November 2017 Summaries

KeyRocket is a tool that helps users learn Windows, Gmail, and Microsoft Office keyboard shortcuts intuitively, by notifying them of shortcuts they can use instead of using their mouse. CheatSheet is a free Mac app that displays all available shortcuts for the application being used at any given time. ShortcutFoo gamifies learning keyboard shortcuts in business programs like Trello and Sublime Text, allowing users to practice with online flashcards and compete against others. Application Shortcut Mapper is an interactive keyboard image that allows users to visualize shortcuts without digging through a help menu. Additionally, there are tricks for finding keyboard shortcuts in most programs, such as checking the Help menu or menus, using Google app shortcuts, or pressing specific keys on an iPad keyboard.

You can start building workflows and connecting all your apps with Zapier, a workflow automation tool that helps you automate tasks, streamline processes, and increase productivity. With Zapier, you can automate social media posts for marketers, reduce follow-up time for real estate brokers, and cut out 5 hours of manual work per week for tech support companies. Various businesses across different industries, including education, freelancers, government, human resources, information technology, journalists, lawyers, nonprofits, real estate, sales, small business owners, and more, have successfully implemented automation using Zapier to save time, increase efficiency, and improve customer experience. By sharing their stories, these companies demonstrate how Zapier can be used to automate tasks, streamline processes, and achieve business goals.

RoverPass, a platform for campers and RVers, uses the app automation tool Zapier to streamline their workflow and notify their team of important updates in real-time. By connecting independently useful apps like Slack, Wufoo, and ScheduleOnce, RoverPass automates notifications and keeps their team informed, saving them six hours each week. The company's Marketing and Content Manager, Davina Bruno Adcock, uses Zapier to send messages through Slack, track payments, and receive cancellations, allowing her team to focus on developing useful content instead of manually creating workflows.

It's a common struggle many businesses face, trying to manage their manual workloads while focusing on growth and scalability. Rush Tech Support, a remote tech support company, turned to app automation tool Zapier to streamline their workflow and increase productivity. With Zapier, they can instantly create order databases, automate sales tracking, and build a service request database in both Podio and Freshdesk. This has allowed them to free up time for Andrew Lassise, the owner, to focus on larger deals and ensure consistent data across all systems. By leveraging Zapier's automation capabilities, Rush Tech Support can now manage their workload more efficiently, reducing manual data entry by 5 hours every week.

Creativity is not exclusive to artists but drives innovation in every field. Developing a system for capturing and organizing ideas is crucial to finding inspiration and pitching new projects. An idea file can be a valuable asset, helping to foster creativity by jotting down every single idea that comes into your head. A comprehensive and well-organized idea file requires both a systematic approach to capture ideas and a structured form to organize them. Capturing ideas in a note-taking application such as Evernote or OneNote, and organizing them in a Google spreadsheet, can help make the process more efficient. Setting up a Zap with Zapier that links the two together allows for an automated workflow, making it easier to review and use the idea file. Regularly reviewing and grooming the idea file by categorizing ideas, grading quality, expanding on ideas, adding new ones, sorting, filtering, and weeding out weak ideas can help tap into its power and boost creativity. By putting the idea file into daily practice, you can start every project with fresh thinking, win new professional opportunities, get energized, prepare for meetings, and gain inspiration from your top ideas.

Australian Woodwork, a family-owned business, started as a stall at Sydney's Rocks Markets and transitioned online with the help of their son, Ben Davidson, who brought them into eCommerce. However, they found themselves bogged down in the tedium of manual tasks such as managing customer email lists and tracking sales. With the help of Zapier, an app automation tool, they were able to automate these tasks, saving over 90% of time spent manually copying and pasting data into spreadsheets. This allowed them to focus on marketing and advertising, increasing their average order size, and ultimately improving their business operations. By integrating their sales funnel with email lists in MailChimp and tracking sales automatically through Google Sheets, Australian Woodwork was able to streamline their workflow, reduce manual labor, and increase productivity.

As a data engineer and analyst, I applied the "build-measure-learn" technique from product development to my job search, identifying my target market and learning how to appeal to them through "growth hacking". I created a list of dream companies by aggregating existing lists, considering factors like corporate transparency, remote-first mentality, and commitment to building a team for the long term. To sell myself to these companies, I focused on what they would gain from having me on their team, rather than just what I could get from them. I ran an outbound sales process, identifying key recipients, drafting personalized emails that showcased how I could make their life easier, and using trackable email tech to measure results. With persistence and the right approach, I was able to land my dream job. Ultimately, success in a job search requires being good at what you do and having a system in place, but it's also about understanding your target market and how you can add value to their organization.

Covalence, a coding bootcamp, implemented automation tools to streamline their processes as they grew from one location in Alabama to five locations across three southeastern states. They transitioned to app automation tool Zapier to automate connections between apps and reduce manual work. With Zapier, Covalence can now automatically create Quickbooks invoices, send notifications, and update their CRM, freeing up employees to focus on more important tasks such as interacting with applicants, students, and employers. The implementation of automation tools has increased productivity and reduced the time spent on manual processes, allowing the team to concentrate on serving their students better.

Software estimation is inherently flawed due to the limitations of human cognition, as illustrated by an experiment conducted within Zapier. The experiment revealed that estimates can vary significantly based on how questions are framed, emphasizing the impact of cognitive biases such as priming. This is connected to the two systems of thinking described in Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow": System 1, which is fast but prone to errors, and System 2, which is more accurate but lazy. These biases, combined with the invisible and complex nature of software projects, make precise estimation difficult. Despite these challenges, estimation remains a necessary practice for setting shared targets and making informed decisions, though it should be approached with an understanding of its limitations. Techniques such as delaying immediate responses, breaking projects into smaller tasks, and using heuristic-based scorecards can help mitigate some of the cognitive pitfalls associated with estimation.

