2

Firstly, identify the metrics you want to measure. Then set SMART goals for those. This will help you set benchmarks for the ROIs to be achieved.

“…Make sure your attribution and funnel stages map to that (SMART goals for metrics). In B2B, where the sales cycle is longer, content is one part of the total journey.

Consider slicing and dicing the data differently, so you can look at influence. Take an ebook for example. You might be promoting that ebook across multiple channels, so the channel becomes the source but the content becomes the influence.”

G2

G2 further added that if this process is too overwhelming, or if you don’t have the stack or marketing operations (MOPs) to build on, the wise practice is to adopt three to five content metrics and solve those.

“You don’t need a team, an agency or an advanced tech stack to capture the KPIs that are most important to you. Take it one step at a time!”

G2

Q3. When marketing budgets are slashed, and it may be seemingly impossible to convert convincing leads, what B2B marketing strategies do a business need to adopt?

According to G2, slashed budgets and cold leads provide an opportunity for demand gen marketers to align with sales, and become more focused and targeted.

“Align with your data and sales teams to identify accounts more likely to convert. Tag them in your CRM and then build your strategy to engage those accounts and move them from stages like unaware to engaged.”

G2

G2 further states that this strategy will help you plan for your next two quarters, allocate a budget to support a more focused strategy and win these accounts with the sales team. Moreover, make sure to include buyer intent signals in your strategy in order to focus your budget on in-market prospects.

Q4. How important is thought leadership in B2B marketing strategies?

“…Thought leadership is a way to create brand awareness and trust, it’s obviously pretty important.”

G2

Thought leaders bring fresh perspectives and insightful analyses into specific subjects. It is prudent for your content strategy to include thought leadership in the form of blogs, videos, panel discussions, etc. Having content related to thought leadership live across all your digital media platforms will drive your SEO/SEM strategy, as it will help people to discover your business when they are looking for what you are selling.

“And, really, what’s more important than being found at the moment someone searches? Not much.”

G2

Q5. What is your thought on all-weather B2B marketing strategies?

When in challenging economic conditions, budget cuts are the most common course of action that companies resort to, and of them, the marketing and advertising budget often take the first hit. This is because business survival takes precedence over profit maximization. However, rather than opting straight to cutting costs, a shift in your strategies may work wonders irrespective of whether the times are good or bad.

G2 mentions that many SaaS B2B marketers, particularly those in revenue, growth or demand gen teams are still focusing heavily on new business goals. It’s time to place more of that focus on customer experience. If your customers aren’t privy to a seamless and great onboarding and activation process, you lose prospects for advocacy and expansion.

“…It’s time for demand gen marketers to align with customer experience together, to own the experience from the moment the deal is signed, all the way through the lifecycle. When those goals are aligned, your team can handle even extreme scenarios like COVID, for example.”

G2

Q6. Lead generation requires a lot of time and effort. How can businesses ensure to get high-quality leads?

It is important to inculcate a comprehensive understanding of your ideal customer profile (ICP) across every team in the organization. This will drive product-led growth, demand generation and your account-based marketing (ABM) strategy.

“…Your demand strategy should include targeted campaigns and a budget to make sure you’re reaching your ‘tier 1’ accounts (the accounts that are most likely to convert).

Have a lead scoring model in place that includes demographic and behavioural scoring to make sure that your MQLs really are high quality. This will always be a work in progress that requires fine-tuning and optimization as you evolve.”

G2

Q7. Some businesses follow the crowd instead of building their own lead generation strategies. What kind of impact would a business face in the long term if they follow the crowd?

B2B marketing, in general, has unique challenges and constraints. However, if you focus on what works for you and your goals, you will be successful in getting through to the target audience.

“Think about when your LinkedIn newsfeed is full of statements like ‘email is dead’. Try not to be reactionary. Instead, unpack how email performs for you and whether it’s a valuable tool in your kit.

