How Working In Sprints Is Improving Productivity In Our Organisation
Basingstoke Voluntary Action’s Business Development Officer Charlotte and our lovely team member Helena have come together to work on their first ‘Sprint’ for their project with Catalyst. The project aims to help charities face digital challenges head on and grow their confidence in digital working. Here’s what Charlotte had to say on the topic:
During our time on the continuation programme we will look at website development, customer relationships and how to effectively connect with our audience. In order to achieve our goals within our timeframe we will need to work efficiently and collaboratively. Working at two different organisations and having different commitments can make this difficult but the programme has introduced us to a way of working that is allowing us to hit targets along the way.
The method is called working in ‘sprints’. A sprint is a short, set period when a team works to reach a chosen goal. We are currently dividing our time into two-week sprints which gives us multiple opportunities during the project to evaluate our goals and be realistic on what we are able to achieve.
When looking at our first two weeks we knew immediately that there would be a good chunk of ‘setting up’ to get the ball rolling on this piece of work. To make sure everyone involved knows the current status of the project we are planning these sprints in Trello. A free online project management tool where we have been able to allocate tasks for each other and set deadlines within our sprint.
In the next two weeks we plan on taking a look at the user feedback of our website and making sure all the changes are implemented. We will then take a look at our customer journey as they engage with our services and evaluate whether the current website layout compliments this. The goal is to meet the customer’s needs by having an effective website that guides them easily through any information they would require and allows them to contact us, hassle free, before leaving the site. The website would therefore be deemed ‘effective’ if we can reach potential leads through our contact form and begin building authentic relationships and eventual customers.
During our first two-week sprint we will also have regular meetings with Catalyst as well as our digital partner for the project, We Are Open. They are our mentor through this project, providing us with guidance and support so that we have a successful digital journey. They recently shared some great resources with us about how to start a sprint, you can read it here: Start a Sprint