Likelihood to Recommend Kanban is well suited for a fast-paced working environment for larger teams who want continuous communication with users. Kanban is good for rapid development and daily meetings for updates and statuses. Kanban is less suited for smaller teams or groups who don't require collaboration and constant communication with involved users. Kanban is time-consuming and it takes additional effort outside of your regular work to maintain and manage the tool.
Read full review [It's] Wonderful for small group or individual planning, brainstorming, explaining, projecting etc. It is also great for reporting or sharing findings of outcomes whether research or business related. It has a free viewer so that if you are presenting on a different computer, the viewer will allow the visuals to be shared. It is not ideal for collaboration unless everyone has this software.
Read full review Pros It provides a good basic overview of where tasks are on a timeline (particularly helpful for a pull-based approach). It provides a good collaborative space to have multiple folks commenting on multiple tasks. It does a good job of managing very basic visual elements of an agile development cycle. Chris Carpenter Staff Project Manager, Awesomizer, Fixer, Maker, Collaboration Enabler
Read full review GOAL SETTING: Because of the available templates, it is easy to set goals and then revisit them for revision or follow through. I like to brainstorm while I set goals and then come back and annotate my goals with changes, improvements, or add/substract them as needed. STRATEGIC PLANNING: MindGenius is terrific for working through ideas and parameters. I can either use a freelance screen or a template and brainstorm through the goals that I need to meet. Then I can branch out from each objective with the required facets of each one. I am visual so color coding and using shapes to organize the parts of the objective (i.e. the resources needed, people/stakeholders that are involved, missing pieces etc.). When organizing a project or research, I find it invaluable. BRAINSTORMING: MindGenius is a wonderful visual to use in a small group or classroom to brainstorm or record ideas. I also adjunct teach and I find MG a wonderful visual for planning a paper or demonstrating how to support ideas in a paper or to verify that research is completed properly. it is a teacher's must-have. Read full review Cons Kanban does not show the task or story clearly. You have to open the project separately to view the details of the project. Kanban gives a higher level project management view but it lacks customization and personal settings features. I would like to see Kanban provide mobile access to their tool, data, and board. This would be very useful for all companies and provide an increase in efficiency and productivity. Read full review MindGenius is not as intuitive as I would like it to be. Although there is a quick-key stroke or movement that will replicate a shape or field if I want to make a parent or child block, I never remember what it is. I always use the manual insert by clicking with the mouse and it takes longer. If CONTROL ENTER created a new shape field like "the last one" or the one where the cursor is blinking, that would help considerably. Changing the default visuals for a template or making a new template is overly time-consuming. Although I understand these details may only matter to someone as ULTRA-VISUAL a I am, if the font is too small or the shapes need to be visually altered, there is not a way to quickly grab those boxes and change the settings in one fell swoop. Although there is a way they can be changed, I have to navigate inside this and then inside this to get to the screen and then I have to figure out which changes the lines or the inside color of the shape etc. These details are a little overwhelming. It would be great if I could make one shape in the font and layout I want and then replicate that pattern to other shapes or apply a different color scheme to it entirely. If these features already exist, i cannot find them and I consider myself to be rather tech savvy. Read full review Likelihood to Renew We are more likely than not to renew our use of Kanban. Even with its limits, it still is a good product that fulfills our needs.
Read full review Usability Again, this is a strong tool for software teams using Agile that are distributed across multiple geographies. It can be good for co-located teams too, but there are better platforms on the market like
JIRA that provide a more built-out story.
Chris Carpenter Staff Project Manager, Awesomizer, Fixer, Maker, Collaboration Enabler
Read full review Support Rating This is the best tool I had a chance to work with- since I started to use it I saved a lot of time and I made my work go smoothly.
Read full review Alternatives Considered We've only tried JIRA Agile and KanbanFlow before. Kanban Tool was the one that our team actually liked and enjoyed working with. Also - it's been much easier to get started with and to understand than some of the other two (JIRA in particular). Although JIRA has many more features that we would have possibly used, the user feedback on it was so poor we were afraid that the negativity would create time wasted and less "job satisfaction" amongst the team.
Read full review I have not used another product like MindGenius. Although I use Microsoft One Note for sometimes making lists that sync across my PC and my devices, I do not have another mind-mapping programming. MindGenius only has an app for iPad and without accessibility on iOS, I have not been able to use it for my daily TO DO lists etc that I would otherwise do. I use One Note for that role since MG does not have a phone app
Read full review Return on Investment Better communication and organization of ongoing projects. We are a very small team, with many areas to work on. Having everything in one system gives us a lot of visibility. Greatly reduced costs from using other tools that were much more expensive. Read full review I have not tracked the positive or negative impact of MG on my overall business objectives. I have successfully used it in the aspects of my personal and professional management. MG helps me stay on track with my research and personal editing. It keeps me accountable so that I meet my deadlines. Although I have not applied a dollar value to it, it helps me signficantly. Read full review ScreenShots