Blueprints for Beginners ๐
Mostrato in altoHey Wrike Community!
Let's talk about Blueprints! ๐๏ธ
We know many of you are using Wrike's Blueprints to streamline your workflows and save time. At the same time, some of you may just be starting with Wrike and need a little help getting started.ย
If you have experience with Blueprints, we'd love to hear your insights!
๐ What's your favorite Blueprint tip or trick?
๐ Have you created any custom Blueprints that have been game-changers for your team?
๐ Any creative ways you've used Blueprints that others might not have thought of?
Share your wisdom in the comments below! Your tip could be just what another Community member needs to take their Wrike game to the next level.
If you are a Wrike newbie, feel free to ask if you have any questions on Blueprints too ๐
Don't forget to check out other comments too - you might discover a new Blueprint hack that revolutionizes your workflow! ๐
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
For Blueprints, location (Global or Space level) is very important. This determines who can use and manage it.
๐ What's your favorite Blueprint tip or trick?
When making major/large changes to any of my blueprints, I always duplicate the blue print, modify it, then test it prior to using it and deleting the old one.ย
Sharing some tips that I found especially helpful :)
๐Blueprint Organization with Folders
Before even getting started with creating blueprints, make sure your Blueprint section is organized with Folders! This will help you tremendously to keep your blueprints organize by department, team, user, etc. - however your team is organized based on its size!ย
For us, we've created folders per sub-team, so our blueprint Folder structure looks something like:
That way, we know that when we need to edit X blueprint, we can easily find it by navigating to the blueprint Folder for that team!ย
Something else that we've done was creating another folder at the above level called "z_Request Form blueprints":
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๐ย Blueprint search
Did you know that if you are in your Blueprints section of Wrike, you can use the text-based search function to look specifically within Blueprints?
This has been really helpful in helping locate blueprints quickly if we know them by name, however that means that it's extra important to name your blueprints something obvious!ย
You can also search for anything other than Blueprints in the search bar by toggling to the right option!
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Happy Blueprint-ing! ๐๏ธ
Thanks for starting this discussion!
It may already be standard practice for others, but one of the best uses of Wrike blueprints for our organization has been to consistently initialize the content of tasks or projects resulting from Wrike request forms. That way the resulting item's description includes what's needed for the standard stages of - for example - a product backlog request. Then our product owners and others helping evaluate and/or implement the item have built-in prompts aligned with our common expectations (like user story, technical solution, testing and deployment details, and follow-up documentation and communications).
Kendra's response above is huge! I can't stress enough to duplicate before making changes. You're editing the main source of truth, so you want to be sure before saving.
Also, pay attention to where you're saving your Blueprint. You'll save yourself the panic of thinking all your hard work has been lost :)
I also recommend sharing blueprints that you create with others! It's super helpful when members of my team are able to set up their own tasks based on blueprints that I have shared with them.ย
Do not make the blueprint too complicate. Nlueprints offer the possibility to make complex projects with details.
We have seen that we have similar projects but in details they are different. So the blueprints give a basic guideline. In the beginning we made the to much detailed. That generated useless work by eleminating tasks.
Our team loves blueprints and uses them often. My biggest tips are:
I want to echo Sven here. Don't overcomplicate the blueprints. It gets overwhelming if you try to get every single little task or item you have and that reduces the customizable nature of these tools. I like to just build blue prints with the essential, non-negotiable steps, then encourage folks to build around it once deployed.
We are using blueprints simply to capture the key critical tasks that are common throughout every project, this helps ensure that we are consistent across the organization.
I use blueprints for 90% of the projects we manage as an agency. To create the best blueprints, before working in Wrike, I define the ideal process and design it with Whimsical, a very useful software, especially for Waterfall projects.
After mapping out the various activities, I proceed to define for each:
At this point, I prepare:
Only now can I start preparing the blueprint. I start from the Table View and then organize the timelines and dependencies in the Gantt View. If necessary, I also prepare the addition of custom fields directly in the table. I pre-assign tasks to work groups to be quicker when launching a new project and assigning tasks to identified people.
