Panjango — Behind the Scenes №3

Panjango
Panjango
Sep 4, 2018 · 4 min read

Welcome again to the third edition of the Panjango: Behind the Scenes blog. Our crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter will launch imminently, and, again, we would love your support!

This week, we will reveal some of the tools and resources that we use to make the business tick, and let you know which ones we would recommend! We will also keep you up-to-date on what we’ve been getting up to in the run-up to our Kickstarter campaign! Grab a cuppa, sit back and read on…

The tools behind our business:

Our aim is to set Panjango up as a location-independent business that can operate and draw talent from anywhere in the world at any given time. We therefore use cloud-based tools that allow us to work and collaborate remotely. Here we share some of the tools we use and whether we would recommend other businesses use them…

1. G Suite (Google Drive and Google Docs)

  • Allows us to work remotely and collaborate on documents at the same time
  • Google Drive provides shared access to our files from anywhere in the world (and allows us to be a paper-free business)
  • Google Docs allow us to create professional documents to the same standard as the MS Office suite
  • Verdict: Recommend

2. Trello

  • Allows us to plan and schedule tasks and assign responsibility and due dates
  • All team members can see colleague’s workplans which enhances accountability and prompts support and collaboration
  • Each project / business segment is given its own board e.g. sales, operations, strategy etc
  • Use of boards and tiles (rather than lists) makes task management awkward and the presentation hard on the eye
  • Verdict: Do not recommend (we’re exploring alternatives)

3. Mailchimp

  • Offers easy to edit templates for repeated campaigns, such as our biweekly FutureLearn Newsletter
  • Simple interface but a wide range of customisation options
  • Has in-built feature to analyse traffic, reach and effectiveness of mailing campaigns compared to industry averages
  • Verdict: Recommend

5. Planable

  • A useful tool to schedule future social media posts all from one platform
  • Currently integrates Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn (Instagram is coming soon apparently)
  • Saves us a considerable amount of time in having to post to each social media platform individually, and by being able to batch schedule posts
  • One downside is that you can’t access all features on it, such as creating Twitter polls
  • Verdict: Recommend

6. FreeAgent

  • Online bookkeeping and accountancy software that is free for Natwest customers
  • Syncs with bank account to automatically upload all transaction details
  • Allows for instant preparation of Profit & Loss accounts and Balance Sheet statement
  • Means VAT returns and monthly payroll takes a matter of seconds
  • Verdict: Recommend

Our Week in Focus:

Panjango on the airwaves!

Our co-founder and CEO, Jon Maiden, was invited to talk on BBC Radio Sheffield to discuss why our exam-focused education system fails to equip young people with the knowledge, skills and experience needed to flourish in life after school. It took a brave man to take this stance live on air on GCSE results day! You can listen to the clip here at about 1:36:30, and his interview lasts for a few minutes…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/p06gscg5

Education Conference 2020?

Jon also attended a meeting in Snowdonia, to explore the first steps towards organising an education conference in 2020 on the topic of the future of learning. He took the opportunity to treat himself to a stay in the finest hotel in the area…

Creativity is now company policy!

We now made it company policy to hold at least two creative brainstorm sessions every week to ensure that our content stays fresh and we keep on innovating. These sessions involve us writing down every idea we have, no matter how weird or wonderful, all over the walls of our co-working space (don’t worry, the walls are all whiteboards!). This week, we’ve held brainstorming sessions to generate ideas for engaging new social media posts and to produce ideas for other games and exercises associated with the content in our new board game.

Side by Side on our side!

Having already signed off on the final artwork for our Panjango Trumps game, we met with our designers at Side by Side to review the initial design work for the new Panjango board game! We were really pleased with the initial designs, and we know that The Panjango Game is in safe hands with Dave and Ollie and their growing team.

We hope your week has been as productive as ours!

The Panjango Team

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Panjango

A world of experiential learning connecting learning to life. Transforming the way the world learns.

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