Try segmenting at a deeper level to create a more meaningful outreach that focuses on serving content that drives engagement, rather than forcing leads and MQLs.”

G2

G2 highlights that you need to block the noise from the crowd, not be reactionary, stay the course and be true to the audience you serve.

Q8. What are some ways to increase the productivity of the sales team when leads don’t convert?

According to G2, the first course of action is to create a list of top accounts and then collaborate with the sales team to identify opportunities to engage those.

“The traditional waterfall or MQL funnel doesn’t necessarily apply to an account-based strategy, so make sure you’re able to measure KPIs that matter at the account level (unaware to be engaged, for example).”

G2

Q9. What are the ‘don’ts’ when using client reviews in your marketing?

G2 states that the authenticity and relevance of reviews are vital so that those could be used when conducting promotional campaigns across a variety of channels.

“Make sure the reviews you’re using are current. On a review platform like G2, you can use integrations with Pendo and Medallia, for example, to drive reviews from directly within your app to G2.

This helps generate a flow of authentic and honest reviews to your profile, which you can then leverage in campaigns across multiple channels.”
-G2-

Q10. How important is the proper alignment of marketing and sales objectives?

Speaking of the right objective alignment between marketing and sales teams in an account-based model, G2 pointed out that sales and marketing teams should collaborate and work towards a common goal from the beginning.

“… It’s funny that we always talk about ‘marketing-sourced pipeline’ when marketing is not responsible for opening a pipeline. We’re responsible for (among other things) running campaigns that are intended to drive awareness, educate the market, and generate quality leads for SDRs and Sales to follow up with and set meetings.

It’s only after the meeting is held and Sales opens an opportunity, that we’re able to recognize ‘marketing-sourced’ pipe. So alignment is critical from the beginning, enabling SDRs to follow up with meaningful outreach, and drive meetings with the right contacts.”

G2

Q11. There are several review marketplaces; why is it important to get on board with them and what are the key factors to consider before doing so?

User-generated content (UGC) is key when it comes to brand building and garnering trust among your audience. To this end, G2 states before getting on board with review marketplaces, it is important to revisit your goals and objectives as marketers.

“Demand gen folks, for example, have different goals than product marketers. With a platform like G2, our pipeline-focused customers love our rich integrations, intent data, and reports to fuel their content strategy. On the other hand, product marketers use reviews in grids and reports to fuel their product placement in the market and inform their roadmap.

Think about your own goals and partner with the marketplaces that make the most sense.”

G2

Q12. Now customer journeys have become dynamic, what would be the process of identifying the winner?

Modern consumers access content via a variety of sources, devices and media; and they are bombarded with multiple options and choices. Modern customer journeys have become more dynamic since there is a multitude of pathways between a customer’s first interaction with a brand to the purchase.

Today’s marketers face the challenge of reaching out to customers with a consistent message from all these platforms. Therefore, the process of identifying what works best for you lies in innovating and listening to what your customers want. G2 mentions that UGCs such as customer reviews are a great way to identify how consumers perceive your product.

“Look at their G2 profile! Their customers will speak for them.”
-G2-

Q13. What are the must-do steps for better understanding a B2B target audience?

G2 points out that it is important for the sales and marketing teams to be aligned to internalize the nuances of your ideal customers; understand their designations, pain points, challenges and goals. 

“…Speak their language, serve content that matters and meet them where they’re doing research, engaging in communities and solve challenges unique to them.

Help them find you with great SEM strategies, AdWords campaigns, content and programs to keep them engaged. It’s a journey, not a transaction.”

G2

Marketing and sales are not about targets or revenue, it is about people. It is about letting your audience know that you have a solution that can solve their problems. The better you understand them and their pain points, the more successful you will be in providing solutions that will resonate with them. B2B marketing strategies are all about creative problem-solving.

The COVID-19 pandemic confined us to our homes and compelled us to limit social interactions. It also paved the way for a new trend of digitization where we had to sort for remote collaboration and working methods to fulfil our daily professional and even personal obligations. Education is no exception to this. Schools are increasingly adopting online teaching methods to conduct learning activities.

