Using Tasks to Get Work Done in CubeTree

We launched a new feature this week with group tasks, that when combined with personal tasks in CubeTree, gives you the tools to do project management for groups and create your own to-do lists. Tasks are a great way to track work and using them in CubeTree helps get your project assignments out of email--where they often get lost--and into a collaboration platform that will help you get work done.

Email is excellent for passing information to people, but it is not ideal for collaborating. Trying to collaborate on work in email leads to broad CC distribution lists, lengthy email chains, lost content and general confusion about what work is actually happening or needs to be done. If you're like us you've had the experience of missing deadlines and due dates because emails get lost in an email box as they get pushed off the bottom of the screen. Email just isn't specialized enough to be an efficient way of communicating and tracking time sensitive work items. You need another place to keep all those tasks and the conversations about them; since you're already collaborating on work in CubeTree, it's a logical next step to use tasks there to create action items. CubeTree lets you collect all your tasks in one place and then use email to notify people of the work assigned to them without relying on email to be the repository.

Using tasks in CubeTree helps you get work done and makes email work better for you. Creating a task will generate a notification in the assignees follow feed and will also generate an email notification that they've received a new task. With the task in their CubeTree profile, the assignee doesn't have to rely solely on email to find and remember it. If a task does go 'past due' they'll receive a 'balloon' reminder on their next log-in that can take them right to the overdue tasks. You can choose to assign tasks to yourself or to other co-workers.

When you create a task in CubeTree it is associated with the work that is being done. A task can be associated with an individual, a group or even a feed item. Like other items in CubeTree, tasks can be followed by multiple people. So even if a task isn't assigned to you, you can choose to follow it and receive updates in your feed on any progress. You can even recommend that someone else follow a task.

There's a lot of power in the task feature and it's really set up to help you get work done on CubeTree and share it with the others you are collaborating with. When you create a task you can not only provide a detailed description you can also attach a link or document that's relevant. Tasks have status: Open, In Progress, Stalled or Closed, so that members following it can stay informed on progress. You can also add labels or tags to your tasks to help you organize and sort them. You can create your own labels or select from a library of existing labels inside your organization to keep you in sync with your co-workers.

CubeTree tasks enable team members to clearly articulate work that needs to get done, assign ownership, organize and monitor status, all with a light weight, easy-to-use interface.