In the quest for the ultimate remote team collaboration tool, we’ve gathered insights from CEOs and CTOs to explore which applications truly enhance teamwork across the digital divide. From interactive meetings with Mentimeter to ensuring accountable editing in Google Workspace, our panel of twelve experts share their top picks and experiences. Here’s a look at the diverse range of tools that have transformed the way their teams communicate and collaborate.
- Interactive Meetings With Mentimeter
- Project Management via ActiveCollab
- Streamlined Workflow With Trello
- Monday.com for Cross-Timezone Collaboration
- Efficient Information Sharing With Loom
- Accountable Editing in Google Workspace
- Notion Enhances Content Collaboration
- Organized Conversations Using Slack
- Centralized Collaboration With Microsoft Teams
- Figma Facilitates Real-Time Design Work
- Streamlined Project Management With ClickUp
- Asana Integrates for Enhanced Productivity
Interactive Meetings With Mentimeter
I often prefer Mentimeter for interactive meetings, training, and presentations. It revolutionizes collaboration by allowing real-time audience interaction, transforming presentations into engaging, participatory experiences. It is ideal for teachers, team leaders, and event organizers looking to make their sessions interactive and inclusive.
It moves beyond traditional one-way presentations by incorporating interactive features such as live polls, Q&A sessions, and word clouds for brainstorming. It supports quiz competitions for added engagement and offers collaborative documents to streamline decision-making. It enhances efficiency and insight through integration with Microsoft Teams and PowerPoint, along with customizable templates and robust analytics. Well, it is free to join, and paid plans start at $11.99 per presenter per month.
I recently used Mentimeter for a team training session, and it proved to be a game-changer. The interactive features allowed for active participation from all team members, leading to more meaningful discussions and brainstorming sessions. It also provided valuable insights through the analytics feature, allowing us to identify areas of improvement for our team.
Daniel Cook
HR / Marketing Executive, Mullen and Mullen
Project Management via ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab: for those who’ve not heard of it, it’s a project management tool that actively seeks to facilitate communication and collaboration among remote team members. It provides a centralized platform for communication and file sharing, and is especially useful for client communication.
As a digital marketing firm, we work with a range of clients on a variety of projects, and with ActiveCollab, clients can easily be added as guests with controlled access. This allows our clients to take a glimpse at our team’s workflow, participate in discussions, and ask questions about their projects from a singular location. This, in turn, reduces the need for lengthy email threads and helps keep all parties on the same page at the same time.
The platform also integrates with popular tools like Slack, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Xero, which allows for workflow streamlining. Within my team’s remote work environment, this has led to more successful project outcomes and satisfied clients.
Ajay Chavda
CTO, Mojo Dojo
Streamlined Workflow With Trello
Trello is the best platform you can ever use for remote teamwork. The board design of this tool has remarkably changed our mode of communication and collaboration.
For instance, in a recent meeting, we had to discuss content marketing strategies. A Trello board was formed, which represented different stages of content production in list forms: idea generation, drafting, review, and publishing.
Each particular task had its card with deadlines, assignees, and any relevant checklists it required.
During the meeting, members could update their cards by adjusting them in real-time with ideas and comments, or even attaching documents directly to tasks assigned. This way, there was no need to send many follow-up emails or chats since everything was kept in one place in Trello.
The board’s visual nature enabled us to easily tell where each item lay in terms of progress, hence making it simpler to find any hindrances that could be addressed immediately.
Google Drive and other tools’ integration with Trello also turned out to be priceless. We were able to attach drafts right on the cards so that we could review them as a group, leaving feedback at once. This systematized the whole process, thus saving time and reducing miscommunications.
The important thing here is that such a well-arranged collaboration tool improves communication and efficiency among team members who work remotely from one another.
If you are struggling to keep your team organized and on track, you should try using Trello. It will make your projects clear-cut and productive, ensuring all are moving together toward one goal.
Soubhik Chakrabarti
CEO, Canada Hustle
Monday.com for Cross-Timezone Collaboration
For our team, Monday.com has been an incredibly effective tool for managing projects, tracking tasks, and fostering seamless collaboration across different time zones.
Monday.com helps the team stay on top of multiple ongoing projects even if we work remotely. Its intuitive interface makes it easy to see the status of projects at a glance, and this is mostly thanks to its customizable dashboards, which allow us to track tasks with all the most relevant updates.
One of Monday.com’s key strengths is its flexibility. We can create custom workflows tailored to our specific processes, whether it’s for a marketing campaign, product development, or customer onboarding. This has proven useful for many of our different processes.
Monday.com also integrates well with other tools we use, such as Slack, Google Drive, and Zoom. This integration allows us to manage everything from one place, reducing the need to switch between different apps.
We used Monday.com to set up a project board where tasks were broken down into phases—ideation, development, testing, and launch. Each phase had specific tasks assigned to different team members, with clear deadlines and dependencies. This setup allowed everyone to see the project’s progress in real-time, ensuring that all tasks were on track.
During the testing phase, we encountered a few bugs that required immediate attention. Thanks to Monday.com’s communication features, the product team was instantly notified and could prioritize and resolve the issues quickly. The marketing team could also prepare the launch materials in parallel, knowing exactly when the product would be ready for release.
Monday.com has helped us manage complex projects with remote teams, providing the structure and transparency needed to keep everyone aligned and productive.
Emelie Linheden
VP of Marketing, Younium AB
Efficient Information Sharing With Loom
Loom allows us to share information most accurately by recording entire screen activities. This eliminates the need for lengthy, boring meetings, as we can simply record our screen while explaining. As a team that dislikes unproductive meetings, Loom is an invaluable tool.
