There are an infinite number of tools, apps, plug-ins and websites that enable more efficient, collaborative and tight-knit remote teams. Some are entirely focused on a specific sector, others are more industry-agnostic. We compiled a list of the tech tools we here at Cosmic Centaurs use each and every day in the hope that your team might be inspired to check them out too!
Accounting - Zoho [Books]
At Cosmic Centaurs, Zoho Books is our go-to accounting tool. We can’t speak to the remaining applications within the full suite, but Zoho Books has been a real game-changer for us. From creating invoices, to tracking payments, this platform has everything we need to manage our accounts and we think your startup or SME will feel the same way, too.
Project Management - Trello
For small teams with a simple process, Trello is the ideal project management tool. At first glance, you can see various ‘boards’ and monitor what's been accomplished, what's being worked on and who is working on what. It is one of the simplest ways to keep track of tasks and progress. We update our board every morning during our daily standup and it’s our one source of truth for priorities and ongoing work.
Collaboration - Pinup
If your team misses coming together for a brainstorming or ideation session, Pinup is the tool for you. This efficient online "post-it" board allows you to design a board, create individual copies for each team member, and copy their "post-its" onto a main board when they're ready. Pinup offers the closest thing to a group brainstorming session. Of course being a tool for virtual meetings means you will have to put a little more process into the meeting itself, by providing a clear framework for ideation and sharing.
Team Building - Donut
‘Watercooler chats’ were the place to have small talk with colleagues around the office, but in the remote world, it's less likely that you will chat with those you are not already very close to. Donut solves this by connecting to your slack channel and analysing the interactions of your team members. If two people haven't spoken in a while it suggests a meeting or virtual call and sends an invite. From casual coffees to 1:1s with the CEO, Donut can help connect people from different teams and departments. It's also a great way to fight isolation.
Collaboration - Miro
We believe in collaboration without co-location and Miro is one tool that makes this possible. Miro is an online whiteboard where you can share anything from workflows to designs. The tool comes preloaded with a bunch of great visual templates and makes it really easy to collaborate and gather feedback and ideas from anyone on the team.
Of course, there are a number of popular and well-known tools that we use regularly within our tech stack, these include:
Zoom: In our opinion, Zoom is the ultimate video conferencing tool. In fact, the inspiration for the name ‘Cosmic Centaurs’, came from Zoom. You can read more about that here.
Slack: Our team communicates primarily on slack, coordinating our daily morning stand ups and afternoon check-ins, as well as making great use of emojis.
G-Drive: The collaborative nature of this shared drive system makes developing, presenting and organizing our work easy and stress-free.
Preview: This may seem like an odd one but we felt it necessary to mention given how frequently we use preview to sign documents. Who knew operating a startup came with so much paperwork?
Google Keep: Another easy-to-use list-making tool, our team uses Google Keep to make to-do lists and notes.
We hope that you find these tools and recommendations helpful. We welcome you to share new apps and sites with us in the comments section below - we’d love to see what’s in your tech stack.
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