Alexander Ferguson
A lot of us have experienced the challenge of sharing lots of links or documents, staying organized in virtual meetings, and feeling connected with your team when everyone is remote. Can we solve these technological challenges with yet more technology?
Tech for a New Workplace
New solutions are popping up to solve very specific problems we face in our work-life or maybe problems we didn’t even realize existed—or didn’t exist until more recently because of the sudden need for all to work remotely!
In this article, we’re going to cover three common problems we face and the apps we’ve come across to potentially solve them. They all have a free, tiered plan. Many of the CEOs of these companies have been interviewed on UpTech Report (links are posted in the description), so check those out if you want to learn more about the people behind them. None of them paid for this feature.
Problem 1: The sharing quandary
Have a group of documents/videos/links you want to share with someone? Maybe a potential customer in a marketing campaign, a new client during onboarding, or employees or volunteers walking them through a specific set of information. This is a frequent occurrence in all our work lives. You’ve likely puzzled over myriad options—uploading them to a shared Dropbox, placing them on a file server, or even just emailing them. All solutions have their downsides.
That’s why we got excited about Journey.io.
Journey gives you the ability to create a custom experience by simply embedding videos, documents, slideshows, scheduling links, and almost any other web item if it supports an iframe embed (and most do).
We’re using it for lead gen, sales follow ups, onboarding, and more. We love its versatility. Currently, the only way to get Journey is to join the wait list, but go sign up and tell them we sent you.
Problem 2: The meeting morass
Conducting ineffective meetings? Have tons of daily meetings every week? Are you as organized as you could be? Do you stay on schedule? Do you make sure you’ve set good action items and follow-ups? There are reasons why meetings are often not the most exciting part of the workday. But meetings can be great.
We’ve tried two different apps to improve meetings, and they both have their place.
First up is Docket (dockethq.com). Easily connect the app to your calendar and then add agendas, meeting purpose, time, length, and see past meetings. You can assign tasks and mark decisions. Docket also has a nifty Zoom plugin they’ve recently added.
The second app is Hugo. This app also easily syncs with your calendar to add agendas, purposes, and action items. They also have a neat chrome extension so you can see your meeting dashboard when you open a new tab.
Both have free plans, so go try them out for yourself.
Problem 3: Breaking out of the breakout room
If you’ve been feeling disconnected or isolated when the whole team works remote, you’re just living in modern times. There’s something to be said for the flexibility of remote work, but sometimes we can feel lonely. If you’re curious who’s available, what others are up to, miss that feeling of the office “hum” of activity and being able to just drop in and chat with someone else, there is a solution.
LoopTeam aims to bring the workplace back to remote work. If you use Slack, you’ll notice several similarities (though they also do integrate with Slack). Their AI pays attention to what you’re doing, updating a general status so others know if you’re available, busy or in “focused” mode. Jump into an audio or video meeting quickly without sending meeting links. It even can add keywords to your meeting discussion, so others online can see what you’re discussing (if you choose) so if they want to jump in and join, they can, creating that “watercooler” culture, virtually.
We would probably only recommend this if you and your team are fairly tech savvy and enjoy trying new things, as a few rough edges remain. But the app has great potential.
There you have it—a few Work Apps to solve some of those common work challenges. What challenges are you facing and would love solved? Leave a comment below and let us know.
TRANSCRIPTION
DISCLAIMER: Below is an AI generated transcript. There could be a few typos but it should be at least 90% accurate. Watch video or listen to the podcast for the full experience!
Alexander Ferguson
I feel like a lot of us experienced some of these very common work challenges, having to share a lot of links and documents with someone and you want them to go through it all and not be confused, being able to stay organized in all of our many virtual meetings, and feeling connected with your team when everyone is working remote. The question is, can we solve these challenges with technology? That’s we’re going to talk about in this episode.