Creately, together with Whiteboard.chat and SMB Value Partners Inc hosted a Twitter chat to find out effective ways to engage students in a digital learning environment. Given below is what we observed and discussed.

Q1) What is the best way to correctly identify a student’s learning ability during online classes and provide the attention they need?

In order for a lesson to be effective, educators need to identify how students grasp teachings and their learning styles and barriers. Keen observation on the part of the teacher is key in determining how students learn.

In response to a question posed by Creately on the measures a teacher can take when a student needs more attention in a particular area, SMB Value Partners Inc stressed the importance of ensuring that students are engaged with the lesson.

“Pay attention to who is participating and the amount of time they are logged in. Try to ensure there are opportunities to engage – in real-time – by posting a question and requesting an answer within a specific amount of time (are they online, are they paying attention…).”

SMB Value Partners Inc

Q2) What are some techniques to prepare students for the real world through online learning?

Learning isn’t always subject or theory specific. You can also learn by listening to people’s experiences and how they have overcome challenges.

“Have guests participate in your class. People who are actually working in the subject. If it’s a math class, have a guest who is a mathematician in real life or an accountant, as an example. Find someone who is actually being paid to do that work and have them share their story.”

SMB Value Partners Inc

Q3) What are the key factors that make an online course effective?

Making an online study session engaging can be challenging for a teacher given the fact that when compared, classroom learning is more interactive. However, there are ways that can be used to make online courses as effective.

“Measurements. Provide tests/quizzes along the way. Test for comprehension. Even a quick 2-3 question quiz that is unexpected can help you determine learning effectiveness. Also, provide a safe place – an online community – for students to ‘gather’ to support each other.”

SMB Value Partners Inc

In agreement, Creately added that asking your students a few unexpected questions will enable a teacher to gauge the effectiveness of his/her lessons.

Q4) What is the best way to ensure consistent quality during online courses?

It is important to give students the opportunity to look at practical scenarios and use what they learned to navigate through those.

“Have an outline that includes the theory but also practical examples – real-life examples. Also, mix up the lesson formats so it’s not always the same to allow for a variety of learning styles, ensuring the lessons are relatable to as many students as possible.”

SMB Value Partners Inc

Q5) Is online education as effective as face-to-face instruction?

Peer community is an integral part of school education. Not only do we share meaningful friendships with them but also learn from each other. To this end, SMB Value Partners highlighted the importance of having an online community in digitized education.

“It can be almost as effective IF you include an online community in addition to the actual instruction by the teacher. Students who are part of an online community of peers also learn from each other. Have a blended teaching model – online teaching AND a peer student community.”

SMB Value Partners Inc

Q6) What is the best way to track a child’s progress?

How can teachers be sure that their students have grasped what they are learning? This is where progress tracking comes into play. SMB Value Partners shed some light on how this should be practised in the online classroom.

”By testing for comprehension and mitigate when you see a decline in the scores. Children learn differently, some more audio, some more visual, kinetic, etc. Because of these learning style differences, you may need to adjust for specific students with different learning needs.”

SMB Value Partners Inc

When it comes to online learning, there are practical difficulties a teacher may encounter when trying to give special focus to each student and customizing according to their learning abilities. How can this be addressed?

“Teachers should have an understanding of each child’s unique learning styles. Adjust real time if possible, but connect one on one with each student each month to ensure comprehension of the subject is happening.”

SMB Value Partners Inc

Q7) How do schools support social and emotional learning activities to help develop broader life skills?

SMB value partners reiterated how real-life examples can contribute to enhancing the learning experience by helping students understand the practical usage of a particular subject.

“Make efforts to include additional guest instructors who can add value (from the real world) to put that lesson into context. Why is this subject important? Why are we spending time on this subject? How does it matter in the real world? Connects the dots to the practical use of the knowledge.”

