Google Project management software is a free and easy way to track and share your team’s work whether at the office or on-the-go. Start by creating a project and invite your team members to join. From there, we’ll help you build a workflow that works for you and help you get stuff done faster.
The team of digital marketers at Learnable is constantly seeking ways to improve its workflow, and with all the tools that Google provides for free, it’s hard to beat.
This collection shares a common system for a number of our existing and upcoming Google-friendly apps, including spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, app shortcuts and more.
There are project management tools that work for you, your company, and your clients. Wondering how the suite of free apps from Google measure up? Here’s a deep dive into ways to make these tools work for you and your team.
Google Workspace tips for project management
Track, update, and collaborate on project tasks 
Create dynamic project plans and Gantt charts in Sheets to manage your projects, assignments, and deadlines. Team members across the globe can update their progress directly in the spreadsheet so it’s always up to date.
Manage project or team schedules |
Find and organize important email quickly
Working on multiple projects with different teams? Use stars to mark certain email as important, or let Gmail’s Priority Inbox automatically sort and prioritize your messages for you. Then, set up filters and labels for specific projects so it’s easier to find and reply to email.
Must-Have Features of Project Management Software
Project Planning
In the digital age, you need a tool that can help you harmonize a remote and multidisciplinary team. In other words, to keep the project on track, you need to maintain a transparent project overview, assign tasks, and keep everyone updated.
This tool needs to operate in a way that everyone can understand at a glance. To guarantee an effective and logical workflow that eliminates missed steps, each member needs to receive the right tasks at the right times. Remember, one forgotten task can make the whole project stall.
Team Collaboration & Communication
Teamwork makes the dream work. Without a tool that offers effective communication, your creative team will become a collection of disparate individuals who find it impossible to work in harmony. This tool can have a significant impact on the quality of your project, the happiness of your team, and your ability to hit deadlines.
To keep conversations on-topic, you need to offer simple, well-organized tools for collaboration and communication. Without these tools, teams can waste countless hours trawling through old email threads and conversations to find certain directions or files.
Reporting & Progress Tracking
Once all of the above elements are in place, you have to carefully monitor the given project. You need a tool that can regularly offer you a detailed analysis into the speed at which your team is working, including the places where bottlenecks may appear.
Without the ability to carefully monitor your project, you’ll find that your team operates in the dark. Rather than being able to predict and prevent issues, you’ll only run into them when they unexpectedly appear. This handicap can cause stressful situations, create conflict among your team, and impact the quality and timeliness of your project.
Best Google Project Management Software
Google Sheets for Project Management
Google Sheets is a spreadsheet program that is an essential part of the Google Drive office suite. It can be used as a web or mobile application, or even as a desktop application (if you’re using Google’s ChromeOS). The app offers your team real-time editing and collaboration.
Project Planning
Google Sheets is compatible with Microsoft Excel, and it offers a lot of the same functionality. Therefore, it is an effective tool to create detailed project plans and lists of tasks, and it can act as a common space that allows your team to stay on top of the project.
Productivity Tracking
Your team can use a shared Google Sheet file to input the amount of time they’ve spent on a particular project. Using sophisticated calculations and formulas, you’ll be able to collate this information and get a detailed look at your budget.
Reporting & Progress Tracking
To automatically maintain a percentage progress bar, you can configure your Google Sheets file based on information provided by the team. Then you’ll have a good idea about the way the project is moving along. It’s also a simple way to export reports and share progress with stakeholders.
Bonus Resources
Google maintains a rich Learning Center that can help you hone your skills and maximize its suite of applications. This Google Sheets course helps you create dynamic plans that can be used to help you effectively manage your project.
And here’s a great compilation of Google Sheets every marketing project manager will love:
Google Drive for Project Management
Google Drive offers your team a safe place to store any type of project file. These files are easy to organize into folders, and they can be accessed from a range of devices. Best of all, it’s easy to share these documents and collaborate on them.
Document Management
As a marketing project manager, you must make sure everyone has the correct access to a document. You must also ensure these files are logically organized.
Google Drive makes document management simple, and gives you the power to organize files and make sure version control is in place.
Team Collaboration & Communication
With Google Drive, you’re able to share documents with external stakeholders outside your team, get their feedback, and incorporate it into the next round of edits.
Now it’s simple to share comments and feedback, which will help encourage collaboration, make your projects more efficient, and boost the quality of the final polished product.
Google Calendar for Project Management
Over the last 12 years, Google Calendar has continuously been polished. It’s a popular time-management and scheduling tool that can be used by marketing project managers to create and edit events and reminders that keep projects on track. This calendar can then be accessed from a range of devices.
Team Collaboration & Communication
If your project is going to be successful, your team needs to work in harmony. In other words, everyone needs to be aware of key milestones and meetings.
Google Calendar is integrated with Gmail, which makes it easy to dispatch invites and schedule reminders for both internal and external stakeholders. You can also include a wealth of information in the invite, and you can rest assured that invitees can access this information on a wide range of devices.
It’s also simple to attach links to files within the Google Suite, which keeps everybody updated via one suite of tools.
Google Chat for Project Management
Google Chat is a free communication platform that accommodates messaging, video chat, and VOIP. It was released to replace three previous services, including Google Talk, Huddle, and Hangouts. Its future is still uncertain, and Google plans to divide the service into “Hangouts Meet” (aimed at video conferences) and “Hangouts Chat” (aimed at instant messaging).
Team Collaboration & Communication
To keep in touch and effectively collaborate, your team needs a reliable, feature-rich communication tool. A conversation that might have required an email or call in the past can now be quickly and efficiently resolved with a real-time chat tool.
Hangouts makes it easy for individuals or groups to chat on a range of devices. Text and video communication are simple, but there is some confusion about the desktop application and in-browser plugins, which can lead to compatibility issues. In addition, it looks as though Google is still trying to resolve a host of issues with its chat app.
Many organizations may find that team members naturally gravitate toward more popular alternatives, such as Skype or Slack.
Alternatives to Google Sheets for Project Management
Alternative to Google Sheets for Project Planning: Asana
When it comes to project planning and task management, you’ll probably find that Asana is far better than Google Sheets. This free tool allows you to create a project plan and a range of tasks that can be assigned to members of your team.
After each task has been completed, it can be checked off, which gives you a clear viewpoint about the way your project is progressing, and the way each team member is contributing to the success of the project. Team members are also free to attach files and leave comments, which helps boost collaboration and the overall quality of projects.
Alternative to Google Chat and Hangouts for Team Collaboration: Slack
Google has a complicated history with communication apps. While the rest of its suite is packed with potential, this complication is certainly a weak point for the tech giant.
Most companies find that their team naturally gravitates toward alternatives like Skype and Slack, rather than using hangouts. Furthermore, Slack offers powerful functionality and opportunities for efficiency.
If you can maintain well-organized Slack channels for your projects, you’ll find that you and your team can save time by separating conversations into logical threads, which helps prevent confusion and cuts down on the amount of time spent flicking through chats.
Conclusion
Project management tools are important for effective project management. In fact, a common misconception among many people is that Google is a project management software. While it isn’t an erp system, Google does have various project management tools that you can use to help you get your job done.
Google’s suite of project management applications certainly has a place in the arsenal of marketing project managers. These free, powerful tools have a lot to offer, but they aren’t reliable in isolation. So to get the best results, you should use the suite alongside the more specialized, powerful tools above.