Note: At SmartDraw Software, we tend to practice
what we preach. In fact, most of us use the latest version of SmartDraw VP
almost every day. We’ve been asked by customers who have yet to experience the
software, how various positions in their company would use SmartDraw VP. What
better way to answer our customers than to ask our own employees? This post is
the first in our continuing blog series featuring SmartDraw employees.
Richard Stannard is a Sales Engineer, which means he
always has SmartDraw VP open to support both the Sales Team and SmartDraw
customers. Because he interacts with so many prospective and current customers,
Richard is always talking to our Product Management team with new ideas for
SmartDraw functionality. He has also been charged with creating SmartDraw
Software’s own VPM collection, so many of us have witnessed the agility with
which he can create a flowchart. I am witness to the fact that he can create a
flowchart as fast as I speak – and I do not speak slowly!
How do you use SmartDraw and how often?
I use SmartDraw all day, every day.
I primarily use it for making flowcharts and creating VPM collections, but I
also use SmartDraw VP for the PowerPoint builder and mind maps. I also help
customers and the sales team figure out how to use SmartDraw’s functionality to
solve a customer’s problem and/or streamline their visuals. Basically, I find
new and better ways to use SmartDraw’s functionality for its main purpose of
communicating visually, usually by finding solutions to specific challenges our
customers occasionally encounter or by responding to a request from management
to develop a solution to a problem using SmartDraw.
How does SmartDraw
help you communicate better with your team?
SmartDraw is an invaluable tool for
communicating ideas to other people. In school I studied history, which gave me
a lot of practice at describing complicated ideas through writing, so I can
communicate very effectively with the written word. But, what would normally
require 500+ words to be described can be expressed much more clearly with a
10-shape flowchart – and the flowchart takes about a third as much time to both
create and consume than the essay. I also find that, not surprisingly, no one
likes to wade through a 500 word email. When an idea is communicated with a
simple visual rather than with a long written description, the idea is much more likely to be given attention
and understood. By making the visual I save myself and whoever sees the visual
time. I also am able to more clearly communicate my ideas.
How does SmartDraw
help you complete your daily tasks more efficiently?
Again, a big part of my job is coming up with ways to
improve SmartDraw and brainstorm better ways to use the software. It’s a lot
easier when I use visuals to describe or improve my description of an idea. I
find it is easier to collaborate with others by having a group edit a visual
collectively. It helps me when others
communicate visually because it saves me time and helps me understand others’
ideas more clearly.
What is your favorite
SmartDraw visual to make?
Flowcharts. The hotkeys built into SmartDraw make using
building flowcharts SO easy – I can crank out a flowchart almost as fast as a
person can talk.
What is your favorite
SmartDraw VP feature?
My favorite VP feature is the split to new flowchart
command: when I first started doing VPM, this tool didn’t exist and the process
of creating VPM collections was much more time consuming. I had to open a new
flowchart template, create the folder it goes into, cut and paste the steps I
want in the process, and make links to and from the sub process; it was tedious
to say the least. Now I just press Insert
on the keyboard and SmartDraw does all of that for me; it sped up the
post-processing time for VPM collection creation by a factor of two or three.
Do you have any questions for Richard and how he
uses SmartDraw for VPM collections? If you use SmartDraw today, how would you
answer these questions? Let us know in the comments below!
