Tools and Practices for Your Next UI UX Sprint

Often times clients have requested us to lead their project planning prior to starting a software mission. It's essential that you allocate the right tools, practices and people prior to starting. Here are the tools that we use:

Project Management Software

The first tool that we use is Basecamp. Basecamp is a project management tool used by teams to plan, track, and release software products. It is also a great tool for managing user stories and requirements. We find it extremely helpful in tracking progress and keeping everyone accountable.

Now that doesn't mean that other project management software doesn't do the trick such as Jira, Linear, etc, we've just found that Basecamp it's simpler to use.

To-Do Lists

Now it's crucial that in any software you use you have 3 different types of to-dos:

1. For today
2. For the week
3. For the month

Ideally, you want these lists to be checkboxes that notify other people once the tasks are done.

Most importantly you want to assign deadlines to everything, no matter how unpredictable to finish the task is.

Some people also have a separate lists of low, medium and high priority tasks but I feel these tasks lists are inefficient however, a list of objectives, short, medium and long term can be helpful.

Structure the team

The biggest mistake we've seen is having everyone doing everything. You need to have:

One team leader

One decision maker

One project manager

When presenting designs of prototypes, unless you are a subject matter expert or a decision maker you shouldn't be part of the meeting, too many design opinions create massive inefficiences and delays.

Meetings

I'm sure you've heard tons of times that large meetings groups are highly inefficient and I definetly agree.

Yeah okay once in a while, if you have a fully remote team, you can summon the entire team to make announcements but multiple meetings a week with 100% of your team is a waste of time and usually nothing is documented.

Documentation

Another great tool we've used in several projects is Notion. Notion is an all-in-one workspace for notes, docs, wikis, and to-do lists. It's great for team collaboration and helps with keeping track of tasks.

There are many other alternatives such as Google Docs, Evernote, and Confluence but we've found that Notion is the most user-friendly.

Notion allows you to save the eternal narratives that a Google Docs makes you go through so take advantage of the ability to nest and create separate pages in Notion.

Brainstorming

FigmaJam is probably one of the best tools out there to throw ideas around and brainstorm. Every now and then we've used the classic whiteboard and marker.

A few tips when brainstorming:

1. Bring Post Notes just in case
2. Time your brainstorming sessions
3. If using the whiteboard remember to take photos of the session
4. Write and make everyone aware of the objective of the session.

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