Alexander Ferguson
Welcome to UpTech Report. I’m Alexander and this is a special episode today that’s focused on work apps, there are new solutions popping up to solve very specific problems that we face in our work life. Or maybe problems we didn’t even realize existed or didn’t exist until this recent big push to remote work. In this video, I’m going to cover three common problems that we face, and the apps that I’ve come across to potentially solve those, all of them have a free tier plan.
That’s always good, right? I’ve actually interviewed the CEOs of several these Previously on UpTech Report, you can find the links to those in the description below. So check those out if you want to learn more about the people behind the company. But just to confirm, none of them paid me to endorse me to make this video, I just think they’re interesting solutions. So let’s get started. Problem.
Number one, you have a group of documents, videos, links, that you want to share with someone, maybe it’s a potential customer in a marketing campaign, a new client during onboarding, or employee or volunteer walking them through a very specific set of information. I feel like this is a very normal occurrence in our work lives today, especially online. You know, maybe you’ve used like Google Docs, like I did just put them all on a Google Doc, but it’s not very nice, engaging, can be confusing.
That’s why I got excited about our first app today. journey.io. It provides an ability to create a custom experience by simply embedding videos, documents, slideshows, scheduling links, and almost anything on the web, if it supports iframe embed, and most do, we’re exploring right now using it for lead gen sales follow ups, onboarding and more. The reason why I like it so much is how versatile it is. And it’s not difficult to use. You don’t have to know any coding or anything. Currently, they’re still on a waitlist, technically, but just go sign up. Tell him I sent you.
Problem number two, are we always conducting very efficient or and effective meetings? If you’re like me, you probably have tons of meetings every week, every day. The question I asked myself is am I always as organized as I could be? Do I stay on time? Do I make sure that we set good action items and follow ups? Yeah, there are a lot of problems with meetings, especially when they’ve gone virtual.
So I’ve actually tried two different apps to solve this. And I believe there’s probably even more out there. I think it’s about finding one that best fits your workflow. The first app up is docket, you can easily connect this to your calendar, then add agendas, meeting purpose, time length, see past meetings, assigned tasks, Mark decisions.
They also have a nifty zoom plugin that they’ve added recently. The second app is Hugo. Also, it easily syncs with your calendar can add agendas, purpose and action items. They also have a neat Chrome extension. So you can see your meeting dashboard when you open a new tab. Both of these, again, have free plans. So the best thing is just go try them out for yourself.
Problem number three, do you feel disconnected or isolated when your whole team works remote, there’s definitely something to be said for the flexibility of remote work. But sometimes we can feel lonely. And maybe you’re curious who’s available or what they’re up to or feeling of that office hum of activity, hearing those conversations around you that you might want to jump in and join or be able just drop in and chat with someone when you have an idea.
That’s the premise that this next app blue team is assuming we feel and looking to address. I feel like some out there there who are introverts might feel differently, though and are just fine without being around other people. But let’s assume for a moment that that is a problem. If you use Slack, there are several similarities, though they actually do integrate with slack themselves. Their algorithm, their AI pays attention to what you’re doing, and updates a general status so others know if you’re available, or busy or in focus mode.
It’s more than just connecting with your calendar, it actually pays attention to which app that you’re in and connected to. You also allows you to jump into an audio or video meeting very quickly without having to send meeting links or create them. You can also add keywords to your meeting discussion so others online can see what you’re talking about if you choose. So if they want to jump in and join, they can. It kind of recreates that watercooler type of environment virtually. I probably only recommend this if you and your team are fairly tech savvy and enjoy trying new things. Still a few rough edges but has potential there you
Alexander Ferguson
A few work apps to hopefully solve some of those common network challenges. What challenges are you facing and would love to solve? Leave a comment below and let me know maybe I’ll make a part two to this topic. And don’t forget to subscribe and check out our other video episodes and interviews as we talk to innovative tech leaders solving problems with the latest technology. I’ll see you on the next episode.
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