Kris Flank
Head of Growth, LunarLinks
Accountable Editing in Google Workspace
Google Workspace is the best collaboration tool for us. It allows for accountable file editing because the owner can view the file’s activity history, making it easy to identify who made what changes. As for my team, I encourage open communication and the sharing of ideas, and they can freely adjust what is written with the initial plans. With this tool, I can see the employees who often contribute and, at the same time, get in touch with the ones who need coaching.
Jason Davis
Founder | E-Commerce SEO Guru, Makarios Marketing
Notion Enhances Content Collaboration
We’ve found Notion to be the most effective collaboration tool for our remote team. Its versatility in combining project management, document creation, and database functionality has been crucial in streamlining our operations.
One example of how Notion has facilitated seamless collaboration is in our content creation process. We’ve set up a content calendar database where team members can pitch ideas, track article progress, and collaborate on drafts. Recently, when developing a comprehensive guide on solar panel efficiency, our content writer in Sydney, technical expert in Melbourne, and editor in Brisbane were able to work simultaneously on different sections of the document.
The real-time editing feature allowed for instant feedback and iterations, while the comment function facilitated discussions on technical details without cluttering the main text. We also used Notion’s relational databases to link relevant research papers and customer feedback directly to the article draft.
This integrated approach not only sped up our content creation process by 30% but also improved the quality and accuracy of our guides, as evidenced by a 24% increase in positive reader feedback.
Ben McInerney
Founder and Director, GoSolarQuotes
Organized Conversations Using Slack
I have found Slack perfect for easy communication. Its messaging platform centralizes workplace conversations, transforming scattered discussions into an organized hub. It facilitates chatting, file sharing, and collaboration without the chaos of email overload, like a digital office water cooler. It serves various users, from corporate teams to developers, marketers, remote workers, and even local bands.
You see, it simplifies communication by creating channels for specific topics or projects, keeping conversations organized, and preventing information overload. It integrates with third-party apps, provides searchable archives, and allows for direct messaging, file sharing, and video or voice calls. Customizable notifications keep you informed without being overwhelmed, and @mentions ensure important updates reach the right people.
I remember one specific instance where Slack helped facilitate seamless communication and collaboration among team members. We were working on a project with tight deadlines, and our team was spread across different time zones. We were able to have real-time discussions and updates without having to wait for everyone to be online at the same time through the use of channels in Slack. This saved us time and allowed us to make decisions quickly and keep the project moving forward. It is free to join, with paid plans starting at $7.25 per active user per month.
Neil Emmett
Chief Executive Officer, Bend Advisory Group
Centralized Collaboration With Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams has been incredibly effective for remote collaboration. Its integration of chat, video meetings, and file sharing keeps everything centralized and accessible. For example, using Teams for a project allowed us to collaborate on documents in real time, and the seamless transition between chats and video calls kept discussions fluid and focused. This tool has significantly improved our efficiency, ensuring that every team member stays in sync and engaged, no matter where they are.
Josh Bolstad
Entrepreneur, Niche Ranker
Figma Facilitates Real-Time Design Work
I have found Figma to be the most effective collaboration tool for our remote design team. This cloud-based design platform has truly transformed the way we work together, despite being physically apart.
One standout example of Figma’s impact is a recent client project where we needed to rapidly iterate on a complex UI design. With Figma, our designers were able to:
- Simultaneously work on the same design file in real-time.
- See each other’s cursors and changes instantly.
- Leave contextual comments and feedback right on the designs.
- Easily share interactive prototypes with the client for review.
This seamless collaboration enabled us to quickly align on design decisions, incorporate feedback, and deliver a polished UI in record time. The client was thrilled with both the efficiency of our process and the end result.
Beyond design collaboration, Figma has also become a central hub for our entire remote team. We use it to:
- Share design systems and style guides for consistency.
- Present and brainstorm ideas together using Figma’s whiteboarding tools.
- Handoff finalized designs to developers with automatic specs and assets.
Integrating Figma into our workflow has not only boosted our productivity but has also helped maintain a strong sense of teamwork and creative synergy while fully remote. It’s an indispensable tool that I would highly recommend to any digital team looking to collaborate seamlessly from anywhere.
Brogan Renshaw
Managing Director, Firewire Digital
Streamlined Project Management With ClickUp
ClickUp has been a great tool for our team. Even though it’s been challenging to get everybody to adopt it as our central communication tool—because Slack is an easier communication platform—we found ClickUp to be the most streamlined and all-in-one tool that we could find. It brings together multiple documents, tasks, dashboards, timelines, and centralized communication in a way that makes our very complex projects much simpler to handle.
Before ClickUp, we used spreadsheets as our main point of communication within the team. Now, we have templates that guide us through specific steps for each task, SOPs, and quality control checklists. This allows us to customize every project based on our clients’ needs, helping us manage about 30% more project load with less stress and confusion.
Michelle Garrison
Co-Founder, We & Goliath
Asana Integrates for Enhanced Productivity
Asana has completely transformed the way we collaborate with our remote team members, since it has strong API support. This tool helps in the management of our projects, as everything is facilitated from one place and in an orderly manner. With the API integration, we can link Asana with other important applications such as Slack, Google Drive, GitHub, and many more. This connectivity makes the working environment more productive, since changes made in one tool are reflected in other tools used.
The best piece of advice regarding Asana’s usefulness is to leverage automated workflows. For example, we created an automation that connects Asana with Slack. Whenever a new task is assigned, the relevant team member receives an instant Slack notification, ensuring they are promptly aware of their responsibilities.
This reduces the chances of tasks slipping through the cracks and keeps everyone aligned without the need for constant follow-up emails. After embedding Asana into our productive space, we’ve enhanced our communication, improved task management, and boosted our overall productivity.
Chris Roy
Product and Marketing Director, Claimsline
