Wrike Review
It looks like we have more and more web tools helping in project management tasks. Another one, which was released a couple of moths ago, is Wrike. Wrike is (for now) rather simple application allowing to organize tasks in small teams. The application exploits different approach than the one used in Project-ON-Demand or OpenProj. Instead of following path of Microsoft Project they use fresh idea to base collaboration on emails, which are daily bread of project management.
General
Wrike is web-based tool so no installation is needed whatsoever. The application comes predefined so first thing to do is to clean default structure and create your own which is, I bet, completely different than proposed one. There is a weird thing to learn when you start working with Wrike – one of methods to add a task to your list is adding an email wrike@wrike.com to CC of email you send out. The concept isn’t a common one, but after a while you get used to the method. Of course there’s a “classic” method of adding a task using web interface, but, as authors state, real fruits are in seamless email integration.
In the area of managing tasks functionality is rather simple, editing task includes changing description, start date, duration, deadline and status. You can share a task or assign it to another Wrike user. You can see tasks grouped on simple Gantt chart. For the first public version I’d say that’s enough.
Issues
OK, time to rant. I guess I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t catch a series of issues in any software I play with. Wrike, like every fresh web-based application is an easy target here.
• Email integration. While I think the way Wrike is integrating with emails is a great idea there are several issues which discourage you to use that feature. I couldn’t find out exact rules of interpreting labels in emails subject field. Labels should define which group the task is added to, but it neither works like it was described nor like I expected. A bunch of emails I’ve sent to Wrike was lagged – tasks appeared after a couple of days instead after a couple of minutes. Maybe it was bad luck, but I wouldn’t consider reliability as one of main strengths of the application. If you use “reply all” option when answering emails Wrike dashboards of your team will soon be completely cluttered as every reply will add another task. Of course you can try to cut out Wrike email address from replies but you have to be a real optimist if you believe it can succeed. I couldn’t find a rule when the body of email is copied to task description and when it is not. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. You don’t expect application would work just sometimes, right? Email integration is described as a killer feature and it has a potential to become one. Someday. Unfortunately, for now it is too buggy and unpredictable to be used as everyday tool.
• Setting up an account. Neither the activation email nor any other arrived to one of email accounts I tried to use to set up an account in Wrike. I guess it landed somewhere in spam bin on server side. I guess some adjustments in email are needed. On other accounts everything worked well.
• Tasks arrangement. Reviews of Wrike describe the application as “beefy” project management tool. Yes, you can find there a Gantt chart, but to manage a project (even if it is just organizing your own time) you need more than showing tasks on a calendar. Simple dependencies between tasks and arranging records on-the-fly are must-haves.
• Number of system updates. During several days of working with Wrike I’ve seen a few system updates. Each one required to log out and log back in. Well, it should be more seamless and less often.
• Invitations. That one is more about business model than about application itself. Sending any email to people and adding wrike@wrike.com on CC ends up with invitation to join Wrike sent to addressee. I know it help to spread the word but personally it a bit too offensive for me.
Cool Things
Definitely the coolest thing would be email integration if it worked well. The concept is fresh and simple, yet when you start using the model significant number of issues appears. There is a list of things which can be predicted: people would use “reply all” option, their email clients would add “RE:” and “FWD:” prefixes, iCal format would be used for invitations to meetings etc. Wrike should deal with all of these from the very beginning, but it looks like we need to wait a bit.
• Interface. User interface is clean and intuitive. I had no problems with becoming familiar with Wrike and most of key features are described in welcome video seen just after first sign in. Responsiveness for the web application is OK.
• Basic features. Functionalities which are typical for time management software are done well – I had no problems with tasks inserted from the web interface. Adding, assigning and changing tasks worked smoothly. I wish email-based features was working that well.
• Alerts. Alerts for changed, assigned, shared etc tasks works nice. Information is pushed to users’ inboxes so they instantly know what has been changed.
• Reporting. Reporting part is done well. Actually for me it’s even too expanded, but I’m biased in that area. I expect just the simplest reports, while Wrike delivers several different perspectives you can use to receive needed information.
My Opinion
Wrike presents approach which I like – start simple, add features users need. I think the big thing here is the idea of using emails as a base for task management. However that is the area which needs to be improved the most. On the first glimpse it looks easy, but it is not. Improvements are needed both quality-wise and functionality-wise. The latter case is more difficult, as I’d expect intelligent deduplication feature (for long email threads) better task management (closer to MS Project model) or task history (often treated as “enterprise” feature, but needed much more often). For now Wrike is more a collaboration tool than a project management application. Excluding email integration Wrike is rather simple software, like others you can find over the Internet (Basecamp is one of good examples).
