Dream Chasers: Doing more, while staying small in team.

Ray, Senior Software Engineer of Aerovironment, Inc.

For many of us, the biggest challenge is to stay productive and organized as our team grows bigger and bigger. But it is the opposite for Ray.

Ray works as a senior software engineer in Aerovironment, Inc., a technology company located in California, United States. For him, the question is how to get more things done in a team that shrinked from 12 to 4–5 people.

“I found myself having to do many things simultaneously. But Quire has helped me prioritize with my work so I do not feel stressed.”

— Ray, Senior Software Engineer of Aerovironment, Inc.

I spoke to Ray about how Quire has helped him stay away from chaos and pressure. Here is the interview in a nutshell.

How did you find out about Quire?

Years ago, I used to use a PIM software called ECCO Pro. The thing I liked about it was that it allowed you to set up hierarchical to-do lists which is exactly how I think about my work. It seemed no other software did that at the time.

Unfortunately, the company went out of business. So I did a search to find a “hierarchical todo list” software, and Quire was what I found.

Was there any problem or challenge before you started using Quire?

Yes, there definitely was.

As our team got smaller, I found myself having to manage many projects at the same time, and trying to remember where I was in each one.

It was very difficult to stay organized, when your to-do list kept growing.

Mind telling us how has Quire helped you then?

I have been using Quire now for about 2 months now. It has helped me a great deal.

For example, it has helped me to prioritize my work and remember where I am in projects that I have to move away from and come back to. It has also helped me discipline myself to write things down, so I don’t feel stressed trying to keep everything in my head.

I use the tree structure to indicate dependencies — subtasks must be completed before their parent task is done.

Lastly, anything you would like to say to the Quire team?

Recently, I have begun adding tasks for my team members, inviting them to join Quire and asking them to check off tasks after completing them.

I believe eventually, Quire might just become the perfect team coordination tool — what it is especially designed to be — for us.