37signals Product Blog

How to use Basecamp to plan a wedding

Outstanding Occasions, an event planning company, recently posted about how to use Basecamp for a wedding business.

1. Client Login: You can create a new project for each client and assign them a login so that you can give them tasks, share timelines and important documents they need to complete or allow them to collaborate on the wedding design. This might work really well for your business and your clients. We actually do NOT use Basecamp in this way for our wedding clients. We DO use this model for our mentorship clients. There are several planners that use this model of Basecamp and actually include the login page on their website. Cynthia Martyn Events and Andria Lewis Events are two wedding planners that do this.

2. Internal Company Use: Another way to use Basecamp is internally for your company (which is nice if you have more than a team of 1.) This is how we use Basecamp for our wedding planning side of our company. It acts as our complete virtual office for Outstanding Occasions. We have a Main Office (which includes our document templates for our company and wedding pro packages and pricing), Mentorship file (where we keep all of our internal documents for the mentorship program), Business Book Library (where the Outstanding team members share their business book reviews of the business books that we all have read), Owners File (where we keep internal documents for Jennifer and I only), and then we create a new project for each new client that we get (but again, we use it internally only and do not share it with our clients.) As stated above, we also have a separate project set-up for each mentorship clients. The mentees are the only clients that we share files with.

In the second part (Basecamp for Wedding Business, Part 2), Outstanding Occasions walks through the actual Basecamp process it uses for wedding planning.

Outstanding Occasions is co-owned by Heather Crabtree (left) and Jennifer Thinnes (right).

Animation company explains how Basecamp helps it keep promises

Switch Video is an animation company that makes videos that “explain what you do.” At the company blog, Andrew Angus explains how Basecamp helps Switch keep its promises.

Having all communications about client projects in a central place keeps our team on track and our clients informed. Basecamp goes a long way in helping us meet our three promises:

1) We will set reasonable timelines and meet them.
We won’t promise what we can’t deliver.

Basecamp Task Manager lets us add tasks, assign them to individual team members, and set deadlines. This helps us lay out the project from start to finish to make sure each project plan is realistic and achievable.

2) We will keep you informed.
It is important to know where things stand, so we will keep you up to date.

In Basecamp, we can send general project-related messages to clients or team members anytime, and they’ll all be together in one place. Instead of replying with a new message (as you would in email), you post a comment to the original message, which keeps everything neatly together in one stream. Or we can even send comments right from the task list as we’re working through the project.

3) We will complete all aspects of the job.
You won’t have to ask twice.

With Basecamp, we don’t lose track of any tasks because we can set up project milestones to see at a quick glance which tasks are coming up – in both calendar and list view. Individual team members can even download calendar items into our individual calendars – cool stuff!

With Basecamp on our side, we’ve proven time and again that it IS possible to deliver brilliant creative work and still be on track, on time and efficient.

How Erskine Design uses Basecamp's To-Do lists to create "The Project Backlog"

Let's flashback to an '09 post by Erskine Design's Jamie Pittock: Project management is easy. In it, he offers some good tips for getting the most out of Basecamp To-Do lists.

The obvious answer to avoiding forgetting things is to write them down. Project related things could be tasks, ideas, requirements, feature requests, websites to look at, something a client’s said: anything at all.

For all of the above we create a to-do list in Basecamp called the Project Backlog: this is where we write everything down that needs to be remembered and isn’t actionable by a specific person in the near future (more on what to do in that case soon).

Some Basecamp specific tips for you:

• empty to-do lists are automatically moved to the completed lists sidebar; to force the list to stay put, even when empty, add a to-do labeled “———————————” at the top of the list;
• add a description to the list and explain its purpose at the start of the project to both project and client teams;
• don’t assign items in this list to anyone; they aren’t actionable yet, so you don’t want them to appear in anyone’s global to-dos yet.

The main thing is to get everyone using it and to not be precious about what goes in there.

There's also a good section on using lists for weekly reviews. Read the full piece.

Cruise company: "All projects, meetings and ideas are now discussed in Basecamp"

Steven Macdonald is E-commerce Manager at Hurtigruten, an international cruise/travel company. The company recently decided to cut down on internal email and use Basecamp and Macdonald discusses the result in "Project Management made easy."

All projects, meetings and ideas are now discussed in Basecamp and are shared between E-Commerce, IT, Reservations, Marketing and Web. Not only are we able to track projects, it also removes the necessity of reporting as the projects provide an overview of progress. Instead of writing up summaries or completing excel sheets; we are now able to link to the project directly.

