John Williams is the proud founder of the Academic Life Coaching Company, founded in 2005.The company provides life-coaching programs for teenagers, some of which are approved by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
John and his small administration team pilot a network of over 300 coaches around the world. Thanks to these great programs, over 1000 teenagers have received coaching.
Coordinating teenagers and coaches from his home in Portland, Oregon, is a challenging task. He also has to coordinate his team of two other people: one in charge of technology, the other dealing with outreach.
There is a lot of overlap between all these coordination activities and the resulting workflow is a complex one. Synchronization is not easy for the team! John works in his home in Portland, one of his employees works on a different floor, and the other works in France.
To communicate, John and his team tried everything they could: emails, Wunderlists, Google tasks… Even though all they were looking for was a simple task management tool and they did not have particularly high expectations, none of these systems was able to meet their coordination needs.
One day, John spotted Azendoo and decided to go for a free trial. Just to give it a try.
“It’s great because now we can have conversations that are recorded on the computer. Azendoo has helped to speed up conversation”
The trial was clearly a success. Instead of running up and downstairs, or looking for an email, John could easily exchange with others, on different issues and in real time, using Azendoo’s subject feature. He could deal with his own tasks and manage the tasks of others effortlessly.
After just one week, and motivated by the enthusiasm of his team, he decided to go for a Premium account. After his decision to join Azendoo, the third team member left and another was hired. Perfect timing to start using Azendoo, and to improve processes!
“Looking back, I realize why it was hard [before Azendoo] because [emails] were an opportunity for distraction. Azendoo has fundamentally changed the way my team works."
Because it is simple to use and so helpful for John, Azendoo has become an integrated tool for communication and synchronization. John always has his Azendoo tab open and active on his computer. It has helped him to show his team that he can always be available for them.
Thanks to Azendoo, he just has to check his emails twice a day now, in order to check external communication. Last but not least, communication has become so simple that, whether he is working remotely or from his “office”, there is no difference for him anymore.
His favorite Azendoo feature? The ability to create a task from a conversation, and to assign tasks back and forth. This eases the workflow, and the communication of information between team members is easier.
For John, Azendoo has clearly simplified communication and he can rest assured that his team knows he’s there for them.
“Through the transition and growth of our company this summer, Azendoo was the glue that held us together. Azendoo literally allowed us to be more productive in the midst of chaos. “