Blog

EOS Begins…

Once Solspace took the leap in late 2022 and started using EOS® processes and systematizing the daily work of running the company, we quickly realized that we needed better structural support for project management, logging hours, and making the process of invoicing and reporting budget status better for us individually and collectively. It was important for effective management, but also important for maintaining our discipline...and our sanity.

Friction

As we got deeper into EOS®, we continued to wrestle with the details of our new work processes. Our development and client services team had started using Jira, but we all were only thinking of it as a project management tool. Solspace’s managers continued to feel the friction, having trouble keeping all of this new EOS® activity and process documented, shared, managed, and organized overall. We didn’t have a good way to see what our colleagues were working on, and tracking everyone’s details began to be a burden as we scrambled to pull together reports for our weekly management meeting and update our management team scorecard. We needed a shared tool that wouldn’t create additional work, was straightforward and practical, served all departments equally well, and was highly compatible with EOS®.

The Jira Solution

And then came the collective “AHA!” moment. We realized that Jira had everything we needed! While it felt like extra work at first to put everything in place and agree on how we’d use it individually and as a team, things moved forward quickly and successfully. We created Jira boards for each department, one for our management team to track our collective leadership goals and tasks, and additional boards to manage specific workflows such as Marketing Content, Podcast Production, Website Updates, and Sales. Once we built and populated all of the boards, we could see everything that was happening across the company, who was responsible for each task, and how much progress had been made. And we could see where we were going!

Why It Works

Who would have thought? Jira's worked out even better than we’d hoped, with lots of features that blend perfectly with the EOS® system:

• Customizable Workflows: Jira lets users create and customize workflows so we can configure them specifically to support EOS® for each department and the company overall, as well as specific projects.
• Agile Project Management: Agile methodologies are a key component of the EOS® system.
• Task tracking and prioritization: Jira allows teams to create and track tasks, prioritize them, and assign them to team members, which maps directly to the EOS® system.
• Collaboration and Communication: Jira provides a centralized platform for team members to keep coordinated with organizational goals while staying transparent and accountable to each other with their individual/department goals. This aligns with the principles of accountability and communication in EOS®.
• Reporting and data analysis: Jira provides a variety of reports and data analysis tools that allow teams to track progress and measure success, which is important in the EOS® system where regular progress check-ins and accountability are key.

Ready To Roll!

We already liked Jira lots, but now we’re all in. Jira’s integration with EOS® is nearly flawless, friction is nearly non-existent in the process, and the tools allow for easy scaling and a great user experience. A lot of people are using Jira for projects. We're taking it to the next level with EOS®.