Karl Philip Lund, Hurtigruten Web team summarized our initial approach with “The secret to getting basecamphq to work in large organizations is to start small. As time goes by, the value becomes very clear.” As online sales increase, the management is becoming more interested in our web activities. We have created accounts for each of the management and they can now view exactly where their budgets are being spent!...

Basecamp allows us to track all of our projects and is the best communication tool we use at Hurtigruten. After each meeting, our action plan now begins with “Create project in basecamp”.

Software developer calls Basecamp "the single most important piece of project management software"

Don Schenck owns the software development company Xceeda, Inc. In Project Management, he discusses how he collaborated with others on a recent project using Basecamp.

Basecamp is, arguably, the single most important piece of project management software ever created.

"Wow, Don ... that's quite a statement!"

Yeah, well, you use Basecamp and you'll become an evangelist as I am.

Basecamp allows all the important parts of a project -- artifacts, messages, schedules, etc. -- to be stored in one place. Any "stakeholder" (BUZZWORD ALERT!) can access the project's information from anywhere: Computer, iPad, phone. Even a Windows-based machine.

(*zing!*)

As you might imagine, the old-school owner of the creating company (NOT me) was opposed to the idea. "We have Microsoft Project" ... "It's in the cloud" ... "We don't have a process in place" ... all the excuses -- and that's all they are -- you would expect.

Nixed. Shot down. Kicked to the curb.

So, like any good self-starter, I purchased my own subscription to Basecamp and started using it.

I invited the client to join my project. They did, immediately, and are already liking it.

Today, while working with an ancillary party (the usability experts), they asked me to make the latest copy of the prototype software available to them.

"No problem. I have an online project management software that I use ..."

"Basecamp?"

"Yeah! How'd you know? Did Kristy tell you?"

"No, I've used it before with _____. It's great."

So, despite the best efforts of the owner, we're using Basecamp, collaborating on this project, communicating and sharing "stuff" via one, central location.

The full piece.

Game design studio calls Basecamp "Project Management Software without equal"

Reality Blurs is a game design studio founded in 2004 by Sean Preston. Recently, Preston offered up his "dirty, little secret" for project management: Basecamp.

I began searching for Project Management Software and I looked at a number of programs which don’t bear mention. Most of them were overly complicated, had too much overhead or not enough, or would not prove worth it in the long run. I could master them. I’ve had to do it in the past, but I couldn’t expect anybody coming on board to have an obstacle in the path of creation. Project Management Software needs to facilitate the work process, not suffocate it...

My quest eventually brought me to Basecamp and I fell in love. This is the online Project Management Software without equal. It allows projects to be set up, workflow templates to be created with lists of to-do items, an excellent messaging system, a way to tag entries, and a great way to upload files (both drafts and art) into their respective projects, and it has a change management system so the various iterations can be centralized in case a file is corrupted or it is necessary to compare or roll back to a previous version. I loved all these features and after giving it a test-spin, I was hooked. The whole team was hooked. It’s easy and intuitive and it resides securely in the cloud, so files can be accessed anywhere, anytime as needed. This last feature alone made us wave good-bye to Dropbox in the rear window. Is it really as good as I’m saying? Yes...

This looks like a paid endorsement, but it’s not. I truly believe in what these guys have come up with. This has enabled us to more rapidly deploy and grow the Reality Blurs brand than any other tool we’ve used. For those who’ve asked how I manage to get things done, and there have been a number of you who’ve emailed me in the past asking how I do it, now you know my dirty, little secret.

Read the full piece.

Digital marketing agency: "Basecamp solved at least 90% of our workflow problems"

Render Positive is a boutique digital marketing agency based in London, specialising in SEO and Social Media. Below, Director Jon Buchan explains why he loves Basecamp.

I discovered Basecamp in 2006 whilst at my first online marketing job in London. It really was a case of love at first click. At the time, I worked at a company where all the management did was drink wine and talk about how they were going to be #1 in the biz! Project management was non-existent and all of the other software out there was too complex for junior staff.

Then we found Basecamp and things fell into place. The staff could actually use it effectively, and the clients really loved it. No more phone calls at 6pm requesting a copy of a report; it's been uploaded to Basecamp. No more harsh emails asking when a deadline is; it's a milestone in Basecamp. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it solved at least 90% of our workflow problems. For the price tag, I think that's extremely impressive.

I've since demanded Basecamp be installed at every company (agency and client side) I've worked with and they've all seen the benefits. When my brother and I first started our own agency, Render Positive, we both insisted that Basecamp was the first system installed. Everyone uses it daily and it's still as much of a joy to use as it ever was.

So my message is clear. Even if you're a new start-up with few employees, Basecamp will help you iron out your project management problems. It's a cost effective and easy to use project management tool. If you’re anything like us, you’ll wonder how you survived without it.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting way? Let us know.

