Simon McCade
Why ClickUp's learning curve doesn't matter (and yours might not either)
Why ClickUp's learning curve doesn't matter (and yours might not either)
Simon McCade
In this teardown, we explore ClickUp 4.0 and evaluate its bold claims about replacing all your existing software with unlimited AI agents. We take a closer look at the platform's extensive feature set, including tasks, mind maps, and roadmaps.
Why ClickUp's learning curve doesn't matter (and yours might not either)
Simon McCade
In this teardown, we explore ClickUp 4.0 and evaluate its bold claims about replacing all your existing software with unlimited AI agents. We take a closer look at the platform's extensive feature set, including tasks, mind maps, and roadmaps.
Chapters
00:00
Introduction
Welcome to the ClickUp 4.0 teardown video.
00:08
ClickUp 4.0 Overview
01:00
Exploring Core Features
Transcript
00:00
All right, guys, welcome to another teardown.
00:02
This time we're going to take a look at ClickUp.
00:04
there's some pretty bold claims on this website, like replacing every app and every team with unlimited AI agents, as we scroll down here, we can see there is quite a lot to this product.
00:15
So, yes, you've got projects and you've got tasks, integrated chat.
00:21
But is the UX any good?
00:22
And what's that first experience like?
00:25
So I'm going to sign up for the product, go through the onboarding, get in there, maybe create my first project, add a few tasks, see if we can get any value from it early on.
00:35
All right, so if I click, sign up over here.
00:38
so this is an interesting approach, that blurred the background and we've got a model here that asks me for my work email.
00:46
I like the simplicity of this.
00:47
I also like the fact that teasing the product in the background here.
00:50
So I'm eager to put my email in, and then sign up.
00:53
click Sign up for free.
00:54
So after adding our email, we're taken to the next step in the process.
00:57
Here, for whatever reason, it looks like we've gone into dark mode.
01:01
I haven't changed anything.
01:02
so not quite sure why that's happened.
01:05
We can see we still have the product, in the background here, so hopefully we're not a million miles away, from getting in there.
01:11
So, first question.
01:12
what would you like to use ClickUp for?
01:14
Let's go for, work.
01:16
So what would you like to manage?
01:17
Let's go for creative and design.
01:20
You can see as we go here we've got this, progress bar at the bottom.
01:23
It doesn't tell us exactly how many steps there are here, But they have made a deliberate decision to ask one question at the time.
01:30
And the questions are really simple and I'm not having to think too hard as I'm going through this.
01:35
so how did you hear about us?
01:37
Never a huge fan of this question.
01:39
Not at this point anyway.
01:40
Again, I'm just mocking to get into the product and experience some value.
01:43
For now, let's just click friend or colleague.
01:45
now they're asking me to invite people to the workspace.
01:48
This always feels a little bit premature for me.
01:51
especially at this stage.
01:52
Now it does say don't do it alone.
01:54
Invite your team to get started 200% faster.
01:57
it's pretty bold claim and I think if I've got a quite a big team here, I'm going to go in, test the product out, figure out whether it's right for me before I start inviting people.
02:06
Now, I appreciate, collaboration is key in a product like this, so there's only so much value I'm going to get by going through this process myself.
02:14
But I imagine it would just be absolutely carnage if I invited my full team to a product I've never tried before.
02:22
And then we're all just trying to figure it out together.
02:24
So I am going to skip this one for now.
02:27
other thing worth mentioning is the placeholder here, is really light.
02:29
So it does say enter your email address or paste multiple in here.
02:33
Can barely read it.
02:34
and I think if we're going to paste multiple email addresses in here, we'll probably need to be told, to separate those with either a space or a comma.
02:41
But like I said, for the time being I'm just going to leave it.
02:43
So, let's go to the next step.
02:44
Now it's obviously quite keen for us to invite somebody at this point, so it has warned us that, you know, collaboration is important inside ClickUp, and we're likely to be four times more successful.
02:55
I'll take the risk.
02:57
Okay, so now it's asking, do we use any of these tools?
03:01
Now I think this is a really useful question to ask if the product is going to help users, import their data from different apps.
03:10
Maybe when we get in there and we hit the dashboard, there's an easy way of doing that, depending on what I click here.
03:15
So I'm going to select a few.
03:16
We'll test that theory.
03:17
I'll go with Google Drive, I'll go with Slack, and we'll go with Figma.
03:22
And we'll hit next.
03:23
so what features are you interested in trying?
03:25
So let's go with AI.
03:28
go with CRM and Kanban Boards.
03:32
So the bit of a selection here I'm not sure about the approach of focusing on specific features.
03:40
I think, I think the product should help steer me towards a specific goal.
03:45
I'm guessing when I get into the product I can start testing some of these features out myself.
03:50
So I'm kind of wondering at this point why I'd spend the time figuring out what I'm interested in instead of just discovering it for myself when I get in there.
