Yes, you can extend Pipedrive for project management by utilizing its features and integrations, though it is not primarily a project management tool.
Many people wonder, can you extend Pipedrive for project management? The answer isn’t straightforward, since Pipedrive is designed as a sales CRM first. However, it offers flexible options to adapt and include some project management capabilities.
This includes using deals as projects and activities as project tasks, along with integrating dedicated project management tools. You can definitely make it work with the right setup!
Can You Extend Pipedrive for Project Management?
Pipedrive is fantastic for managing your sales pipeline and customer relationships. But what if you need to juggle projects too? Can Pipedrive handle that? The short answer is: Yes, with some clever extensions and workarounds! While Pipedrive isn’t a dedicated project management tool like Asana or Trello, it’s surprisingly flexible. Let’s explore how you can make Pipedrive work for project management.
Understanding Pipedrive’s Core Strengths
Before diving into extensions, let’s appreciate what Pipedrive does exceptionally well. It’s designed to track deals, move opportunities through stages, and manage your sales process. Key features include:
- Deals: The core of Pipedrive, representing potential sales.
- Activities: Tasks and reminders tied to specific deals.
- Contacts and Organizations: Central places to store customer information.
- Custom Fields: The ability to add data that matters to your business.
- Reporting and Analytics: Tools to track performance and identify trends.
These features aren’t directly project-focused, but we can use them in creative ways to manage projects, specifically using Pipedrive’s project management capabilities. We’ll build upon these core functionalities.
Why Pipedrive Isn’t a Dedicated Project Management Tool
It’s important to recognize that Pipedrive has limitations as a project management platform. Its main focus remains on sales. For example, it lacks features like:
- Gantt charts: Visual timelines showing project progress.
- Advanced task dependencies: The ability to link tasks where one must be completed before another.
- Resource allocation: Managing who is working on what and when.
- Project budgeting and tracking: Detailed cost and spending analysis.
These limitations make it difficult to manage intricate projects out of the box. But we can bridge the gap with extensions and smart strategies.
Leveraging Pipedrive Features for Project-Like Management
Even with its limitations, we can make the most of Pipedrive’s built-in features to handle basic project management workflows. Here’s how:
Using Deals as Projects
The most straightforward way is to treat each ‘deal’ as a project. For example, if you’re a marketing agency, a ‘deal’ might represent a new website build, a social media campaign, or a logo redesign. Here’s how this works:
- Deal Stages: Rename your deal stages to reflect your project phases (e.g., Planning, Design, Development, Testing, Launch).
- Activities: Use activities to track the tasks needed within each project phase. Assign activities to team members and set deadlines.
- Custom Fields: Create custom fields to track project specifics like budget, client contact, or project status.
For instance, imagine a website design project. Your deal stages could be: “Initial Meeting,” “Design Mockup,” “Client Review,” “Development,” and “Launch.” You’d then assign related activities like “Create wireframes,” “Design homepage,” “Code the website,” and “Test functionality” within the appropriate stages. Then you can use Pipedrive’s activity tracking to check your progress.
Utilizing Activities for Task Management
Activities are the backbone of managing tasks in Pipedrive. You can create diverse activity types – like calls, emails, meetings, and tasks – to represent project actions. Each activity has a due date and can be assigned to different team members. Here’s how to make the most of activities:
- Detailed Activity Descriptions: Add specific instructions and relevant details to activity descriptions.
- Use Activity Types: Categorize tasks using appropriate activity types to track progress and effort.
- Set Deadlines: Make sure to set a due date for every activity to keep projects on schedule.
- Use Activity Reminders: Use Pipedrive’s built-in reminders to keep projects moving forward.
This way, you can view what needs to be done, when, and by whom. Use this to track progress on individual project tasks within Pipedrive.
Employing Custom Fields for Tracking Specific Project Data
Pipedrive custom fields allow you to add unique data to deals, organizations, and contacts. For project management, this is invaluable. Consider adding fields for:
- Project Budget: Track the project’s financial limits.
- Project Status: Indicate if the project is “In Progress,” “On Hold,” or “Completed”.
- Client Contact: Record the main contact for the project.
- Completion Date: Track when the project was actually completed.
These custom fields become an integral part of your project management information in Pipedrive. By making these custom fields you can make Pipedrive work for project management. These custom fields can be used to organize and display key information in list views and reports.
Extending Pipedrive with Integrations and Add-ons
Pipedrive’s flexibility stems from its extensive integration options. There are a lot of apps and add-ons that fill the project management gaps. Let’s explore a few options:
Project Management Integrations
Many project management tools have direct Pipedrive integrations. Some popular options include:
- Asana: You can connect deals with Asana projects and sync data between the two platforms. This is helpful for more complex task dependencies and project tracking.
