ClickUp is among the newer project management tools and productivity enablers in the market, launched in 2016. It promises a refreshingly simple UX without compromising on features, a value prop that’s coveted an impressive number of users in a very short time. The company raised $100 million in Series B last year, and the pandemic-induced remote work rush helped to double its user base in six months.
Essentially, ClickUp lets you configure various project management workloads in a simple, almost conversational format, integrating across your favourite apps. From One Drive to GitHub and Microsoft Teams, there’s an integration for nearly every platform where you “hang out.” Inside Teams, you get a rich ClickUp experience, with the ability to create, edit, and delete tasks from the Teams’ interface. There are different types of dashboards, customisable workflows, and rich notifications to bring ClickUp’s signature UX into Teams.
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Overall, ClickUp covers the entire gamut of work and project management features, such as time management, automations, Kanban boards, to-do lists, forms, and Gantt charts. Let us review how this plays out in the Teams environment.
Inside the ClickUp App
ClickUp aims to simplify project workflow management by minimising the clutter caused by feature overload. Its UX is very different from that of Trello, Asana, or similar platforms, and it also offers integrations as a core part of its value proposition. Its core features include:
- Task notifications – In ClickUp, all work is organised using Spaces, Folders, or Lists. Users can follow any of these elements to stay updated on project progress and task completion. The ClickUp app for Teams makes it possible to receive notifications whenever someone interacts with Space, Folder, or List – by adding a comment, attaching a file, changing the status, or adding/editing the task assignee. You can enable this feature by configuring a ClickUp Connector in a Microsoft Teams channel of your choice.
- Connected workspaces – A connected workspace means that you and other Teams users can view the details of your ClickUp workspace inside Teams. This is achieved using the website creation capability in Teams, where you can click the + to create a website tab, and simply paste the link to your ClickUp workspace to recreate it in Teams. Keep in mind that the elements you connect must be first set up as a publicly shared item. Also, the workspace view is read-only, without any interactive capabilities.
- Task attachment in chat – The task attachment feature is enabled by a messaging extension that aids further interoperability between Teams and ClickUp. Inside a Microsoft channel, you will see the ClickUp Add-in icon – this lets you search for a specific task from within the Teams UI. Once you find the task, you can simply select it and all the details will be automatically fetched into Teams. Keep in mind that setting up a connector between the Teams channel and ClickUp is a prerequisite for this feature.
- Rich unfurling of links – This is probably the most impressive capability enabled by the ClickUp+Microsoft Teams integration. When you copy any link to a ClickUp item and paste it on the Teams UI, the integration automatically unfurls it to reveal rich details. It can extract the project’s name, task assignee, key objectives, and workspace, without you having to manually look up any further information.
- Outlook add-in – Apart from Microsoft Teams, ClickUp integrates with emails in Outlook, to help speed up task creation. Using this integration, you can attach an entire email in HTML format to a task on ClickUp, and store it for future reference.
Why the ClickUp App Makes a Difference
ClickUp’s most notable USP is its minimalist UI and the three types of dashboards it sports: List, Box, and Board. The same simplicity of functionality and design aesthetic is present in the Teams integration as well, with a very specific set of features. The ability to simply copy-paste links and have all the information automatically derived makes a massive difference to the user experience. It is this core USP that drives all other features for this app, and we expect new capabilities to be added to its roster.
What We Think
ClickUp is an excellent addition to the Microsoft family of apps and integrations. It offers a unique and straightforward approach to project management, with new features constantly being added to the pipeline. This app is intended for existing Teams users looking to try something new and declutter their project management landscape – you can download it here.
