Aha! gave us a consistent way to manage marketing work
Josh Byrd
VP of Marketing
We had a problem
Our marketing team was using a variety of tools to set strategy, plan programs, and manage activities. We tried to use Jira for capturing requests and for managing day-to-day tasks. It was difficult because it is not purpose-built for marketing teams and did not encourage strategic decisions. We wanted an application that provides a strategy-first approach, so we could focus our marketing efforts on driving growth. We also needed a way to show leadership how the team’s efforts impact the business. Of course, it was equally important to find a tool that would empower the team to do their best work by establishing consistent workflows and dynamic collaboration.
Aha! as the solution
Marketing workspaces in Aha! answered on all three of our core focus areas for choosing a comprehensive new tool. We now have one place for defining initiatives, setting priorities, and managing the actual work. This brings a new level of visibility into marketing work to our entire organization and helps us work together efficiently and effectively.
Aha! provides everything our marketing team needs to plan and manage product launches, campaigns, and programs. Simply put — if it is not in Aha! then it is not happening.
We love the different ways we can visualize our marketing plans. We use the workflow board daily to see who is doing what and the status of each activity. The Gantt chart is great for coordinating product launches. We use it to track all the cross-team tasks that need to be completed and share the plan with other teams not using Aha! as a secure webpage. This keeps everyone in sync — it is much easier to communicate and manage the impact of any changes.
Life is good
Aha! is a game changer for our marketing team. We plan campaigns and manage all the related activities (such as content, emails, and social) in one system. The ability to attach creative assets to activity cards, share feedback and @mention specific teammates in comments, and quickly assign to-dos has streamlined our review process.
Aha! gives us a way to showcase the extraordinary amount of work the marketing team accomplishes and the impact it has on the business.
Of course, like most marketing teams, we support many different groups in our organization. The requests portal provides a central place for internal teams to ask the marketing team for what they need. We are able to review each one, consider how it fits into our goals, and promote requests into activities for the team to work on. This consistent approach for managing everyone’s demands helps us stay focused on the most important work.
Our product management organization also uses Aha! — this close collaboration has improved how our teams work and improved our outcomes. We can closely align on launch plans and manage dependencies in the same account.