Basecamp Review, Use & Tips

There are number of tips and best practices you should consider when using Basecamp, the omni-present online project management software from 37signals. Here are my top 5 tips for effectively using the application:

Best Practice #1 – Teach Your Audience

Whether it’s your team members, contractors, or clients using the system, make sure they understand how to use and navigate Basecamp. We like to take 15-30min explianing to each new client how to use our project management software and when and why to use it. We go through the system with them step by step, showing them how to add messages and files. A complete understanding of the system allows new people to be comfortable and increases the likelihood that they will use the system and follow your process. You do have a process don’t you! In the end taking a few minutes in the beginning will save you hours of communication time in the end. Basecamp’s simple navigation, and use of only a few, very important tools allows even the most novice computer user can get comfortable with. The storage of messages ensures complete communication throughout a project, and the use of the file storage and uploading tools means you don’t have to show clients seperate file sharing software. Sure, there are some great tools available (visit this blog featuring the Best Online Files Sharing Services including: Box.net, Drop.io, Windows Live SkyDrive and Foldershare), but why bother adding an additional tool, and cost, when you can have everything in one neat, easy to use application?

Best Practice #2 – Input All Contact Information

Right off the bat make sure your client’s information and all of your employees and contractor’s information is inputted and is kept accurate and up-to-date. It is very frustrating when you are trying to get ahold of someone and their old phone is inputted in the system. Making sure all contact information is up-to-date ensures that when emergencies happen, and someone needs to be contacted, they can be. Basecamp is also a great tool for marketing. Exporting your customer and partner data can be done quickly for mailings and enewsletters. Having accurate timely information ensures that your marketing efforts aren’t in vein or fall upon non-existent, out-dated inboxes.

Best Practice #3 – Stay Organized

Staying organized within Basecamp or any online project management app will differ depend on your organization and your process. One of the reasons we love Basecamp is because it is very open, allowing you to mold it and your use to how you need to do business. Regardless, stay organized! In part this means keeping your contact information up-to-date, but more than that it means organizing your projects underneath their corresponding companies. If you have multiple small projects underneath one client make sure to add a new project. At first it may be tempting to just throw everything under one roof, but breaking out projects will make your project process more smooth down the road and help you more easily retrieve data and pickup where you left off in the future. Additionally, staying organized in this way allows you to more easily track INTERNAL BUSINESS PROJECTS with Basecamp.   Simply add your own company as a client and add projects under this in order to track internal projects.

Within each individual project I can’t say enough about staying organized when it comes to to-dos and milestones. Use milestones. You may be tempted to simply through to-dos out there and assign to your team, but this does them no good as there is no date associated with them (unless noted). Milestones help you remember what is due and when (even sending you an email before the due date) and helps your team stay on track.

Best Practice #4 – Track  Your Time

This is the single most important business element I hope to communicate. Basecamp’s time tracking system is very system, but it tells a lot. Tracking your time and making sure your team tracks its time helps you realize your gains/losses on a project, it helps you predict the cost (time, money, and resources) of future projects, and realize in general where your company is at. Our company has found employee utilization to max out at approximately 70%. So, for example, you have a typical employee, using and working on projects through Basecamp. If they work a 40 hour work week, they should log about 28 hours in Basecamp. 28 is 70% of 40. The remaining 30% is for breaks, downtime, communication (meetings, in office talking, etc.). Once an employee reaches 70% it is time to get another if you have work flowing in. If an employee is not logging 70% it’s time to start asking questions:

• Do we have enough work?
• Is he/she slacking?
• Is he/she not logging time correctly?

Finally, time tracking has very real long-term business tracking results. Much like the employee use outlined above you can also use it to track your clients. This last fiscal year (2008) for example, we compared our total time per client over the total revenue per client. What was revealed was that in a lot of cases we spent much more time than was billed for particular clients. It has also helped us pinpoint our most profitable products/services.

Best Practice #5 – Document Everything

Finally, swooping back around to something that was mentioned in Best Practice #1 document everything! This mostly has to do with messages. After coaching your clients on how to use the system, encourage them to send messages through the system, and not directly through conventional email. Basecamp’s nice email reply simplicity works like this, a user posts a message, sending it to others on the project, that message is logged in Basecamp. Those users all get an email notification, if they reply via email (any system or client) that message is logged to Basecamp and then Basecamp re-sends a notification automatically with the message to all of the other members. Almost exactly like normal email, just logged. This means that ANYTIME IN THE FUTURE ANYONE CAN RETRIEVE THE CONVERSATION. This will help tremendously if someone is out due to illness, family issues, or simply leaves. Although it may be a bit of a hurdle in the beginning clients will appreciate the fact that you actually do have a process and that process WILL save you time and money down the road!

Additionally, if a client fails to send a message through Basecamp, and chooses instead to email you directly simply re-post in Basecamp, it only takes a few seconds, saves space in your email box, and ensures that the message is retrievable down the road.

Those are my 5 best practices. If you keep this in mind when using your own Project Management Application, or Basecamp, you will experience simpler projects and greater understanding of your business. If you have any tips or best practices of your own feel free to comment.