Do productivity tools actually make teams more productive?

[Keynote Speech]

There seems to be an endless number of productivity tools now, from project management platforms and collaboration apps to time trackers and dashboards.

In theory, they should make teams more organised and efficient, but I sometimes wonder whether they just shift work around rather than genuinely improving productivity.

In your experience, have these tools actually improved how your team works, or do they sometimes create more problems than they solve?

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Process increases productivity.

SAAS/platforms aid in productivity.

A big mistake can be changing your process to meet the SAAS requirements!

 

[GLAbusiness]

Process increases productivity.

SAAS/platforms aid in productivity.

A big mistake can be changing your process to meet the SAAS requirements!

Agree. A key learning is to use the right toll for the job

Remember - Give a kid a hammer and everything looks like a nail

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Give a kid a hammer and everything looks like a nail

I like that!!

 

[fisicx]

As @Paul Kelly ICHYB said, processes affect productivity. Change the process and you can increase productivity. Or even just apply the process correctly.

Tools are just aids. They won’t fix a broken process. That’s the job of management.

Paul I know is lazy. Buying some AI gizmo won’t stop Paul being lazy. You need an arse kicking machine to get Paul working.

 

[Data Swami]

Definitely alot of "tools" that get sold as the thing that will solve everyones ability to do work. Most of the time they arent setup properly to be able to be productive but as everyone has said more importantly its not setup to follow any meaningful process. And to be fair most businesses have a "process" but thats not the reality of how Gladys does her job on the day to day. Mostly because system X was designed to do one thing but actually doesnt work so she has a seperate spreadsheet that runs another 15 other spreadsheets as 1 time something different was needed and now someone needs it in their emails every week while they leave it un read.

 

[Keynote Speech]

Definitely alot of "tools" that get sold as the thing that will solve everyones ability to do work. Most of the time they arent setup properly to be able to be productive but as everyone has said more importantly its not setup to follow any meaningful process. And to be fair most businesses have a "process" but thats not the reality of how Gladys does her job on the day to day. Mostly because system X was designed to do one thing but actually doesnt work so she has a seperate spreadsheet that runs another 15 other spreadsheets as 1 time something different was needed and now someone needs it in their emails every week while they leave it un read.

That’s a great example of how things actually work in the real world. The official process might exist on paper, but the day to day reality often ends up being a mix of workarounds and spreadsheets that evolved over time.

Do you think that happens mostly because the tools don’t quite fit the job, or because processes change faster than the systems people are using?

 

[Keynote Speech]

Agree. A key learning is to use the right toll for the job

Remember - Give a kid a hammer and everything looks like a nail

I love that way of putting it! Once a team commits to a particular tool it can be tempting to try and make it solve every problem, even when it’s not really built for that job.

Do you find teams tend to standardise around one platform, or keep a mix depending on what they’re trying to do?

 

[Data Swami]

That’s a great example of how things actually work in the real world. The official process might exist on paper, but the day to day reality often ends up being a mix of workarounds and spreadsheets that evolved over time.

Do you think that happens mostly because the tools don’t quite fit the job, or because processes change faster than the systems people are using?

The way i have seen it is a bit of both. Alot of these "transformations" are lead from the top with very little to no actual deep dive with process runners so they never see the state on the ground and whoever helps plan or implement it focuses more on the leaders opinion and beliefs. Process changes do happen over time too and old systems fall over so you need backups but no one ever goes back to make those backups redundant and there is so much debt in terms of building tech that.

But what you have to remember these platforms are setup to try and be a fit all and in doing so they never quite meet each individual circumstance so to actually get them to work properly for a business they need to know how and where to embed things in their process within some of these tools/how to set them up for their processes and where it doesnt fit so its not a matter of just replicating work because someone said we should use monday.com as it will make us all efficient

 

[GLAbusiness]

I love that way of putting it! Once a team commits to a particular tool it can be tempting to try and make it solve every problem, even when it’s not really built for that job.

Do you find teams tend to standardise around one platform, or keep a mix depending on what they’re trying to do?

Its the silo problem. Businesses need some way to assess the use of different tools. In a large organisation you may find a software architect doing this role.

In SME it would be too expensive to maintain such a role.

This is where AI can help. Define the need and ask it to recommend a tool.

However, in small organisations you probably find the tool choice skewed by the available expertise

 

[Data Swami]

Its the silo problem. Businesses need some way to assess the use of different tools. In a large organisation you may find a software architect doing this role.

In SME it would be too expensive to maintain such a role.

This is where AI can help. Define the need and ask it to recommend a tool.

However, in small organisations you probably find the tool choice skewed by the available expertise

Only problem with using AI to recommend a tool is that unless you are really really specific about your needs and use something say like manus or claude cowork to properly research analyse and determine how you work etc it will give you a recommendation of something that doesnt fit.

Its where SMEs need some form of consultant for these sorts of things so they dont get bogged down by that rubbish but as with anything with the AI space we do have far too many charlatans that will recommend dross just like the big 4 consultants. From how I work I do it like a "fractional lead" so they get the knowledge and experience without needing a full time architect as most SMEs dont need a full time tech team

 

[Peter Morris]

There seems to be an endless number of productivity tools now, from project management platforms and collaboration apps to time trackers and dashboards.

In theory, they should make teams more organised and efficient, but I sometimes wonder whether they just shift work around rather than genuinely improving productivity.

In your experience, have these tools actually improved how your team works, or do they sometimes create more problems than they solve?

I’ve found productivity tools can be both a blessing and a burden. The right ones definitely help with visibility and coordination, especially when a team is spread out, but too many tools can create “tool fatigue” and just move tasks around instead of simplifying them.

For me, the biggest difference comes when the team agrees on one central system and sticks to it. When everyone uses the same platform consistently, it genuinely improves workflow. But when multiple tools overlap, it often adds more friction than value.

So I’d say: tools themselves aren’t the problem, it’s how disciplined the team is in using them.

 

[VacatAd]

We switched to ClickUp about 18 months ago after trying most of the others. Agree with @paul what sold it was that we could mould it around our existing process rather than rebuilding everything to suit the software. Once we got clear on our own workflow first, the tool slotted in.