Google Workspace Kanban Board Options Used in Teams
Finding a way to work together as a team is one of the key objectives of many businesses now, so can the use of a Google Workspace Kanban board help in this respect? By understanding how Google Workspace operates and what a Kanban board offers, we can see how teams should look to use these tools wisely.
What Is Google Workspace?
Google Workspace is a suite of tools that allows us to share documents and collaborate with colleagues more easily. It is very easy to start on and lets you do things like organize meetings and send emails without having to leave the document you are currently working on.
Team members can easily access their company’s domain-branded email and share an unlimited amount of documents on Google Drive in this way. Naturally, this means that many of the tasks on any project Google Workspace can cover.
This option is particularly useful among geographically dispersed teams that need to work closely together. It is popular among different industries after its launch in late 2020.
How Can Google Workspace Be Used for Project Management?
This option can be a great help for teams that work together on any size of the project. Good communication and document sharing are crucial for making sure that everyone is on the same page.
The Google suite gives teams the chance to work together at all times, no matter what they are doing and where they are. A good starting point for this tool is by setting up a group covering the project team you want to share documents and tasks with.
Google Sheets is an example of a tool that many people will be instantly familiar with, as it is very similar to Excel. In this way, you can analyse and visualize data in a way that you are already comfortable with.
With the calendar, you can quickly attach documents to a meeting invite. It makes it a lot easier to get everyone up to date on what you want to talk about. Hangouts is the Google conferencing tool that allows you to get together with colleagues even at short notice for video meetings that are mobile-optimised.
What Is the Kanban Methodology?
The Kanban methodology is a way of managing a team’s workflow that has become hugely popular across the planet in the last few years. It was first created in the 1940s in Japan, with a simple, manual process that allowed teams to track their work as it moved through the different stages.
Modern technology has allowed us to move away from the traditional approach of putting sticky notes onto a whiteboard to do this. Now, we can do this online using slick tools that make it easy for everyone in the team to track where each task is currently sitting.
In terms of project work, the Kanban methodology can be a terrific way of visualizing the workflow of your project. It allows you to work with a greater degree of transparency at all times. This will also give you a chance to identify and correct any areas where a bottleneck has formed.
Ultimately, using a Kanban board in a project is a fine way of getting the team to collaborate more effectively than would otherwise be the case. Everyone can see what needs and how their own tasks affect others in the team, letting them a better grasp of the big picture at all times.
The Lack of a Kanban Board in Google Workspace
So far we have seen that Google Workspace can be a powerful tool in project management. Kanban board can also be extremely effective in helping you to run your projects in a better way. Therefore, it is somewhat disappointing to learn that there is no Google Workspace Kanban board automatically included.
Indeed, the Google suite of tools lacks any sort of project workflow or management app. This makes it more difficult for project teams to make the most of both of these ways of working. Some of them decide to create a workaround by using Google tools like Tasks and Keep to try and keep their tasks under control.
Yet, this isn’t the perfect solution, as you would be using certain tools in ways that they weren’t designed for. Another idea is to use a project workflow tool that isn’t integrated with Workspace. This gives your team the benefit of the Kanban approach. But the problem is that the lack of integration will create manual workarounds.
This method might work for a short period. Particularly if it is for a relatively small project team where everyone works in the same location. However, the limitations caused by working like this mean that it will probably eventually become too awkward for the team to use.
Increase Productivity and Team Collaboration with an Integrated Solution
Thankfully, there is a way of using a Google Workspace Kanban board that integrates with the existing tools. This is called Kanbanchi, and it is a comprehensive project management app that everyone can use even if they work in different locations.
It is a tool that includes a full Kanban board and has an interface that works perfectly with the Google design, meaning that it is easy for newcomers to pick up and start using right away without any sort of steep learning curve.
Kanbanchi’s integration with Google Drive makes it simple for you to share documents in this way. The Google Calendar integration allows you to set up future tasks simply. It is also worth noting that you can attach Google files to the board, to keep everything neatly in one place.
Using a Kanban tool that is not integrated with Google Workspace could turn out to be a waste of time. It will negate the benefits of using this methodology. This is where the integrated Google Workspace Kanban board solution provided by Kanbanchi gives you the chance to get the full benefits of working with both Workspace and a professional Kanban board.