- Trello: Similar to Asana, integrating with Trello allows you to convert deals into Trello cards and keep track of project tasks within Trello boards. This makes a very nice blend between sales and project work.
- Monday.com: Monday offers a deep integration with Pipedrive that enables you to sync data and manage tasks, projects, and workflows from within Pipedrive.
With these integrations, when a deal reaches a certain stage in Pipedrive, you can have it trigger the creation of a new project in the chosen project management platform. This way, the deal will transition into a project easily. You’ll still track the sales process in Pipedrive, but detailed project management will be moved to the dedicated tool.
Using Zapier for Automation
Zapier is a powerful tool that can connect Pipedrive with thousands of other apps. This allows you to automate tasks and create custom workflows. For project management, you could use Zapier to:
- Create a Google Calendar event: When a new deal is created, an event is made in your calendar as a project kick off.
- Send Slack messages: Notify your team channel about changes in a deal’s status.
- Update Google Sheets: Keep project data synchronized between Pipedrive and a spreadsheet.
Zapier lets you create very intricate automation flows, increasing the scope of Pipedrive. You could, for example, add an automation that when a client is converted to a deal in Pipedrive, a new project will be created in one of the project management software or a specific spreadsheet will be updated with project info.
Exploring Pipedrive Marketplace Apps
Pipedrive has its own app marketplace filled with tools developed by third-party providers. Here are some categories that can help with project management:
- Document Management Apps: Connect with apps like Google Drive or Dropbox to keep project files organized and linked to specific deals.
- Time Tracking Apps: Integrate time tracking software to keep track of time spent on projects.
- Reporting and Analytics Apps: Gain more insights into your project management efforts using these add-ons.
These marketplace applications, provide custom solutions that fit certain niche use cases within the Pipedrive system. You may find an application for specific project management requirements or reports that will make it easier to extend Pipedrive for project management.
Creating a Hybrid Workflow for Project Management
Instead of relying solely on Pipedrive, a combined approach might be best. You can combine the project management strengths of Pipedrive and the project management abilities of other software. Here’s a potential workflow:
Sales in Pipedrive, Projects Elsewhere
Use Pipedrive for sales until a deal is ‘won.’ Once a deal is ‘closed-won’ it is transitioned to another system to complete project work. This keeps the sales process separate from project management.
Syncing data through Zapier or APIs
The data is synced between systems using Zapier or through direct API integration. Project details will be available in your project management platform, and the deal progress can be followed from the Pipedrive platform.
Regular status updates
Schedule regular status updates to the team, keeping Pipedrive’s progress synced and also keeping the team updated on the project in another management software.
This hybrid workflow helps keep things neat and clear. You keep using Pipedrive for sales and use another platform for the intricacies of project management.
Tips and Best Practices for Pipedrive Project Management
When you begin using Pipedrive for project management, keep these tips in mind:
Keep it Simple
Avoid making overly complex workflows in Pipedrive for project management. Overly complex workflows can be time-consuming and confusing. Keep it simple, especially when using Pipedrive as a project management tool, because it isn’t a project tool originally.
Standardize the Process
Ensure everyone uses the same custom fields, activity types, and stage names. This keeps everything consistent. When your whole team is following the same process, it makes it easier to track progress.
Regularly Review and Refine
Pipedrive for project management can be an experimental process. Try new things, find out what works and what doesn’t work, and refine your processes. Always look for ways to make it better.
Train your team
Ensure all team members know how to use Pipedrive for project management. Provide documentation and regular training on how to follow the process. Training will ensure that the data is clean and processes are followed properly.
Monitor and analyze
Continuously monitor and review the performance. Ensure that the project is going on track and use Pipedrive reports to track key project metrics. Monitoring performance will help you identify areas for improvement.
In conclusion, while Pipedrive isn’t a full-fledged project management tool, it can be extended to manage projects effectively, especially when you use a combination of its features, integrations, and custom setups. It might not be for very large and complicated projects, but for smaller to medium ones it could be useful. By understanding its core strengths and using the right strategies, you can successfully use Pipedrive for project management alongside your sales process. It’s about finding the right balance and adapting the platform to fit your needs. You might find Pipedrive’s project management abilities are perfect for your requirements if you explore all the customization options.
Pipedrive for client or project management (video #20)
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, while Pipedrive excels as a CRM, its native project management features are basic. You can extend Pipedrive for project management using integrations with specialized tools. These plugins offer enhanced functionalities like task management and Gantt charts. Carefully select tools that meet your specific workflow requirements. So, the answer to ‘can you extend pipedrive for project management’ is a definite yes, but with third-party applications.