Allo: not just another collaboration tool

How many tools are you using to complete your daily workflow? It is not uncommon for us to work with five different tools on a day-to-day basis to communicate and collaborate with our team. However, this also means that we have to switch between various tools all the time. Information starts to be scattered across different channels, making it harder to remember where certain documents or data are located.

We understand this pain point, and that's one of the reasons why we created Allo. We didn't want Allo to be just another collaboration tool. Instead, we envisioned Allo to be this one solution that can support our team and our workflow from the beginning to the end. That's why Allo is all of these: a cross-functional project management tool that helps companies track working status and progress, a visual collaboration tool that allows us to work with anyone on the team quickly and efficiently, and a documentation repository for everyone to refer to and get aligned.

Allo as a cross-functional project management tool

Most of us are not new to using project or task management tools to keep our work organized, and we are usually clear about what our team is doing. However, we often don't know much about what other teams are working on. What designs are being created by the design team? What features is the development team working on? And what marketing campaigns are we preparing? Allo helps solve this problem by offering a high-level visual project management tool to help the whole team understand each other's work and status on a general level. All tasks, projects, topics, and agendas can be easily turned into visual canvases with templates and graphical tools to express complex ideas in a simplified format, saving precious time, and valuable resources. Not only can Allo be used to create a visual project management, but it can also be used to create what is essentially a sufficient virtual workspace for teams.

Allo as a visual collaboration tool

After we've planned out all the projects and tasks, it is time to start working on them. Before, the planning might be done on one tool, while the work collaboration might happen on another. With Allo, all the discussion and collaboration, synchronous or asynchronous, can be done directly using the same platform. This is because Allo is a visual collaboration tool, which is not only tailored to designers, but can be used easily by anyone on the team. Allo uses a slide format that is familiar to most people, and offers all the essential features in an intuitive way. With our user-friendly interface, Allo allows everyone to start collaborating visually immediately, no matter what their role or technical expertise.

Allo as a documentation repository

When we incorporate too many different tools into our workflow, we need a central place to refer to and get everyone on the same page. This is usually done by utilizing a documentation tool such as Notion, Dropbox Paper, or Confluence. We create documents, write down our progress, and insert external links and files when needed. This often turns into long documents full of text paragraphs.

With Allo, as we are already collaborating and communicating inside each task, we do not separate the documentation; instead, we document it as we are working on our tasks. When we need to add external sources, we drag and drop the files or links into the canvas. Many different types of files, such as Microsoft files, Photoshops, Figma, Airtable, PDF, videos, etc. can be previewed directly on the platform. Moreover, some files can not only be previewed but can also be modified now on the canvas. There is no need to switch between tools. As all the files can be easily linked inside Allo, Allo is the perfect documentation repository for the whole team to refer back to and help everyone get aligned easily.

The 3-dimensional tool that supports your workflow from start to finish

A typical tool stack we often use is a project management tool to plan and track our progress, two to three communication and collaboration tools to help complete the work, and another documentation tool to record the detailed decision-making process. However, with Allo, all this work can be done in a single place. Even when another feature-oriented tool (e.g., a design tool) is needed to complete the task, it is always easy to link the external files, previews, and modify directly on Allo. The beauty of Allo is that it can be used to create virtually any kind of context used to influence and inspire any groups of people. That's why so many teams and individuals use Allo to manage different teams and parts of their business. Allo not only enhances communication and collaboration across teams but also connects and aligns everyone regardless of their role within the organization.