Whether you like to click around and explore apps on your own, or you prefer getting a ready-made tailored system, this episode is for you. Today, we're breaking down the three paths to getting started with a productivity tool like Nozbe that will instantly boost your team's productivity. There is no right or wrong answer. All three paths are great. The question is, which one is for you? Let's dive in and let us know in the comments below. And to help me digest this and go through all these three paths, there is Magda. Hello, Magda.
Hello, everyone. This is No Office podcast number 94. And here we are. Um yeah, discussing the ways of introducing and implementing a new tool. It's always a big challenge. It's always a change. Um and it depends on several conditions. For sure, it's the organization size. Yes, if the organization is huge, the implementation will be much more difficult. Um also, it depends on tool complexity. So, if we are going to talk about Nozbe, Nozbe is pretty simple. So, this is our cone.
It is our sales pitch. Like, Nozbe is simple to use, easy to use. It has lots of advanced features once you start digging into it, but initially, the whole idea is that Nozbe is very simple and easy to use. There is the straightforward structure of projects, tasks, and details and comments. So, this is it.
Yeah, but also there are things like how the new tool, no matter if it's simple or complex, influences our business processes. How what will be the impact? If there will be a lot of changes, a lot of updates necessary, or it will go smoothly and won't be too much of fuss. Then, also the users' readiness, yeah? Whether your team members are ready, are they tech-savvy, whether they are not afraid of changing things and updating and developing and checking out, or maybe they are really afraid of introducing new things. Maybe they really stick to their old habits, no matter if they are good habits or bad habits, and they won't let you and they will get stiff and they will maybe not even consciously, but they will somehow spoil the development.
Yeah, I mean, we've had, you know, over the last 19 years that we've been running Nozbe, we have had many customers and we have, you know, usually smaller companies, small companies, busy professionals, solopreneurs. But, we also have some bigger companies and sometimes it goes like this that, you know, the leader, the boss imposes the tool on them. And then they are not receptive, or they are receptive, you know, it depends. But, sometimes it goes the other way around. The leader chooses Nozbe, implements Nozbe, and later he thinks like, 'Ah, maybe we should try something else.' And then the people in the team are like, 'No, no, no, no, no, we already got the hang of it. We like it. We want to use it. No, no, you will not take it away from us.' So, it's you know, we've seen it all basically.
Yeah, that's true. Um and apart from those conditions that I listed, there is also the way we implement. And apart from the kind of tools that we will show you and the methods, there are kind of approaches that leaders, managers, companies can take. And one of the approach is the crazy one. It's called Big Bang and that means that we just all users, we start using the same tool at the same time. We are all in it. We are talking about it on the corridors in the open space. This is our main topic. Everyone is either happy or unhappy, but this is the thing that's now going on in our company. Uh there is another approach. Um calmer. Just divide it into phases and these phases can be um you know, it's like which parts of the company starts to be put into a tool or which departments, which groups of people go first. And also there is I think something that is called like pilot implementation and only selected teams, for example, a manager and his assistant and maybe one more person they are starting off and slowly, slowly they're adding up more employees. So, whatever you choose, it's okay. It just has to be everyone should be involved.
Yes. I mean, this is why for example, we've changed a little bit the business model from the Nozbe Classic to the new Nozbe that will allow not only three active projects, but also three people on the team. So, we thought about, you know, the situation where you, your business partner, and maybe your assistant, you want to start first using us before free, you know, with the three first three projects, and then you start using it, you're like, 'Ah, we like it.' and then you upgrade, and then you invite some other people. And I'm showing this precisely how it works on the main Nozbe website. If you go to nozbe.com, you can see the my video of starting Nozbe in 5 minutes or less. And then with a timer, you know, with stopwatch, um basically, I show you how to sign up for Nozbe, get your first projects, get your first tasks, invite your first people, and start working together. So, this is like the smallest approach, the easiest approach that you don't pay anything, you go with the free plan for a few moments to start with your team, and then you upgrade, and you go with the whole team.
Mhm. Yeah. So, this is kind of the beginning of what we want to tell you. This is the path number one. Path number one is just you you decide to do it by yourself. It's a like DIY implementation.
