Microsoft Lists is a platform built to help you become a better team leader. It offers an intuitive environment for managing resources, people, or data and comes with a long list of features that let you customize it according to your unique needs. In this article, we will take a look at some of Microsoft Lists’ essential features and use cases and demonstrate how you can get started with it.
What is Microsoft Lists?
Microsoft Lists is a service that is designed to help people and organizations manage their ideas and workflow in a streamlined environment. Boasting various similarities with SharePoint, Microsoft Lists provides a collaborative platform that makes large-scale team-based operations manageable and tangible for everyone in the group. Microsoft List allows you to save statuses, photos, due dates, links, and more in one place, with a simple design that keeps things tidy and easy to understand for everyone. It provides organizing, managing, and tracking capabilities, to make sure your entire team is on the same page regarding projects. Naturally, it improves corporate communication so that all the team members are better prepared to handle a wide range of business scenarios. The best thing about Lists is that it’s part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, which means that all your data is synced between other Microsoft apps like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. In other words, you won’t have to juggle between browser tabs and apps to get to your saved data.
What is Microsoft Lists Used For?
Microsoft Lists is a very versatile platform, and it can be used for a vast number of things that require organizing. It provides multiple templates to manage different types of tasks, and it’s also very customizable. Here are some common use cases:
Organizing
If you’ve ever used a planner, scheduler, or a to-do list before, you’ll find yourself at home with Microsoft Lists. It employs similar mechanisms to help you segregate and arrange your data in a neat-looking board view. It comes with the option to create multiple lists so that one individual can manage different teams all at the same time on the same platform. For example, if you run a website, you can use Microsoft Lists to create two separate lists. One of those lists can be used to manage the content team, whereas the other can be used to keep track of the SEO team. This way, you have the ability to organize more than one group of people without even having to switch the window.
Task Management
One of the most popular use cases of this platform is task management, and that’s because with Lists you can do so in a very clean and organized manner. You can easily create new lists for every team and assign tasks to people, set deadlines, attach files, and all the information necessary to complete each task within the platform itself. Project managers can also keep track of the workflows as they can clearly see the tasks that are pending, ongoing, or finished. The platform offers the option to mark certain tasks as sensitive so that you and your team know what to prioritize first, all this in real-time. Now since Lists is an online application, multiple team members can collaborate, view, and edit the same task in real-time. It makes it very easy for team members to communicate and boosts their productivity.
Asset Management
Microsoft Lists comes with a dedicated template for managing your company assets. In other words, you can use it to keep track of whatever resources your company has issued to its employees. For example, if your company has issued multiple devices and software, you can use Microsoft Lists to keep track of check-in and check-out dates, the person currently using the device, if the device is in need of repair, and more.
Human Resource Management
Recruiting new employees and onboarding can be a challenging task if you are dealing with a large volume of applications, especially if they are being reviewed by more than one person. Microsoft Lists comes with very easy-to-set up templates that organize the entire hiring process. It does that by helping the interviewers keep track of all the applications and their statuses. They allow the whole team or select individuals to be on the same page when it comes to onboarding new people.
Client Ticket Tracker
Another popular use case of the Lists app is using it as a ticket tracker. You can create a public list where your clients or customers can raise a ticket to issue their complaints. These tickets are automatically arranged and assigned to respective teams, which cuts down the communication time and helps you better serve your customers in a faster and more efficient manner.
For example, if you run a SaaS business and use a Google form to communicate with your clients regarding their complaints and queries, you can use Microsoft Lists to make it more efficient. Lists is capable of automatically assigning particular tickets to the teams in charge so that it doesn’t have to be done manually.
Setting up such ticket tracker boards is also very easy, as you can use the pre-existing templates and customize them according to your use case.
How to Get Started with Microsoft Lists
Now that we have discussed all the features and use cases of Microsoft Lists let’s take a look at a few essential things you’ll need to know as you get started out with the app.
1. Create a List
Note: Here, you can choose among multiple pre-set templates to quickly set up your list. For the purpose of this article, we will be using a blank list.
2. Add Team Members
Now that you have your workspace set up, it’s time to invite your team members.
3. Create Tasks and Assign Them
4. Track Your Workflow
You and your team members can track the workflow of any task by simply changing its status, as explained above.However, you’ll first need to add a status column to your list in order to be able to do that.
5. Leave Comments
Apart from statuses, you can also use comments to communicate and keep track of your workflow. Image credit: Microsoft All screenshots by Ojash Yadav
If it’s a personal list that you’re using to manage your own assets or items, you can store the list in your One Drive accountIf you’re working on a list that’s been shared with multiple users, then the list gets stored on the platform itself.
