Executive management with Favro
Favro is a desktop and mobile app for organizing and collaborating around anything. It comes with tools that let anyone, from small groups to large “team-of-teams” organizations, plan and track their work just the way they think about it. But, as Executive Managing Assistant Kirsti Wennberg shows, those tools can be really useful in a “team of one” where you would otherwise have a hard time keeping everything structured in an understandable way. We sat down with Kirsti to explore how she uses Favro to organize all her information, and never lose a thing.
Kirsti Wennberg joined Hansoft in 2011, and is the Executive Managing Assistant to CEO Patric Palm. In addition to handling the day-to-day responsibilities of the CEO’s office, she runs several projects and handles a lot of external communication, while also doing research. “A typical day for me is a mix of large and small tasks, some of them urgent and others more long-term. I have to be very dynamic; the pace can change quickly, and that’s when things can get misplaced.”
The biggest challenge of Kirsti’s work is how to keep such a diverse cache of information organized. “I take notes in meetings and then must remember where I put the information — was it in notebook A or C? Did we make that decision in an e-mail, or was it during a lunch meeting?” This is where Favro helps. “I can structure everything the way I visualize my style of organization. Favro does not force me to work the way someone else might organize which is a huge plus since we all don’t think or structure the exact same way.”
Avoiding confusion is vital. “The sky’s the limit on how many ideas you have,” Kirsti says, “however, I don’t put every single note or task into Favro, that wouldn’t work. I still use notebooks, sticky notes and my trusty old printer. It’s the information that I need accessible later, or a project I will work on over the next couple of weeks, that ends up in Favro.” For example, I need to order lunch for the board meeting, I know there are several people on the board who have food allergies or preferences. This information can be stored in Favro so when I need to find these details or pass it along to someone else who might order lunch for the board, this information can be found in a matter of seconds.”
Once something ends up on the agenda, it goes into one of the many backlogs Kirsti has set up. “I’m very careful to not mix apples and oranges,” Kirsti says. “My backlogs all have their specific subject, like a particular event or project I’m working on. The way Favro always shows the origin of a card means I don’t get confused about whether “order food” is for a board meeting or the office Christmas party.”
But cards are nothing without proper execution. When a card is turned into a task, it goes on one of Kirsti’s boards. “I just have three columns; To Do, Doing and Done or I might categorize it for conferences, by date or maybe by location. I find that the simpler I make my boards, the more likely I am to update my work as the day goes on, and nothing gets lost.” Even here, Kirsti keeps related things together. “I have boards for conferences, investor relations and marketing initiatives. It’s not enough to track my tasks individually, I also need to quickly assess how much work is left on a given project. Since I can create as many boards as I want, that becomes very easy.”
Kirsti’s “conferences” board, with columns to represent blocks of months in a year
And then, there’s the “Urgent” board. This sits at the top of Kirsti’s screen, and it always takes top priority. “If I put anything on there, it needs to be dealt with right away. If I have a busy day, that’s the only board I look at in the morning. Everything else will have to wait.”
The “Urgent” board where Kirsti tracks all her must-do items
For calmer days, Kirsti’s “research” lists is invaluable. “I use this when reviewing articles that might be of interest, or when I find something that might benefit our company. For example, I work with the marketing department and I must find out which journalists would be most relevant for us to speak with. When I find an article, I save the link to the article in a card, I tag it with the article title, who wrote it, and any contact information I might need in the future.” And then there’s those invaluable little nuggets, like what brand of office pens people tend to like, or which hotels we prefer in different cities. “I have looked up my fair share of hotels and feel I am quite the expert now! I make a card for each city where I book the most hotels so I don’t need to research this over and over again.”