SMB Value Partners Inc

Q8) How do schools manage behavioural issues?

Constructive discipline is imperative to the effectiveness of the learning process. However, tackling behavioural issues can be challenging in an online environment where there is no physical interaction and with many uncontrollable factors in play.

To this end, SMB Values Partners suggested that teachers could implement a set of online etiquette to help students get adjusted to learning in an online environment.

“Have ‘rules of engagement/online etiquette’ list. You can consider this a zero-tolerance policy. Quickly review at the beginning of each class to remind/level set the students. If a student misbehaves, stop speaking and address the class as a whole, reminding them of the policy.”

SMB Value Partners Inc

Q9) How do teachers provide effective feedback and how often do they need to?

Teachers need to have an effective communication line in place with the students in addition to the formal online sessions.

“After a few sessions of the class, the teacher should contact that student individually to ‘check-in’. Keep it quick… Hi Tom, this is Ms. Jones. I just wanted to check in with you to see what you’re thinking about our online class. Are you enjoying it? Do you need any help?”

SMB Value Partners Inc

This is a simple yet highly effective exercise to ensure that students are gaining a fruitful learning experience.

Q10) What role should parents play in online teaching?

At school, children follow a timetable or a routine and there is a specific place to learn. As to the role that parents play in online learning, SMP Value Partners stressed that parents should make efforts to create a consistent and quiet learning environment.

“Parents should ensure a consistent, quiet, learning environment. Make sure their child is well-rested and fed before class. Parents should ensure a consistent location – a place where the student sits at the same time each day – a place that is ideally their own. And no phones.”

SMB Value Partners Inc

Q11) How to limit distractions during online classes?

A lesson is only useful if students pay attention. The fewer the distractions are the more conducive the environment will be for focusing and learning.

“Have ‘house rules’. During an online class, no distractions. No phones. Doors to rooms are closed during ‘learning time’ and parents make every effort to minimize distractions, talking, music, TV noise while instruction is in progress. Keep learning time structured and consistent.”

SMB Value Partners Inc

The Pandemic changed our way of life, and education is a big part of that change. Despite the disruptions, mankind’s noble cause of dissemination of knowledge and information must prevail for our society to evolve. The current status quo certainty suggests that online learning is the way forward. So instead of resistance, let’s pave the way for effective change and nurture the future generation as they prepare to take over the baton.

Design Systems Evangelist Nathan Curtis states that “a design system isn’t a project. It is a product, serving products.” Simply put, if your software products or services are your actors, then the design system is your director.

A successful SaaS brand ensures that its brand identity is reflected in every product that is pushed. For this endeavor to be successful, the implementation of a design system is imperative. Otherwise, you risk ending up being the administrator of a lot of scattered products with no consistency.

In this post, we aim to walk you through what a design system is, why you should have one, and the process of creating a great design system that would effectively guide you to tell the story of your brand.

What Are Design Systems?

A design system is a ‘single source of truth’ that combines all components that are utilized by teams to design and develop products. These elements include brand principles, specific color palettes, icon libraries, coding guidelines, shared beliefs and working practices, and more. It is far from a bunch of code snippets and a collection of graphic elements.

What is the difference between a design system and a style guide? 

A style guide is a part of the design system. A style guide will contain information such as the type of fonts and colors to use in addition to editorial practices. However, as mentioned above, a design system is so much more than this. A design system constantly changes as the company and its products evolve.

Why Do You Need a Design System?

Why do renowned brands such as Lonely Planet, Airbnb, and Apple have design systems? What is the difference between brands that use design systems and the ones that don’t? Next time you browse any of their websites or use the apps, pay little attention to the user interfaces. You will be able to notice consistencies between them and see that they reflect the same ethos. Your user experience is way better in that you are directed to exactly what you are looking for.

So how can a design system help make better products? Let’s look at some of the benefits.

