Several months back, I was working on a large project with lots of moving parts. We had files and assets distributed across various different platforms and tools. Each of these tools or platforms worked great for their individual purpose, but it quickly became difficult for the client (and even our team) to easily keep up with where items were.
Were the wireframes in InVision or Dropbox? In which repo is this piece of the project being managed? Is that provided content on Drive or in Basecamp uploads?
I quickly realized that our standard PM tool didn’t have a user-friendly solution for a centralized repository of project information, but we had to solve this situation fast. With around 15 team and client members on the project, it was crucial that there was a clear and easy-to-use place that everyone could find what they needed at any time.
Project Hub
What is faster than creating a markdown file? I decided the easiest and fastest solution was to add a markdown file to our main project repo called Project Hub. The Hub became a simple list of links to the latest project resources, including items like:
Table of Contents (a big list) & Project Team Profiles
Staging Environments
Design Comps
Wireframe Files
Technical Documentation
Learning Resources & Articles for Code Standards
This solution worked well, as it was located in a central place right inside our GitHub repo—a place the team visits daily. Updates to the Hub synced with our Slack channel, and having simple Markdown links allowed everyone to still use the tools they felt were best for the project.
Start Your Own Hub
It was a great first step, and we are continually figuring out how to improve our processes in this area even more. We have a sample project hub available on Github now.
Grab the Sample Project Hub
Feel free to use and improve it and share how you shape it for your projects!
