Keeping Everyone Aligned with Project Management Tools

One of the hardest balances to master as a leader is staying informed about your team’s work without crossing the line into micromanaging them. You want to support them, remove roadblocks, and guide outcomes without making them feel like you’re hovering. Here’s a framework I’ve found effective for maintaining that balance: 1. Set the Tone Early Make it clear that your intent is to support, not control. For example: “We’ll need regular updates to discuss progress and so I can effectively champion this work in other forums. My goal is to ensure you have what you need, to help where it’s most valuable, and help others see the value you’re delivering.” 2. Create a Cadence of Check-Ins Establish structured moments for updates to avoid constant interruptions. Weekly or biweekly check-ins with a clear agenda help: • Progress: What’s done? • Challenges: What’s blocking progress? • Next Steps: What’s coming up? This predictability builds trust while keeping everyone aligned. 3. Ask High-Leverage Questions Stay focused on outcomes by asking strategic questions like: • “What’s the biggest risk right now?” • “What decisions need my input?” • “What’s working that we can replicate?” This approach keeps the conversation productive and empowering. 4. Define Metrics and Milestones Collaborate with your team to define success metrics and use shared dashboards to track progress. This allows you to stay updated without manual reporting or extra meetings. 5. Empower Ownership Show your trust by encouraging problem-solving: “If you run into an issue, let me know your proposed solutions, and we’ll work through it together.” When the team owns their work, they’ll take greater pride in the results. 6. Leverage Technology Use tools like Asana, Jira, or Trello to centralize updates. Shared project platforms give you visibility while letting your team focus on execution. 7. Solicit Feedback Ask your team: “Am I giving you enough space, or would you prefer more or less input from me?” This not only fosters trust but also helps you refine your approach as a leader. Final Thought: Growing up playing sports, none of my coaches ever suited up and got in the game with the players on the field. As a leader, you should follow the same discipline. How do you stay informed without micromanaging? What would you add? #leadership #peoplemanagement #projectmanagement #leadershipdevelopment

Lots of folks ask, “Pelin, how does Zeplin use Zeplin?”. This is something I care deeply about, so I’ll tell you all about how we organize and document our projects. 🗃️ 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗪𝗘 𝗢𝗥𝗚𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗭𝗘 First up, for each new feature, we create a new project in Zeplin. I’ve seen lots of people use a single project like “Mobile app” and jam all the screens in there. That will get out of control pretty quickly. We use milestones as a way to divide up the features we work on. Depending on the feature, all of the milestones might get released to production (a great way to quickly gather feedback) or some of the milestones could be internal, for planning and QA purposes. But regardless, milestones are the way we split up larger features. So naturally, we use milestones to organize screens within our Zeplin projects, as sections. At the end of the day, here’s how we set things up: - Each project is a feature, an epic that a specific team is working on - Each section in the project aligns with a milestone, a sub-feature or a story We also use screen variants a LOT to help us have a clean dashboard. When someone’s looking at the project, they won’t see many states of the same screen, cluttering up the view. Things like empty states, error states are all rolled into one. 🏷️ 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗪𝗘 𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦 We also care a lot about naming our projects, sections and screens. Whatever you see as the section title should be very clear and to the point; often folks I see use really long names that no one can read quickly. This might be a habit you get from naming frames in design tools — but in Zeplin there are multiple levels of organization, so make it easy for people to glance and know what it’s about. Here’s an example: - Project: Approvals 2.0 - Section: Milestone 1 — Project Dashboard  - Screen: Request approval dialog   - Screen variants: Default, Loading, Error 🔀 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗪𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗬 𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗘𝗗 We create a bot Slack channel for all of our projects, and invite people working on the project. That’s where we keep all the notifications for new screens, new screen versions and comments.  We also link each section to its Jira ticket, so with the Jira + Zeplin integration, it lets us see the status right inside Zeplin. ~~~ Whew, this was a lot. These habits help us stay aligned here at Zeplin, and I hope they’ll help you too!

In one year, an Inc 5000 CEO whose revenue growth had stalled grew to their highest revenue AND most profitable year ever. They focused on simplifying their execution system down to these 5 key elements. Here's their 'Vision to Results' Playbook: 1. Simplify The CEO eliminated multiple project tools, tracking spreadsheets, and complex workflow diagrams. They consolidated everything into one platform (ResultMaps) where teams could see priorities, progress and issues clearly. Pro Tip: When everyone sees the same picture of reality, people naturally begin making better decisions. 2. Focus on communication quality over quantity They replaced scattered status meetings, constant messages and reports with three powerful rhythms: - Quick 90-second daily updates in ResultMaps to keep everyone aligned  - One focused weekly meeting to track progress and solve problems - Quarterly business reviews Every update tied directly to company targets, so teams always worked on what mattered most. 3. Create clear ownership without micromanagement Rather than constant check-ins, they mapped clear accountability and let teams drive. Everyone could see how their work connected to company goals. 4. Let the data surface problems early With everything visible in one place, the team could spot trends and patterns before they became issues. No more surprises in projects and quarterly reviews 5. Build momentum through wins Teams could see their impact directly. The development team went from needing oversight to driving results independently. ________ Here's a real-world example of how this worked: Their development team began living in ResultMaps. The CEO could check progress anytime without interrupting work or calling meetings. Issues surfaced faster and got solved before becoming problems. ________ I'm sure many of you are thinking... "This sounds too simple to actually work." I get it. But consider this: Most companies make execution complex by adding more tools, more meetings, and more oversight. This CEO proved simpler is better - one platform, clear visibility, real results. The playbook is timeless and will work for any company that wants to: - Make vision shared by everyone - Create clear ownership - Drive more engagement - Drive real results Traditional approaches of tool sprawl and constant meetings will only get you so far. DM me if you'd like to learn more about implementing this playbook.