Clear the Clutter

Design systems strive to bring together elements that would otherwise work in silos. It introduces a shared vocabulary and common functionalities and creates a set of guidelines on how to incorporate these in UX/UI designing. This means that even if different teams are working on a product, they know what to base their designs on. This will ultimately result in cohesion, consistency, and faster production. This is the secret to designing great products that build trust with users.

Single Source of Truth

We mentioned earlier that a design system combines a variety of elements used in the design process. Since it provides a directive on the basic principles on which a product should be built, there is no need to spend time on multiple platforms searching for the right assets or resources. A design system evolves with the company and the projects it embarks on and can be easily modified depending on the varying requirements of an organization.

Creately is a great tool to create a design system as it allows the centralization of all elements of the design system onto a single canvas. You can maintain a single workspace for style guides, icon libraries, graphic assets, and wireframe tool with embedded links for coding and editorial guidelines. Moreover, these workspaces are easily shareable among team members where they can collaborate in real-time on adding updates and comments.

Cost-Effective and Time-Saving

When a design system is in place, there is less room for confusion. This makes the production cycle faster and more efficient as the designs are more accurate with high-fidelity wireframes. A lot less time is required to test features as the products are designed based on the guidelines of the design system, and most importantly, minimal bugs. Moreover, when products are made according to a design system, maintenance becomes easy and less time-consuming.

Consistency

A design system ensures that a uniform consistency is maintained across the board when it comes to any part of the design process. With a design system, every element of the product is ensured to project a consistent user experience from well-defined and learned behaviors.

Process of Creating Great Design Systems

Earlier we mentioned that a design system is a product serving products. Its fundamental purpose is to enable teams to work with a shared set of values and standards. Hence, when creating a design system, it is important to clearly define ‘who will be using it and why?’. Ideally, a design system should include the following components.

Identify Principles and Shared Values

Identify your goals, and ensure that every team member knows where the project is headed and what the team has set out to achieve. Implement a set of shared team values to inculcate a shared state of mind among collaborators. Make sure that changes in such goals and value systems are clearly communicated. 

It is also important to include design principles under this category as they are the guidelines that direct teams to achieve the true purpose of the product. For instance, rather than designing different components of the product in different styles, the teams can stick to a simpler and minimalist design that is user-friendly. In addition, databases and information sources also come under this component to promote accessibility.

Determine Brand Identity

Your brand identity is how you want your brand to be perceived among its target audience. This includes the color palettes and fonts used, logos and the visual language with which your products or services are marketed. Brand identity plays an important role in maintaining consistency across all products. Prepare a document including the following information,

• Company logo
• Colors of the logo
• Secondary colors used in visual communications (if applicable)
• Primary fonts
• Primary icons

Have a Set of Editorial Guidelines

Editorial Guidelines should include information on the tone and voice of the language used, specific words that need to be highlighted across all products, and marketing materials and standard guidelines on capitalization and punctuation. These ensure that all company communications convey a set of messages that are consistent with the brand identity.

Create a Pattern Library

The pattern library is one of the most important components of the design system. The pattern library consists of standard guidelines for UIs, reference documents, and page template styles. Patterns are essentially instructions on using the standard components in a manner that maintains consistency and cohesion throughout the pages or UIs. This should include technical documents on the guidelines to be followed when designing interfaces, in accordance with the principles and brand identity.

Document Coding Standards

Code is the brain of every application or webpage. It controls the functionality of the product. Hence, it is prudent that teams working on different components of the application follow the same principles when developing them. This may also include information on the compatible browsers and devices, version history, and guidelines on implementing patterns.

Create Products that Win

How successful your product is, primarily depends on user experience and how the audience perceives it. This is why design systems are important to create products that win users. As they bring order into the clutter, they begin narrating the story of your brand and driving the true purpose of your product. This allows users to navigate through the application seamlessly and find exactly what they are looking for.

One of the simplest joys in life is to cross off a completed item from your to-do list as it gives you an amazing sense of accomplishment. In this post, we are going to talk about creative to-do list ideas and ways in which you can visualize them to keep a track of your day-to-day tasks.