BarkBox, a dog treats, toys, and gifts subscription box service, has implemented various automation tools, including Zapier, to streamline its operations and improve efficiency. Miranda Short, Quality Assurance Lead at BarkBox, utilized Zapier to automate workflows and reminders for tasks such as donation requests, customer journey mapping, process improvement, bug reporting, and escalation. She set up Zaps that send Google Form responses directly to Zendesk tickets, creating a more efficient approval process for donations. Additionally, she used Zapier to create daily reminders with Google Calendar and Slack notifications, ensuring the team's work schedule runs smoothly, including on- and off-leash periods for employees' dogs in the office. Miranda also created Zaps that send emails from Google Calendar event start times, helping employees remember training sessions when working remotely. Her implementation of Zapier has significantly reduced wait times and increased productivity, allowing her to focus on more strategic tasks.

The Zapier Design Team has developed methods and tools to make remote design a way of life, including raising communication bandwidth through tools like Slack, Async, and Quip, establishing async <> sync workflows with tools like Airtable, GitHub, and Invision, encouraging creative solitude by leveraging virtual office communication and quiet spaces, and fostering an inclusive research culture where anyone in the company can participate and collaborate.

Expense reports don't have to be stressful with the help of various expense reporting software that can automate tasks, track expenses, and provide insights into company spending. The top seven apps include Expensify for automated expense tracking, Zoho Expense for automated approval workflows, Xpenditure for insights into company expenses, MileIQ for mileage tracking, Abacus for automated approval workflows, Shoeboxed for mailed-in receipt scanning, and Certify for making better purchasing decisions. These apps offer features such as automatic receipt upload, GPS tracking, and mobile apps that can streamline the expense reporting process, saving time and reducing errors. With their intuitive interfaces and customizable settings, these apps cater to different business needs and can help teams make more informed decisions about company spending.

Ryan Robinson, a content marketing consultant, and Steli Efti, founder and CEO of Close.io created the Inside Sales Summit, an online conference with over 50 sales experts, to interview best minds in sales. To organize this virtual event, Ryan used app automation tool Zapier to connect his apps, save time, and focus on the summit. With Zapier's automation, he automatically created video meetings in his calendar, uploaded videos to Wistia for editing, and saved hours every week. By automating manual processes, Ryan was able to expand his outreach, bringing more experts to the summit, and free up time to improve his workflow and productivity.

The Soldiers Project, a non-profit organization providing free counseling services to post-9/11 veterans and their families, was facing an issue with manual data entry and registration processes for its clinicians. To streamline these tasks, the organization turned to Zapier, an app automation tool, which enabled them to create powerful Zaps that automatically registered new attendees from Eventbrite into AnyMeeting webinars and then into Salesforce as leads. With this solution, The Soldiers Project was able to free up staff time, reduce manual errors, and focus on providing mental health services to the soldiers they serve.

The youthSpark organization has developed a system called Demand Tracker, an automated deterrent initiative aimed at reducing child exploitation and sex trafficking rates in Georgia and across the country. The system utilizes Twilio's Communications APIs and Airtable's database builder to automatically log calls made to decoy phone numbers and send deterrence text messages to prospective traffickers. Without requiring software development expertise, youthSpark was able to create a potentially effective deterrent within just a few weeks. The organization's use of automation tools, such as Zapier, enabled them to overcome the challenge of finding developers with the necessary skills and budget to bring Demand Tracker to life.

Difficult customers can have a significant impact on a company's bottom line, affecting team morale and long-term business success. A customer's negative experience can spread quickly through social media, making it crucial for support teams to respond with composure and understanding. To handle unhappy customers, experts recommend depersonalizing the situation by focusing on finding solutions rather than taking it personally. This approach involves using positive language, staying even-keeled, and providing alternatives or explaining next steps. Staying objective and empathetic is also essential in managing challenging customer conversations. By adopting these strategies, support teams can maintain high standards while making better decisions, no matter what comes their way.

The Palm Beach Tech Association is a nonprofit organization that aims to unite and build up the technology industries in Palm Beach County, Florida. By offering collaborative workspaces, industry meetups, jobs boards, and more, they have become one of the largest innovation organizations in the region. The association has implemented various initiatives, including an educational pipeline for local tech companies, a local careers board, and a social media automation tool using Zapier to streamline their publishing efforts. With Zapier, the association can now save time and effort by automating tasks such as posting job opportunities on multiple social media channels, allowing them to focus more on building networks and fostering community.

The evolution of public-facing APIs on the Internet has seen a progression from basic authentication methods like Basic Authentication, which involved using a username and password, to more advanced methods such as API Keys and, more recently, OAuth v2. Each method presents its own set of challenges, particularly when transitioning from older to newer authentication methods. OAuth v2, now the most common method, offers enhanced security and ease of use with its support for fine-grained permissions and token refreshing. However, switching to OAuth v2 requires careful planning to ensure smooth migration for users, such as providing a special authorization migration endpoint to help convert existing records without disrupting service. Developers must consider potential pitfalls like OAuth client ID bindings and compliance with updated rules during migration. Examples of successful transitions to OAuth v2 include platforms like Asana, Dropbox, Vimeo, and Todoist, which have set up endpoints to facilitate these changes. The transition to newer schemes like OAuth v2 is beneficial but requires thoughtful implementation to maintain seamless user experiences, and leveraging platforms like Zapier can further enhance API usability without additional coding.