Communication Plan using custom item types
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At my organization we use Wrike for some things, but not for all things. This means on any given project we will have individuals whose abilities in Wrike range from brand-new to adept, daily users. I wanted to create something that made it easier for my team to engage in Wrike. Enter the Communication Plan. This essential custom item type is immediately relevant to my users, and is less intimidating than jumping into the project itself with all the folders, subtasks, etc.
Our Communication Plan is a project custom item type that preloads with all that is needed to establish a good project communication plan. It includes the project team directory for both internal and external contact information, a meeting matrix that details the types of meetings we will hold, recommended cadence and responsibilities, and there is a brief glossary with definitions for roles to help clarify what we are each expected to do.
Each Communication Plan comes equipped with it's own "sub-task" in the form of a task item type we call "Meetings & Notes." The Meetings & Notes are prefilled with a meeting purpose statement to help create your agenda and a reminder to take attendance. After a meeting all notes taken by various users can be nested into the meeting facilitator's notes. We often will schedule these out in advance, so questions that come up between meetings can be added to the agenda for discussion during the next, already-scheduled meeting.
By using item types we have created an environment that is more useful for our team. We have fewer spin-up meetings to answer ad-hoc questions because everyone knows that their concerns won't be lost in the shuffle. We have better attendance because the meetings are more informative and meaningful. We have better engagement in meetings as people have shifted from, "waiting to talk," to, "ready to listen." And lastly, we all have cleaner inboxes as follow-up work is keeping closer to the project in Wrike.
These are just a few of the changes we have already seen! Custom item types for the win!
This is great, thanks a lot for sharing Therese Forsyth 🤗
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Nice! Do you next the Communications Plan item under the corresponding Project or in a folder?
And are the "Weekly Check-in Meeting" type sub-items custom item types as well or tasks?
Michelle Merwin These are great questions!
The Communications Plan always goes under the corresponding project, and is built into our blueprints.
Our team is starting to really see the value in cross tagging, so for example, our marketing team might cross tag whatever information they need into their space. (It might be the whole Comm Plan, it might be an individual meeting, or it might even be a task that was assigned during the meeting.)
To answer your second question, we only created one sub-item type to go under the Communications Plan. This is our "Meetings & Notes" item type. The Weekly Check-in Meeting is an example name for a meeting.
We sometimes add plain tasks under the meetings, and cross tag to whichever part of the project they belong to. There is no reason you couldn't make an item type just for the weekly check-ins!
Let me know if you have any more questions!
(I just got back from vacation, so my brain might have glossed over some things.)
Makes sense to me! I appreciate the response Therese Forsyth