Office Tools & Services

We use many tools in the studio and try to find a perfect mix that startups we work with could benefit from as well.

Email account via Soverin

Our email is hosted at Soverin.

• Your e-mailaddress: [email protected]
• Username: [email protected]
• Webmail: https://mail.soverin.net/

All settings for setting up your email application can be found here: https://support.soverin.net/knowledge-base/

Private and group messaging via Slack

• Slack is our tool for team communication.
• Chat about daily things
• Stop on emails like ‘Hey, look at this!’
• When you don't care whether your message is archived or not it should be a Slack message not an email
• backspacehq.slack.com
• Request an invite for Slack (Jons)
• Join the channels of interest (general, startups your involved in)

General planning & roadmaps via Asana

Asana is our tool for project and task management & bug tracking. We have a workspace for the studio and seperate workspaces for each startup.

We use Asana for keeping track of recurring tasks and projects.

• New tasks are added to the New Tasks section
• The person responsible decides on further priority for tasks (Now, Later, etc) The Now section shows work in progress
• Everyone handles their own tasks status
• At least once a week each team member goes through their tasks and updates priorities and progress
• Tip: Add a recurring event to your agenda to remind yourself to do this.
• If you are done with a task but the task itself needs more work you assign it to the person who should pick it up next
• Task management is only done in Asana not in other tools, like Basecamp
• Each startup workspace is setup in the same way as the studio workspace and follows the same rules

Using Asana for bug tracking.

• Bugs as tagged task in Roadmap; tag = bug
• Section is Incoming; as non product owner add bugs here
• Write a task oriented bug report

Using Asana for personal tasks.

• Keep track of your personal to-do's in 'My Tasks'. Here you can put tasks that are important for you, but not relevant for others.

• Request an invite for Asana (Jons) Help manage your work by adding tasks

• Every tasks in Asana needs to assigned to a 'project leader' Every task needs to have a due date

Deliverables and communication with 3rd parties with Basecamp

Basecamp is our tool for sharing and discussing deliverables. Third parties can also join this platform to contribute to a project.

• Review of deliverables and get feedback
• Work together on text documents

• Basecamp is not used for project planning or tasks

• Request an invite for Basecamp (Jons)

Bug & Issue reporting with Github

• Request access to report bugs (Tijs)
• Join, or ask to join, the projects your are involved with

File sharing with Dropbox

We use this tool for sharing documents and other files.

There is a shared folder for the studio

And a shared folder for each startup

People get access to these folders as needed

• Request access to relevant folders (Jons)

Shared calendar & contacts with Fruux

• Shared calendars via Fruux
• There is one team calendar: 'De Boomhut'
• Each team member has one personal calendar
• Each team member grants 'read-access' to all other team members
• The team calendar is used for team events & planning holidays

• You use your personal calendar for everything else

• Request a Fruux account (Tijs)

• You will receive login details which you can use to:

• Create a personal calendar (or rename the default to your name)

• Share this calendar with everyone in the core team

Documentation

Google docs

• Spreadsheets for finance
• Forms for quick surveys
• Progress overview of all startups

Gitbook

• Gitbook allows for collaborative writing with version control.
• We use it to write this Playbook, and create public and download-able versions of the playbook
• We use it for our internal handbook and team onboarding guide We use it for our internal technology playbook

Credentials with 1Password

Password management for core team.

• We share our password vault using a shared Dropbox folder Credentials for admin accounts of tools we use are shared in this vault.
• You can store your personal credentials in your own vault