My Crash Course on Monday.com
My First Week Using a Sales-Pipeline CRM & Everything I learned
Hello! I’ll be using this month to learn everything I can about Monday.com, Pipedrive, and Capsule. The following videos and blog posts highlight what I learned in my process and the pros and cons of each software. Check out my weekly progress below!
To see my entire project, click here!
For the start of my self-directed learning process this month I took the first week to learn about Monday.com. It works as a project management tool that helps businesses manage tasks, projects, and teamwork. Monday.com provides you with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) template that helps keep track of clients and project details as well as an all-inclusive organizational tool. CRM’s are highly utilized to automate workflow, provide transparency on projects with employees and clients as well as a communication platform for all members.
After initially downloading the software — I won’t lie — I was a bit overwhelmed by all the information presented to me on the main workspace. I slowly navigated around it and recognized it wasn’t quite as complex as it seemed at the start. I dug in and played around with the different setting options, tabs, and anything I could modify. What I discovered was a super useful and highly customizable tool that I think many businesses should be utilizing. So let’s get into my initial process.
Monday.com Basics
To begin, you choose what type of tasks you want to carefully manage. You can choose from templates like simple tasks, client managing, project management, tracking work progress, and more. Monday.com offers templates for many industries to work with and customize to their needs. I chose a Sales-Pipeline template because I anticipate using one in my future job prospect and hope to get some experience operating the software on my own.
Each template is set up somewhat like an Excel sheet or modernized Gantt chart if you’re familiar. These rows and columns are super customizable and can be edited by dragging and dropping or in their settings at the top of each column or left of each row. You’re able to assign specific team members to particular projects and create automated responses within the chart to save time and streamline work. Every member can see live updates as well as input changes or additional information into the workspace for everyone to see, creating complete transparency amongst the team. This helps large businesses manage complex projects that involve a lot of moving parts and collaboration.
Pros-
- Easy to keep track of communication with clients & employees
- Integration with multiple tools like: Zapier, Trello, Slack, and more
- Templates for quicker setup
- Timeline view to see progress
- Making all communication archivable and searchable
- Time tracking allows users to track time for daily tasks, analyze productivity, and accurately bill clients for work done
Cons-
- Hard to track project goals
- Somewhat cluttered
- No idea management feature
- No free option to software, only a 14-day trial
- Difficult to track expenses
Takeaway
All in all, Monday.com is an essential tool for any growing business. In addition to providing structured data to your clients and team members, it provides a framework for new employees to get started. The capabilities of the software are nearly endless, and utilizing this software will save money and time that can be beneficial in other ways.