03:59
maybe when we get into the product, it's going to surface some of these features specifically.
04:04
That would be.
04:05
That would be nice.
04:06
anyway, let's click next.
04:07
Okay, so last step in the process.
04:10
what would you like to name your workspace?
04:13
Let's call it Simon McCabe.
04:14
Now it's obviously just pulled through a suggestion there which might, have Saved some users some time, but I think we're nearly there.
04:20
So let's click finish.
04:21
Hopefully get in the product now.
04:22
So it's setting up, creating our workspace, personalizing our experience.
04:25
Almost there.
04:26
smart little loading animation here.
04:28
all right, I think we've made it.
04:29
now admittedly ClickUp isn't the type of product you get your head around in five minutes but I do want to have a little poke around and just share a few more thoughts on the product experience itself.
04:42
Now there's clearly a lot going on here.
04:44
The UI is really nice I think it's doing quite a bit of the heavy lifting here because ClickUp is a very feature rich product.
04:52
so the information hierarchy, the navigation over here on the left and all of the small design details you see up here have all been given quite a lot of thought and attention.
05:03
So we haven't landed in a dashboard per se.
05:05
but what they have done I think is set up a project for us.
05:09
So we've got an example project that's selected by default here on the left.
05:13
It looks like this project a number of tasks inside it and we also have some multiple views.
05:19
So we've got list, we've got board view with a rather suspicious looking trello icon.
05:25
We got calendar, we've got a gantt chart and we've got a table as well.
05:29
So if we go back to list, let's click on one of these tasks presumably that would open.
05:33
Okay, so there's quite a lot going on here.
05:36
tasks have quite a few different properties here.
05:38
We can add fields, subtasks, checklists, attachments.
05:41
we've got an activity feed happening over here on the right.
05:45
So the first thing that catches my eye is this glowing select state over here on the left by home.
05:52
that's obviously where we are.
05:53
And we've also got one unread message which is from the onboarding assistant down here.
06:01
So this is an interesting concept, not one I've come across before.
06:05
Let's click and open that conversation.
06:07
Okay, so this is a really interesting approach to onboarding.
06:10
Essentially we've got our own onboarding assistant that we can chat with, and it's given us a few examples here.
06:17
So we can, we can chat directly like we're doing here, or we can mention it, inside a comment and then we can ask it questions about roles or specific projects.
06:27
So I like this approach.
06:29
It feels far less intimidating for a new user who maybe isn't familiar with ClickUp, and it's just getting the head around all of the different features.
06:39
I can see myself coming back here and chatting with the onboarding assistant to find what I need or maybe point me in the right direction.
06:47
I think we're all getting more and more familiar with these chat interfaces and I think whilst they're not all always the most efficient way of doing something, they can be helpful when combined with a product with great ux.
07:01
Okay, so let's use the onboarding assistant to create our first project then, rather than navigating through the interface, I'm assuming it's capable of doing that.
07:09
Okay, so I've added.
07:10
Here, let's set up a new project.
07:12
I want you to share a list of software products I can review as part of a SAS UX teardown series.
07:19
And then I've just added there every Monday I want you to share five ideas.
07:23
So potentially multiple things for it to do here.
07:26
Appreciate.
07:27
I'm probably pushing it too far right now, but let's see what it does.
07:30
Okay, so it has come back to me.
07:31
It's taken a little bit of time here, so it's asked me a few questions, so I'm just going to answer those.
07:36
So I think it just needs a little bit more context here.
07:39
Okay, so I've just answered the questions.
07:41
Just to give it a little bit more context here.
07:43
it's asking what my specific role is.
07:44
I've said product designer, project title, SAS UX teardown series.
07:49
That's fine.
07:49
And then I've said Mondays, 9am Works for me.
07:52
So let's click send.
07:53
What I would say is it, it is a bit slow at responding.
07:57
Like I've hit send.
07:58
I, I don't know if it's thinking about it.
08:00
There's no real indication that anything is going on here, which is a bit confusing.
08:05
Okay, so it's taken a little bit of time but it has come back to me.
08:08
I think it's set up a project in the team workspace called SAS UX Teardown Series a, and it's added a shortcut here for me to go there.
08:17
And inside the project we have we have a number of different tasks that it thinks would be useful if we're going to do some SAS UX teardowns on a regular basis.
08:27
And we can see, we can see what those are here.
08:29
which which I do think would be helpful as I'm doing these teardowns anyway guys, I'm going to leave it there.
08:36
I do think ClickUp has quite a steep learning curve, especially if you're not familiar with these type of tools.
08:45
However, I do think the onboarding assistant does a really good job of reducing that learning curve, getting users up to speed quickly, even if using the chat isn't always the, the most efficient way.
08:57
All right, I will leave it there.
08:58
let me know what you think of ClickUp.