Adult business "getting their 37signals freak on" with Basecamp

Note: This post is adult themed. Dreamstar Cash has been in business for over 8 years now developing and running internal projects focused on the adult market. Below, Rodney Cullen, Operations Manager at Dreamstar Cash, explains how his team uses Basecamp.

For the past 2-3 years we've had a Basecamp account although it was not used extensively. Since discovering 37signals Getting Real book and REWORK, there's a renewed enthusiasm for the platform.

Our developers use a great tool called Rally Dev based on the SCRUM Agile Methodology for tracking development related tasks (User Stories, Defects, Tasks, Releases, Iterations, etc. Basecamp was always shunned as it was considered too simple to be of much use - What? No priority fields? No Resorting? No custom filters?

After having read both Getting Real and REWORK though, all of a sudden this new, simple approach flicked the lightbulb on – this made SO MUCH SENSE! We suddenly found ourselves using Basecamp left, right and center and it has become an invaluable tool for managing even the most obscure aspects of our organization.

Digital agency based in London calls Basecamp a "lifesaver"

Cyber-Duck is a digital agency based in London, specialising in user-experience, software as a service projects, and online marketing. Below, Cyber-Duck's Jerome Botbol explains how the team there uses Basecamp.

We started using Basecamp fully in early 2010 after a short trial period as we were finding that project management was happening in a lot of different places. It made so much sense to centralise this and find a way for everyone to be connected to the projects they needed to be involved in.

We used to find that particularly on large projects, communication through e-mail can leave key people out of the loop when they are not carbon copied. Every large project we take on is now set up on Basecamp before we do anything else. All communication happens through the messaging tool so all project stakeholders are kept up to date with elements of the project affecting them.

Copywriting, images, PDFs and other assets are all uploaded using either Writeboards or through the file upload functionality. This is a brilliant and perhaps underrated feature of Basecamp as it allows all parties to easily see the latest version of client-facing files.

To-Dos are commonly used internally to manage the tasks of each member of our staff. Everyone has their own way of using it, some adding their own tasks and others using it as a primary point of finding out about new tasks before they are fully briefed on them.

Basecamp was a lifesaver when it came to one project in particular. The website production featured a large amount of wildlife photography, all of which needed to be matched up to content. It was impractical for the client to send over physical copies of the files on a disk or hard drive as they are based in Uganda; Basecamp circumvented this problem with file upload and Writeboards functionality. Having these features present in combination with project milestones, messages and To-Dos meant the entire project could be managed from one place.

One method we find of increasing our Basecamp productivity is including levels of priority on our To-Do lists; 1st, 2nd and 3rd. This allows us to ensure items which need to be finished really soon (but don’t have a specific deadline) are completed before tasks that could easily wait a while longer.

The great thing about Basecamp is that its simplicity lends itself incredibly well to giving everyone the ability to create their own way of using it. All members of the Cyber-Duck team have their own tweaks, making it work for them. That’s what makes it unique – simplicity.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting way? Let us know.

SEO firm uses Basecamp to win clients and stay accountable

Matthew Egan is the President of San Antonio Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firm Image Freedom. He wrote to tell us how his team uses Basecamp.

It was December of 2009. I was just one guy, working from home. I was like so many web freelancers, I did a little bit of everything, web design, HTML, "general web marketing" or what have you. I was calling myself an SEO, but when you're poor you don't turn down work right? I wrote to you about a meeting I had where a client signed with us (and I use the term "us" loosely) and said he was convinced about us because we had our own Project Management software through Basecamp. That was enough for him to feel he'd be in the loop and he was convinced.

Here we are now, February of 2011, and we experienced 800% growth comparing our 2010 numbers to 2009. Paid off every dollar of credit card debt I had, every medical bill, and committed not to spend another dollar of "other peoples money". For the first time in my life I brought home a six figure income.

Still every day, we log into Basecamp. My SEO team uses Basecamp to upload records of the backlinks they've built for our clients, and the clients can then log in and see what we're doing. Something we have come to understand is extremely rare in the SEO business. That transparency. Customers want to know what we're doing with their money, so we use Basecamp to get out of their way, to give them a straight path to that data. They love it.

Recently we upgraded Basecamp and begun using it for Time Tracking. It is a tribute to a software that a year after using it, you can start using a new feature and have something that seems so simple and clean suddenly be so much more robust. All of our staff now track their hours in Basecamp, and I myself record all of my activities in Basecamp for my whole team to see. I use Basecamp to be as accountable for my time as I require my team to be.

Visit Image Freedom.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting way? Let us know.