Sometimes, there are 2 different groups of activities (e.g., Basic or Advanced). The process is identical but for 5 different activities. Then I create a custom field called "TYPE" where I insert "Basic or Advanced" and when launching the blueprint, knowing which type was sold, I delete the unnecessary one. I avoid having 2 blueprints to maintain but I have some deletions to make.
We use blueprints in conjunction with custom item types and request forms to make sure that tasks coming into our account are set up exactly as they should be from the get-go. That way we don't have to waste time reviewing tasks before they can be worked.
We use Wrike blueprints to save time and improve consistency in our project management processes. Using blueprints ensures that all our projects are well-organized and follow best practices.
With this in mind, we've created a library of blueprints tailored to specific project areas while maintaining consistency with our core project template's key tasks and milestones. For example, a Food & Beverage project would have different tasks and stakeholders than an Information Security project.
We use Blueprints to create all of our projects. We have a request form that uses our blueprint as our process is repetitive.
Blueprints by default get saved at Account level, make sure to review the settings as to where the blueprints are placed. Additionally, creating group of folders for similar blueprints may be helpful
๐ Have you created any custom Blueprints that have been game-changers for your team?
We have for our seperate Projects, different Blueprints in various languages. We utilize them by generating them via Form
๐ Have you created any custom Blueprints that have been game-changers for your team?
We use blueprints connected to request forms to help streamline facility and operations management (i.e. requests for maintenance, equipment, office supplies, meetings, employee onboarding/offboarding, event planning, etc.) as well as client-facing forms for advanced shipment notices and special projects.ย
My advice is to create blueprints even if you're not sure if it's the best approach to that use case, there's no better way to master it then puting to use and learn with the real day to day use and feedback.
I do not make the blueprints, but I am part of a team that will use the Gnatt Chart to alter things every day.ย We are a Group that would be @XXXXX and then we would use the Gnatt chart to alter the information that is on the Information tab.ย
We've found that anything historically saved as a "template" make a perfect use case for a Wrike Blueprint. For example, instead of an Excel spreadsheet RAID log, we've got a RAID Blueprint with Risk, Assumption, Issue, Decision CITs. The table view has the same look and feel as a spreadsheet with 100x the functionality. Slowly, all our spreadsheets have been moving to Wrike and Blueprints helps keep us aligned.
I wrote a sample here for how we use our bluerprints -- https://help.wrike.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/21833214182423-Blueprints-Dashboards
Remember - Data in your custom fields is KEY!!
We couldn't live without blueprints. We utilize the request form to create new projects and depending on project type, it will then pick the appropriate blueprint. We have almost 200 task in our onboarding blueprint. We also use custom fields as custom item types within our blueprint. Remember ... you can also change them! It won't change existing projects but it will help with those moving forward.
Blueprints are tied to custom project types and our intake/request form to generate the correct project type depending on the level of support our team is being requested to provide. This includes:
- PM led projects (which may or may not also have a Change Manager assigned)
- Change Manager only projects (where someone in the business is doing the PM support)
- Consultative only support (we are providing guidance, tools, training, but no PM/CM support)
- Workshop facilitation and planning
This allows us to ensure the correct processes, playbooks, and checklists along with relevant data points (custom fields/statuses) are being provided to the owner of the project and elevating the team's opportunity for success and providing stakeholders consistent experiences when working with us. It also helps reduce the amount of unnecessary work across our portfolio since each project type/blueprint is streamlined to only what is needed/relevant in that circumstance.
By keeping our blueprints available at account level, we are also able to use them across multiple Spaces and share them with stakeholders for whom we may be providing consultative support so everyone benefits even if they're not part of our team or portfolio.
We plan to use Blueprints to align with our Request forms and implement automation to reduce redundant actions. Blueprints will help keep our team working consistently.