Yeah. It's this moment where like it's this is like the majority of our customers. Majority of our customers go to nozbe.com, they've been referred to it, somebody mentioned Nozbe, or they seen an ad, or whatever, and um or they've seen me showing off in some podcast or something, and they're like, 'Ah, let's see what Michael is up to.' and they go to nozbe.com, and they sign up by themselves, and they discover the app by themselves. Maybe they watched the 5-minute video I mentioned. Maybe they watched a video tutorial. Maybe they go also to our help page, but basically, from nozbe.com, they sign up on their own, they figured it out on their own, and then they figure out also how to start setting up Nozbe for their business, for their processes, for everything. And this is good for tinkerers, for people who just prefer to do it on their pace, who are not in a rush to set up the system, who don't need quick implementation or ready-made solutions. They want to try it themselves. And it's great. Yet, I would still advise you that even though you're this kind of person, you like to set it up yourself and tinker by yourself, I would still advise you after a few moments with Nozbe setting it up and trying to configure it for yourself and for your team or for your company, then later reach out to nozbe.com/demo to book a demo with Magda. Just as a just additional consult. What do you think?
Mhm. Yeah, I think in this approach you should be pretty sure of your team, that they are ready and that they actually won't really hinder your ideas and spoil everything and have this kind of rebellion in themselves. But um yeah, once you created your account, once you invited the people who you want to start off with, it's great if you schedule a consult with me because I can show you the tool from my expertise and from the point of view of me talking a lot with different companies and various organizations. Um it's great if you schedule the consult once you visited the application a little bit. Like you maybe set it up, yes, but also clicked and maybe your employees they tried a project, they already know what's the task, they already more or less are aware of what are the details of the task. It's much more practical because if I mention some words like project, like tag, and then they don't really know what it means, it won't be so productive and efficient. Uh so it's better to schedule a call with me once you more or less know how to navigate through the application because it's great to use me to set up the first structure, to figure out together what should be a project in your company, what tags you could create to boost your productivity in a team. I can also show you already some first steps to templates, to automations, to integrations. Uh so I think it's better to use me for this second step after you do the first step yourself and get to know the application.
I'm always whenever I'm talking about your demo sessions with customers, I'm always telling them that this kind of demo session is for them to tell you how they work, to tell you how they see such a tool in their lives and in their professional lives above all. And you can translate from their language to Nozbe language. So in that sense that when you say, you know, we need to set up this project for this client to, you know for this and that and you already see okay so this would be a template this would be a section this would be a project like you can already translate what they're saying to Nozbe language because you've been through that before many many times with the customers.
Yes and also yeah the vocabulary we had to use designing our UX we had to choose some words and sometimes these words are not so obvious. When we say project some people associate this word to some corporate level projects complicated procedures and then I say why would I need projects if I work in finance or in technical support. We don't do any projects. So then I just want to make sure that everyone on a team is aware that a project doesn't have to be the common stereotypical project. It might be just a folder a container for tasks which are somehow related and which can lead you to achieving a goal or to organize some aspect of your business. It's the same with a task yeah? Sometimes people it's what Michael always says that leaders they feel awkward by letting their employees creating tasks for them delegating something for them yeah? A task is not something that it's not an order. It can be a query. It can be just some referral material that you put in a project as a task for future reference. It can be a query for feedback. Yeah it can be the please boss give me feedback. It is kind of conversation. It's just a structure of work. The vehicle for work. It's not something related to hierarchy. Uh so also that's the deal and that's what you could use me for even though you go for DIY Nozbe implementation.