How Can a To-Do List Boost Productivity

Procrastination is a hurdle that every one of us is challenged to overcome, and the best tool to tackle it is to make sure that you are on track when it comes to tasks that you are required to complete. There is nothing simpler to track your tasks than a to-do list. It will give you a clear picture of the workload so that you can manage your time efficiently.

Moreover, to-do lists allow you to prioritize tasks and identify unimportant work that can be later worked on. It will ensure that you are focused and making efforts to complete the right amount of work. Ultimately, a crossed-off to-do list will give you the satisfaction of accomplishing what you set out to do at the beginning of your day.

Consider These Things Before Visualizing Your To-Do List

Examine How Your Time Is Spent

Before setting out to plan your to-do list, it is important to evaluate how your time is spent daily. This helps determine what tasks you spend most of your time on. Make a time management plan to include a balance between your personal and professional lives. Don’t forget to add a sufficient amount of breaks to your schedule so that there is time for you to take a rest and recharge before transitioning between tasks. You can even use the timeboxing technique to divide your day into time blocks. Each box is dedicated to a specific activity or group of activities. This way you can gain clarity on how your time is spent throughout the day.

Prioritize Tasks

Tasks on your to-do list should ideally be listed from highest to lowest priority. The Eisenhower Matrix is a proven time management tool that helps you visualize tasks according to priority. This will provide a clear idea of the order in which each job needs to be completed. Prioritizing will lead to better time allocation, thereby allowing you to work more efficiently.

Plan Your Day

Now that you have a clear idea of how your time is spent daily, the next step is coming up with a more effective plan to spend your time. As a saying goes, “the early bird catches the prey,” it is always better to have an early start for the day. This will make sure that you don’t run out of time to do what is important. Most people make the mistake of starting their days late and end up working long hours to complete their work. This prevents you from having quality time for yourself – the time that you could have spent on something enjoyable.

Plan your tomorrow, today and make sure to do it in a manner that allows you to spend your time effectively throughout the day.

You can even take a step ahead and plan your entire week before the week begins. This way your Mondays won’t be manic and you won’t have to face any ‘midweek madnesses’. Creately provides multiple week planner templates for you to get a head start.

How to Visualize Great To-Do Lists

Now that you are all set to begin visualizing your to-do list, let’s walk through the process.

List Tasks According to Priority

We used the Eisenhower Matrix to figure out the high-priority tasks. Refer to the tasks in the matrix and list them according to priority, on your to-do list. You can highlight the highest priority tasks so that they are easily identifiable at a glance. Make sure to add a deadline to each task.

Have Different Lists for Different Work Categories

You may be required to complete tasks belonging to different projects, or they may be professional or personal responsibilities. For instance, planning the next month’s Facebook posts may come under social media tasks, and doing an analysis on your competitors may be a marketing strategy task. So you can have different categories to group tasks.

Moreover, color coding these batches will help easily identify the different categories. Creately’s visual workspace includes multiple color palettes that you can use to create task batches.

Keeping different categories on the to-do list will provide clarity on the workload. This way you won’t get mixed up between tasks.

Use Kanban boards to track progress

A Kanban board is a great way to keep track of the progress you make. The list you created with different categories can be included under ‘to do’ and then moved to ‘in progress’ and ‘done’ lanes as and when you start and complete the work.

What You Do Is Who You Are

When you are productive, you tend to cultivate a positive outlook on life. You feel proud of the contribution you are making and the efforts you put into accomplishing a task. To-do lists help organize yourself effectively. Practicing this strategy will undoubtedly make you successful as it enables you to discover your hidden potential by overcoming procrastination.

However, it is also important to keep in mind that you can’t always control every aspect of your life. So keep in mind that it is okay to occasionally go off the beaten path and go with the flow. Value your time, be productive, and make it your mission to put your efforts into everything that you set out to do.