Streamlining Project Management: A Case Study on MeUndies

MeUndies is a company that prioritizes comfort, killer designs, charity, and efficient workflows. They are known for their sustainably sourced, naturally soft materials for super-comfortable underwear. They are also dedicated to creating fair paying and empowering jobs. They have different teams, each with their preferred project management tools. The Customer Experience team prefers Asana, while the Dev team uses Pivotal Tracker. The company is always looking for ways to improve their efficiency and streamline their workflows.

MeUndies, a company known for its comfortable underwear and sustainable business practices, faced a significant challenge in managing projects across different teams. Each team had its preferred project management tools, leading to a disjointed and inefficient workflow. The Customer Experience team preferred Asana, while the Dev team used Pivotal Tracker. This led to a situation where requests were initiated and communicated in Asana, then duplicated in Pivotal Tracker, requiring updates in both systems. This was not a sustainable workflow, especially for a lean team aiming to maximize their time efficiency. The challenge was to find a way to integrate these tools and reduce the amount of times someone has to communicate something, thereby improving overall efficiency.

Vicky Tatar, Director of Project Management at MeUndies, found a solution in Zapier, an app automation tool. With Zapier, Vicky was able to build a few Zaps, which served as a bridge between Asana and Pivotal Tracker, effectively cutting the work of the Dev and Customer Experience teams in half. A project in Asana for Customer Experience requests was created, which included bug reports and features. A template task for new requests was built, which the Customer Experience rep duplicates, fills in the necessary details, and then uses the tagging feature to import it into Pivotal Tracker. To ensure smooth communication, a link back to the Asana task was included in the Zap so the Dev team could comment on the project status. Vicky also built out the reverse, sending Pivotal's Stories to Asana as new tasks so the Dev team could share their projects with the Customer Experience team.

• The integration of Asana and Pivotal Tracker through Zapier has significantly improved the workflow at MeUndies. It has consolidated all requests, saving the Dev team time from answering one-off messages about a request. The status of each request is visible to everyone, and can be communicated back to the Customer Experience team quickly via a link, eliminating the need for the team to search for the request to get an update. The reverse process, where Pivotal's Stories are sent to Asana as new tasks, allows the Dev team to share their projects with the Customer Experience team. This transparency means a quick check-in Asana by the Customer Experience team could stop an issue from being unnecessarily escalated. The solution has also allowed for quick experimentation with new Zaps, further enhancing the efficiency of the team.

• Cut the work of the Dev and Customer Experience teams in half

• Reduced the amount of times someone has to communicate something

• Enabled quick setup of new Zaps within an hour