Sketch My Project: a visual representation of your project management

A visual project management method using Klaxoon’s Board

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, when we say "Sketch my project," what do we mean? What Klaxoon offers you with this template is a project management method based on a real visual management whiteboard. It goes far beyond managing your project by simply dividing tasks by theme, department or workstation.

On Board, each participant can work on all project components visually and in one place. The use of photos, drawings, shapes, colors, texts or links to other visual documents adds a highly dynamic aspect to project follow-up meetings, and clarifies progress and tasks in progress at a glance. It allows you to visualize information in a clever way and in one place (following the "online data visualization" method).

Instead of keeping your sketchbook, personal notes, graphics and other project-related creations to yourself, share all these ideas in one place with your team. The whiteboard is collaborative and scalable and thus comes at the service of your project while allowing you to move forward, as a team, in a synchronized and innovative way.

Agile visual management is the door to the Future of Work

When we talk about the Future of Work, we immediately think of societal and technological trends that would be about to influence your organization and your projects.

Teamwork, remote work, team meetings, management and project management in a broad sense are all impacted by this new culture of change and innovation. Not only do you have to ride the wave to stay in the competitive game, but this also requires a great capacity to adapt. That's why Klaxoon offers tools to help you be agile enough to make these transformations. This Sketch My Project template is one of them, among many other available agile project management methods.

The Future of Work puts technical skills at the center of your projects, but above all human skills:

• Problem-solving
• Emotional intelligence
• Relational intelligence
• Individuality
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All of these are now assets to successfully complete all your projects. And visual management offers your team members great freedom and autonomy in their participation, which is reflected in the Sketch My Project template through the infinity of shapes their ideas can take. The potential of creative people is better developed within your team, and the most extravert as the most introvert can find new ways to express themselves and connect within the group.

In addition, these new project management methods, whether being more about personal progress or teamwork, add a playful aspect and a lot of fun to the time spent working on your project. Efficiency and fun, that's also the future of work!

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Benefits for both project managers and team members

Of course, this new visual management tool promises effective results for all your projects, but it also offers an attractive and stimulating process for all participants.

You will see your stumbling blocks progressively disappear in favor of new ideas. The whiteboard stimulates the creativity and reactivity of all your project stakeholders, and makes room for everyone's differentiated approaches. This way, you find innovative solutions that you might not have thought of with a simple brainstorming session.

Moreover, working in a team in a more playful way increases motivation and the desire to give your best. The members of your project team will appreciate the fact that they are participating in a co-creation.

One place for centralized, participatory project management

The Sketch My Project template combines the flexibility to create and share with another crucial benefit: it can be used both synchronously and asynchronously.

Your team can make progress during yourproject meetings, live and collaboratively, and even use the Question tool to directly ask each other anything about your ongoing issues. Decision-making is made easier, even when working from home. And since your Board remains accessible at all times and gathers all the information on the project's progress in one place, your team members can also work on it on their own, outside of meetings.

This way, the whiteboard stays up to date and everyone participates, according to their availability. Sketch My Project saves you time and makes it easier to manage your project.

How to use the Sketch My Project template

Launching an agile and creative project

Since the creation of your visual management board is collaborative, start by inviting your team members on your Board. You can use Klaxoon's built-in invitation function and enter the participants' email addresses, or copy the link generated when launching your whiteboard, and paste it into an email or message sent to the team members of your choice.

As with every Klaxoon Board, each participant can place and move his or her own ideas if you allow it, as soon as thre Board is shared. What's more, not everything needs to be defined before you start "drawing"; let yourself be inspired by the contributions of others.

When your teamwork begins to pay off and you create a visual representation of your project that you like, remember that you can disable the option to move drawings, images and shapes by simply clicking the "Move" button. You have the option to "freeze" or move all elements separately:

• Your ideas
• The ideas of others
• Visual elements

This way, you can choose to keep a visual framework and continue to move your project forward on this visual basis, co-created by your whole team.

Freedom is still the best project management tool

Let's start! Alone at the beginning, or directly in team, start to materialize your project. A new product to launch? A project logo to create? A trade show plan to prepare? The Sketch My Project template can be adapted to any situation and to any type of project, because you are the ones who gives it shape.

Familiarize yourself with your Board! Start by materializing your project in the center by giving it a name and assigning all the necessary elements to this idea (logo, plan, link to a demo video, etc.). Right next to it, the Medias & documents area allows you to include everything that will be useful to you as you go along, according to the activities related to your project.

When you work on a project, you need to put down your ideas, formulate proposals, take note of exchanges, sketch out solutions, etc. And sometimes, words are not the best way to communicate. That's why Klaxoon offers you the possibility to participate in all your projects in a more visual way. Never again miss a brilliant idea or a solution to a problem that got stuck in an endless meeting around a table. Thanks to the visual management of the Sketch My Project template and its great flexibility, you'll be able to bring out innovative ideas with ease.

Choose broad themes, topics or work components and use the whiteboard's tools to make them easy to see and recognize for everyone. The space is completely flexible. Forget about long and laborious project management, and get inspired by everything that will influence your project and make it move forward. For example, easily integrate to your whiteboard some of the following:

• A task planning calendar
• Your sources of inspiration
• The sequence of steps until the project is completed
• The media you are using
• Any other type of document

To allow all the participants to find their way around at a glance, use shapes to structure the space. For example, choose a color code by person, by department or by type of idea. This is what we call agile visual management, and it proved to be very effective.

Ideal for express projects as well as for long-term marathons, the Sketch My Project template's space is infinite. Our advice? Make sure you have enough room in a circle around the central area, because you're bound to have a lot of ideas and information to share!

Fun and flexibility, the keys to agile project management

What better way to move a project forward than to combine real unifying events, such as meetings or project catch-ups, with the freedom given to each team member to work when he or she wishes?

During your project follow-up meetings, everyone can place themselves wherever they want on your Board: they can stay in their own area of expertise, or play collectively and also participate in the part of others. It's a time for all team members to see what has moved forward between two project catch-ups, and communicate together in one place to move the project forward to the next step.

Thanks to the Sketch My Project template, everyone gets the space they need to get things done. The result? At a glance, the team has an overview of the project, information is shared continuously and it is easier to coordinate your upcoming actions.

By sharing all the information and documents on the whiteboard on a daily basis, and outside of meetings, so that everyone has access to them, you can set up a really efficient teamwork, while respecting the individuality and work/life balance of each person.

In addition, you can use the Question tool to ask for an opinion or for the help of your entire team, or to have a word with one specific person involved. For example, in the case where you have just received a quote for a specific stage of the project, all you need to do is link the document on the whiteboard, and ask your team for their feedback.

Are you stuck on an element, or are you missing some important information before launching an order? Ask the person concerned directly on the template, by adding their name or email address under the Question. This way, you can work as a team or on your own, ask each other questions, decide on issues, make your decisions faster and move the project forward, even between your synchronous project catch-ups.

Intuitive, visual and flexible: it's no wonder that the Sketch My Project template is a favorite among the Klaxoon user community! The visual representation of your project management plan adds energy and fun into your projects, while meeting a real need expressed by the Future of Work. Thanks to the Sketch My Project template and the thousand possibilities of Board, you can move forward more quickly, both together and on your own, and above all, have a lot of fun while managing your projects.