Chris Anderson, General Manager & Principal at full-service web agency Freshout, wrote to tell us what a great job Basecamp does for his team:
Basecamp is hands down the best project management app on the market. We use Basecamp for managing client and internal projects alike, and it's been an amazing tool for storing and organizing conversations, files, milestones, and tasks. From initial kick-off conversations through the design and development phase and quality assurance process, it helps everyone on the project stay on the same page and on track, without getting lost in an endless slew of emails and files.Simply put, Basecamp just works...which is more than I can say for many web apps I've used. Thanks for continuing to enhance such a great application, you guys kick ass!
SF, Philly, and Guadalajara
We asked Chris to give us an in-depth look at how his team uses Basecamp and he wrote up the following:
Freshout is a full-service web agency providing product strategy, design, development, and marketing consultation services – in other words, we build and launch web applications that provide real business results for clients. With offices in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Guadalajara, having streamlined communication among our team is extremely important in our ability to collaborate effectively and deliver finished projects on time.
The Freshout team at work.
From project brief to post-launch
From the initial project brief to the design, development, and QA processes, and onto the rollout and post-launch feature enhancement phases, we use Basecamp for all project correspondence, file sharing, task delegation, milestone management, and time management for each and every project we work on, both internally and for clients. When a new project signs, the first step is always setting up a Basecamp project, adding the team members that will be involved, uploading the initial specs, and posting a message introducing the team to the project.
In addition to the production side of project management that we heavily rely on Basecamp for, we also use it for managing client correspondence. Basecamp is particularly useful during the design process, when iteratively designed wireframes, mockups, icons, and graphics need to be reviewed by clients for approval. We simply start a new Message thread, upload the design assets for the client to review, and the client posts their questions and feedback after a conference call and presentation. This allows for a centralized dialogue about specific stages of the project, which prevents communication bottlenecks from cropping up.
By far the feature that we use most is To-Do’s. Creating, grouping, prioritizing, assigning, and tracking tasks is a piece of cake using To-Do’s. After a Milestone is created, we then assess all of the individual tasks that need to be done to complete the Milestone and assign them as To-Do’s to the team members responsible for the work. Once all To-Do’s are posted for a Milestone, we take a step back and prioritize them using the drag-and-drop interface so the team knows what’s important to tackle first. We’ve created a standardized syntax for To-Do’s so that they’re easier to review, and we frequently post comments under To-Do’s to add more information about the task. The syntax is essentially “Page/Section > Sub-section/Module: Specific Task or Bug” – for example, a To-Do may look something like “Home Page > Blog Feed: Change Date Format to MM-DD-YY”. When a task is complete, the team member posts a comment like “Done, please review”, and after the project manager reviews the completed task and verifies it’s been done correctly, the To-Do is checked off the list.
A standardized syntax for To-Do makes them easier to review.
Basecamp as life-saver
Where Basecamp has been a real life-saver is whenever a discrepancy arises either between the project team or with a client regarding a miscommunication. We finished a 9-month project a few months ago, and towards the end of the development phase there were a few misunderstandings about a certain feature. Through searching Basecamp messages and files, we were able to quickly identify how the misunderstanding arose and then resolved it, as opposed to having to dig through countless email strings and sorting through meeting notes to find the resolution.
Before we started using Basecamp, we did an exhaustive assessment of all of the web-based project management applications on the market. Everything was either too feature-heavy or wasn’t relevant at all to our project management needs. Basecamp was simple to understand and use right away, and required practically no training at all. Since we started using Basecamp over three years ago, we haven’t had the inclination to switch to a different system once.
Searching through Basecamp beats digging through email strings and meeting notes.
Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.
