Efficient Project Management With Basecamp For Tech Startups and SMBs

Do you have problems communicating in the office with colleagues and collaborating on projects? Finding it difficult to sort out files because of information scattered all over the place after meetings and brainstorming sessions? Have your clients been on your neck about deleting their files after a project? What about managing timelines for yours & the client’s team? Have you lost track of changes to design or development because the feedback was scattered across various tools? Well, weep no more! We found a way to make these problems all go away with Basecamp. Come with us and let’s show you how!

An efficient project management system is essential to driving your business success. Especially if your organization deals with client projects on a regular basis. There are many ways project management tools increase team collaboration and productivity. Today we will focus on our in-house project management tool “Basecamp”.

Basecamp is a project management tool that makes us more productive and organized. We have fewer meetings because team members can receive automatic updates on project progress. It’s helped us communicate better as a team and increases our efficiency on all sides.

There are a number of features on Basecamp that improves our daily check-ins and allows every team member to see what their colleagues have on their plate. This improves collaboration on projects, assignments & deadline management.

Basecamp offers you some great features for improving your project management. Be it for product design, apps development or general software development projects. We’ve loved it and we think you would find it beneficial too. Here are some of the things you can do:

Team Collaboration

If you are a startup, Basecamp allows for better team collaboration. Why? It has direct messaging and chat streams that allow you to speak with anyone in the office without restrictions. You can simply message one or multiple persons within your organization to form a group chat if you’re looking to have a discussion. You do not need a separate app like Slack to chat paying for a different project management tool to handle projects. You can do all these on Basecamp.

Project managers and team members have the option to set tasks for colleagues, add deadlines and include extra information about the task. The need to call teammates for discussions about work to be done reduces drastically. You simply create a task, add timelines and all necessary info and teammates are notified. Organizational leaders can manage the project, the team’s workload, identify great performers/slackers, discover those with too much on their plate, and help those struggling with certain tasks. All in one place.

There is increased visibility across the entire organization. No one is in the dark. Everyone stays on the same page and work doesn’t get duplicated due to a lack of communication. You can easily see a team member’s board for what they’ve been up to and what they’re working on every time.

Storage and File Sharing

Have you ever had to go through several files and folders to look for a report or document you stored months or weeks back? With Basecamp, you have no such issues. You no longer chase after teammates to find saved files on the office pc. Basecamp solves this problem by incorporating file sharing and storage within the software. Every project includes a space to share documents, files, and images. Since everyone on the project has access, people will know exactly where to find everything and you no longer have to spend time looking for project files and documents.

It allows you to also link to files from other storage platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox, Box & One Drive. You get to arrange files in folders according to access controls. Files you want the client to see and those that are private to just you and your team.

Accountability for Tasks and Goals

Each member of your project team can set goals, milestones, and deadlines. Either for themselves or their colleagues. You as a project manager or business owner can track those deadlines as can your team.

For every task/goal/milestone that you set, you can make notes, ask questions, and collaborate about targets. Reducing the amount of time you spend in meetings and discussions. This allows team leads to stay on top of issues. There’s a constant stream of notifications about tasks/goals completed & those whose deadlines have been missed. You get a fancy progress hill-chart that shows the progress made on a day to day basis.

Availability On App Store

In today’s technology driven world, busy professionals need a project management app they can use on the go and Basecamp is just perfect. You get both iOS and Android apps. You can easily stay in touch with teammates and collaborate on projects, even when you’re out of the office. The mobile apps allow you the same access to all the projects which you get with the desktop app.

Client Collaboration

Definitely one of the best features on Basecamp is adding clients to projects as you work on them. The good thing about this is, YOU ARE IN TOTAL CONTROL. You choose what documents your clients can or can’t access. You do not worry about clients seeing private conversations within the team when working on a project with the client on board. Everything is clearly labeled, so nobody is confused about who can see what.

When using Basecamp, you can avoid disputes by keeping central, official versions of entire conversations. When you present work with Basecamp, your team sees exactly what the client said, you can follow up with revised questions and responses, and the entire thread is captured on a single page. It’s always clear who said what, so disputes disappear. You can update clients and have them respond and this also helps you avoid those long email threads that can be created when working on a project going back and forth with clients.

Assign Tasks To Clients

As shown in the screenshot below, you can assign tasks to clients when collaborating on projects with them. Create the tasks, assign them to the client, include a deadline and any further information that is essential. They’ll get notified about the request, and automatic reminders when it’s due soon or overdue.

File Sharing With Clients

Basecamp allows files to be shared on projects when working with clients. Once work is underway, you can begin sharing files with clients to update them on progress and get feedback. You can put restrictions on different documents to ensure the right people have access to specific folders. Clients can also upload documents on this page for you to review so you have everything concerning your project in one space.

As a company, using Basecamp to manage projects makes things seamlessly smooth and streamlined. The flow when collaborating with clients is amazing and it makes working fun. Basecamp keeps both sides organized and keeps everyone’s feedback on the record. Tasks, approvals, files, deadlines, and project communications are kept safe and centralized.

Check-In Questions

As a team or project lead, Basecamp saves you a lot of time following up on each and everyone working on a project. The check-ins feature allows you to ask team questions on a regular basis, and all responses are received and easy to digest. With this feature, you can

• ask questions daily, weekly, or monthly
• ask the whole team or specific people
• pick the time of day you want to ask
• comment directly on individual answers

These are the ways Basecamp has helped us improve our project management efficiency. It used to be terrible. Information flying all over the place, from emails to Slack to personal messages and what have you. With Basecamp, we’ve centralized all our communications, schedules & documents. Which are usually the biggest challenges in project management.

Some bonus features we didn’t mention but you’ll find useful are the calendar & email forwards. Which allows you to create meetings & sync them with your preferred calendar as well as forward email threads directly into projects for improved communication respectively. You can trial run Basecamp to see if you’ll see better progress on your projects.

Which tools are you currently using for project management? Are they working? Let us know in the comments.

If you’re looking for a tool to begin project management with or have in mind to improve the efficiency of your project management system, you can visit the basecamp site and read more about the app. You can also read about their signature Shape Up method here.

Written by Ian Frank Hutchful — SEO & Content Writer