I don’t really get all the pricing plans for Wrike. Where exactly is the difference between individual and group plans? I haven’t noticed functionality which is cut, yet the nature of Wrike can be exploited in multiple user scenarios. Anyway, you don’t really need collaboration software for a single user, as all the collaboration can happen in a head.
To be honest Wrike is not the type of application I was looking for. It is somewhere in the middle between serious project management tool and easy-to-use collaboration application. On the other hand Wrike has potential to go either way.
6 comments:
Have you looked at Vertabase project management softare yet? http://www.vertabase.com.
There's a free trial on the site.
No, but I'll put it on the list.
Pawel,
Thank you for your review of Wrike. We appreciate your positive evaluation of Wrike’s email-based project management concept. As you noted, we worked out a system of email notifications that helps you follow every detail of the project progress. We’re also pleased that you found Wrike a simple tool to use for projects, as we’re doing everything possible to make our subscribers’ work easy and comfortable. Thanks for pointing out the fact that the interface is clean and intuitive.
It’s a pity you didn’t check FAQ page of Wrike’s site, as there you would be able to find the exact rules how to label emailed tasks in the subject field. Actually you just need to put the group title in square brackets e.g. [group title], write the task title and put the due date in square brackets, like this [yyyy-dd-mm]. The email body will be copied in the task description. You will find more information here and here
As for updating tasks by using the “reply to all” button, that feature is coming next week, so we’ll be glad if you continue using your Wrike account to take advantage of intelligent reply processing for e-mails. We follow our users’ feedback and their requests about tasks dependence feaure. We’re currently working on this feature. It’s a high priority for us, so expect it to be delivered to www.wrike.com within a couple of months. There are some architectural challenges that we want to solve elegantly. Our system has an open sharing model with possible many-to-many relations. This makes it easy to use on the user interface side, but at the same time makes technical implementation of features like dependency a tricky part.
We would like to point out that Wrike helps you to realize a small team collaboration model with no need to pay for extra accounts. That is why we have free individual and power user plans. People can collaborate effectively with their team, almost at almost no cost. They create one paid account and a couple of free accounts. So the team leader/manager can share and assign an unlimited number of tasks with his team members.
The beauty of Wrike is in its simplicity. Invitations to the system help to make the process easier without additional steps. So you don't have to go to a particular page every time to add new people. Our intention is to make users’ experiences with Wrike easier and more pleasant, so if you send an e-mail to John Smith and add wrike@wrike.com to recipients, John does not get access to the full project. He only gets an access to that particular e-mail and that particular task. There’s no need for you to send any embarrassing e-mails. People will not get access to your crucial information. They only have access to what you explicitly grant them the access to. We are not sure whether you already knew about this system behavior, so we wanted to explicitly outline this. Anyway, we plan to make our invitational e-mail much lighter, just like the one you get from LinkedIn nowadays. We are also working on a feature that will let people mark tasks complete with one click from their e-mail. That will help the most conservative stakeholders to stay away from the new tool and still be able manage projects.
We know that there is always room for improvement. That is why we are working hard to enhance our software and make our users’ lives easier. Thank you for recognizing Wrike’s development growth potential.
Daria,
First of all, thank you for exhaustive explanations. Several things I want to add:
1. I've checked FAQ and your tips from initial Wrike setup. Unfortunately it doesn't work exactly like it was explained. A couple of times I had an email with label in brackets in the subject field and the task wasn't added to the group. They was appended to the root.
2. Your explanation of pricing plans makes the thing clear. You should add them on the website.
3. With invitations I didn't mean limiting access to data - it is done well although I haven't mentioned that in the review. My point was that quite often on CC list you have people who aren't directly involved in project, task etc. They're there only to let them know about some things. It wouldn't be unusual to have customer on CC just to let them know you scheduled some task to one of your people.
Pawel,
I promised you to get back, so now
I want to let you know that we released two significant features. One of them is the intelligent reply function, which allows you to use the “reply to all” button to update your tasks. The other new feature is the dashboard, which helps you to quickly review your tasks and lets you begin your work at once.
By the way, regarding e-mail invitations sent to the customers, we designed them the way they are to let your customers follow the progress of the task in Wrike with the team. This makes your project work transparent for the customers, and they really feel involved in the process.
Thank you once again for your feedback.
On Sep 11, 2007, Pawel wrote "We follow our users’ feedback and their requests about tasks dependence feaure. We’re currently working on this feature. It’s a high priority for us, so expect it to be delivered to www.wrike.com within a couple of months. "
It doesn't look like this has been implemented and 9 months later. I take it it's not coming?
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