Yeah. Uh yeah, because there is like the this um sometimes people think that the words we chose like project, task, and comment are literally these things and these things only. And project can be as you mentioned the list, you know, a container. Like one of the things I mentioned in the 5-minute video is I create a project called marketing, which is not a project that will end ever because if you are doing marketing, there will be always tasks in project marketing because marketing is not a project. It's more like a folder for tasks related to marketing. Um yeah, it's more like a folder, exactly. So task is the same as you said mentioned for feedback or or comment can be note or journal, basically. You know, we use comments also as journal. Like when I do something I work on something I write I add a comment to myself. So I already did this. I'm working on this and I stopped at that and then maybe next time I'll focus on that part. And then I save it as a comment. Uh and probably this comment will not be read by anyone else, but just by me. But when I come back to this task later, I will have read this comment and I'll be like, 'Okay, okay. So I stopped there. I can continue, right?' So a comment can be a journal, a note, and much more. So that's why you can translate this to people when they sign up for a demo so they can understand that Nozbe being so simple and using these simple words like project, task, and comment is very versatile and very flexible and can accommodate just like we have tags which can be used for so many things. So, it's a very versatile system, very flexible system to many businesses and that's why it's our curse and our blessing that we have customers from all these industries using Nozbe. On one hand, it's a curse because we cannot sell to one industry, you know, Nozbe is just for lawyers and nobody else. And because it follows the law nomenclature, you know, no, Nozbe is for everyone because we have agencies, we have marketing agencies, we have real estate, doctors, yes, clinics, universities, we have everyone using Nozbe because they can accommodate this simple structure to their very complex system. And making a complex system simple is one of our core benefits of Nozbe. Making a complex system simple simplifies the system and simplifies the execution.
Yeah, I think Nozbe can be like some kind of like scaffolding for your workload. Yes, we just give you those projects so that you can put the whole flow that's like a river and it's crazy and chaotic just to put them in folders, in containers. Yes. We don't Nozbe doesn't influence your work structure, your maybe structure, yes, but it doesn't spoil anything. It just helps, it just supports and as I said, it's kind of scaffolding for the whole workload. Um also, it's very important if you go for your own, to remember about the social agreement that is really necessary when you introduce a new tool and when you introduce a change in your business processes. Because, along with a tool, you have to make some rules how to use this tool. And, it's great if, yes, along with Nozbe account, you tell people how we are going to work with it. Yes, that, what are projects, what we are going to treat as project, who can delegate tasks to whom, what about deadlines, how we should write comments, when to write a comment, when to mention someone. That these are the four or five important points that should be tackled as well along with introducing a new system.
Yes, uh, you know, one of the things from for me, which are important, we always repeat to the leaders, once you start using Nozbe, stop using email at all and WhatsApp and all these communicators. Tell people, everyone, you know, to reach out, you have to create a task for me or mention me in a task or send me a message through Nozbe. Because it's really That's it.
Yes, from our from our expertise, this is the most effective way. Just give Nozbe or other tool a chance by letting go other messengers, chats, other tools that you used to use before for communication.
Mhm. just dive deep and let Nozbe be your main core tool. And then you see.
Simply just simply, you know, Nozbe is exclusive for now. And that's it. And we use if somebody sends you a message through different channels, you tell them, 'Please create task for me with this.' Or please copy and paste this message to Nozbe. And that's it. So, this way they will learn that next time they should do it like this. I remember it took me a while when I hired my father as our CFO, as our financial officer, that he was used to messaging me. And I was like, And then he would message me, 'Michael, but you haven't done that for me.' And I'm like, 'No, I haven't because there was no task about this.' And he was like, 'Oh, man.' So, I was making it his fault because he wouldn't put it in the task. And I was like, 'If it's not there, I'm not going to do it because I do tasks in Nozbe. I give you feedback in Nozbe.' So, he learned it the hard way.
Yes, but now he's the best Nozbe user. He's so consistent. He follows the rules. Yes, if he replies, he always delegates back the task. Just collaborating with him in Nozbe is perfect. He never forgets any of the rules of good Nozbe communication. Good Nozbe citizen.
So, again, this was the first path. This is the path of DIY. So, you set up your own account. You invite your first people to Nozbe, you discovered yourself, you set it up yourself according to your business needs. You have the time to do it. It takes time to figure it out. Also, you might in that case, after a while schedule a demo with Magda to really make sure that you're doing it right. Yes, I'm really ready to support you and you can use me. And the downside of this path is that you don't have someone above you who will control you, who will stop you from pushing it back, from postponing, from letting go because it's easier. If you are doing it yourself, you say, 'Okay, this time I will send her an email.' Or 'Okay, I will accept that they now have a meeting about it instead of documented in Nozbe.'
