First, the Far Reach team did a build vs. buy analysis. There are many off-the-shelf SaaS project management tools on the market that can be customized for workflows like Iowa Heartland Habitat’s (Asana, Monday, Teamwork, etc.), so Far Reach analyzed several of them and recommended the most fitting option. We then worked with Iowa Heartland Habitat team members to understand their project workflows, set up each workflow in the tool, and taught the team how to use them.
What’s the best way to learn a project management tool? By creating and working through a “learning” project in the new system, of course. As the Iowa Heartland Habitat team used the system more and more, we worked together to evaluate progress and iterate on refining the system.
Many of the discoveries through this project came from asking the right questions and listening to the Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity team. Implementing a new project management tool can be overwhelming, and many companies experience analysis paralysis. Having an outside partner like Far Reach as a guide helped the implementation happen in a timely manner.