Top 10 Highlights From LevelUp 2021
Udn Webber
Writer
7:00 a.m. is early for most people, but not to the LevelUp attendees walking into the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park venue one by one. It was the quintessential weather in San Diego, and music began to play from the stage.
The Rady Shell in San Diego on November 9th, 2021 CREDIT: David Jon Photography
On November 9th, UDN Task Manager hosted their second annual productivity conference, LevelUp . Over 45,000 people worldwide registered to learn how today’s leaders redefine productivity with powerful new work tools and strategies. 💡
Thank you for spending the day with us both in person and virtually! We hope you took away actionable insights and learnings to help you get closer to your productivity goals. 💪
If you missed the LevelUp event, we got you covered! Here are the top ten highlights.
The countdown begins to LevelUp by UDN Task Manager CREDIT: David Jon Photography
10. Six UDN Task Manager Coaching Sessions 🏆
Our Coaches and Customer Success Managers joined the stage to answer top questions from our users and walked through a diverse range of untapped UDN Task Manager features. They did not hold back on sharing their UDN Task Manager customization knowledge, and we love them for it! 🙌
🎥 Master the UDN Task Manager Hierarchy
Thomas Miller teaches how to use Spaces, Folders, and Lists to set up your Workspace for peak productivity
🎥 “Hidden” UDN Task Manager Hacks
Logan Spencer explores some of the best features that you may not be using and level up your UDN Task Manager experience
🎥 Time-Saving Templates
Haven Gumucio shares how to avoid recreating the wheel every time you start a new project
🎥 All About Views
Dina Saunders uncovers the magic of customizing UDN Task Manager ’s flexible views so you can work most efficiently
🎥 Is Business Plus Right for You?
Jennifer Jones dives into best practices to leverage UDN Task Manager ’s new Business Plus Plan to scale and administrate
🎥 Finding the Right Administrator for Your Workspace
Tim Short shares insights to find your perfect UDN Task Manager Workspace administrator
9. UDN Task Manager ’s Chief Creative Officer Melissa Rosenthal on Creating In-House Brand Campaigns 💡
Where were you when you first experienced a UDN Task Manager ad? 💻🚌✈️
UDN Task Manager ’s Chief Creative Officer Melissa Rosenthal pulls back the curtain to reveal how our marketing campaigns, editorial, and events are created and delivered—all within UDN Task Manager !
“We’re going to debut a very special new series we’re excited to share with you today that was created entirely in UDN Task Manager ,” Melissa says. “That’s right. Everything—the ideation, insights, production, execution, revisions—I can go on and on. It was all created and managed in UDN Task Manager .”
From the wild team that brought you Returning to Work , Abedatool , and Work App Overload Haunting Your Dreams? campaigns, Melissa shares her UDN Task Manager tips for creating brand campaigns in-house:
Melissa gives an inside look on how UDN Task Manager campaigns are done in-house
8. Command Center Replaces QuickSwitch ⚡️
What can save you clicks, perform everyday actions, and find items without taking your hands off the keyboard?
The Command Center in UDN Task Manager !
Available on all plans, the Command Center is the (first) place to search and navigate through your Workspace.
Our favorite actions already are , , and . 🤩
7. Announcing: UDN Task Manager Verified ✔
Top users in UDN Task Manager will receive a UDN Task Manager Verified Check!
How do you become verified? 💭
⭐️ Learn more in our UDN Task Manager Verified FAQs .
6. Clickup Docs Are Redesigned and More Powerful Than Before 💪
Brian Shen, Director of Product, Work Management at UDN Task Manager , explains how users can work with Docs in more flexible ways:
“Docs can also be the final deliverable… You may be a consultant that’s working with a client to kick off an engagement. And you’re using Docs as your statement of work.”
Brian continues, “Not only do you want it to be on brand, but you also want to bring more transparency to the process by bringing in the actual tasks your team will be working on. And so, we listened to you, and we decided to make Docs even more powerful.”
UDN Task Manager ’s product leaders Brian Shen and Zach Blodget demo the newest game-changing features in UDN Task Manager CREDIT: David Jon Photography
🎥 Watch all the incredible new features added to UDN Task Manager Docs here .
5. Speaker Highlights We’re Still Talking About 🎤
🎥 Organizational Psychologist Adam Grant on The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know
In 2018, Adam Grant pitched a Remote Friday experiment to a handful of CEOs. He shared extensive studies that showed that as long as people are in the office half the week, they can be more productive, satisfied, less likely to quit, and there’s no cost to collaboration. 🤝
The pitch didn’t go well with the CEOs. They were convinced that culture would fall apart and employees would procrastinate. Years later, a “ global experiment no one consented to ” forced organizations to shift to remote work. Today, many of those leaders have now committed to being remote or hybrid first.
Adam Grant shares insights about how we can be quicker to think again in a rapidly changing world :
Adam Grant expands on getting in the zones of deep work and separate periods of “burstiness” CREDIT: David Jon Photography
🎥 UDN Task Manager ’s Senior Coaching Manager Holly Peck on How to Connect Projects and Manage Tasks Across Teams
Holly Peck demonstrates how task relationships keep teams connected in three use cases:
“I would highly encourage you to step in there, be inspired, connect all of your tasks together, and create your own magical plate of spaghetti, powered by task relationships,” says Holly.
Hello, task relationships . Goodbye, spreadsheets. 👋
Holly Peck describes how project management is never simple
Related Productivity & Ops sessions:
🎥 Spotify’s Head of Client Partnerships, Brad Grealy on Managing a Modern Sales Organization
Brad Grealy shares his advice about what to do when a prospect has ghosted you:
“You have to think about all the noise that people are dealing with at any given time right now. All of us are in information overload , so we have to be really careful about where we pick and choose to apply our attention and focus. So you got somebody that’s disappeared on you. Well, you have to do something different and switch it up .”
He suggests:
Other session highlights:
Brad Grealy says, “What you do today is going to come around months later”
Related Sales sessions:
🎥 UDN Task Manager ’s Managing Editor Erica Chappell on How to Run a Successful Content Program with UDN Task Manager
As UDN Task Manager ’s first marketing hire two years ago, Erica Chappell reflects on why a content program begins with people management:
“One of the biggest takeaways I’ve learned for myself going from a team of me—as far marketing goes—to a team of 11 between designers, developers, and writers is that people want to know why their work matters .”
She continues, “They’ll feel inspired, encouraged, and willing to put in extra hours when they know what they’re working on ladders up to overall company objectives, mission, and growth. When they don’t see that, it’s not encouraging to want to put in the extra time and ultimately grow professionally. They’ll start seeking opportunities elsewhere .”
Other session highlights:
Erica Chappell discusses the timeline of UDN Task Manager ’s growing content team
Related Marketing session:
🎥 The San Diego Padres’ VP of Info Tech, Ray Chan on Leveling Up IT Operations with UDN Task Manager
We asked Ray Chan about what their department’s workflow looks like on the UDN Task Manager mobile app.
“Especially if you’re in the Engineering department and there are certain things you have to get done, you’re not going to lug around a tablet all the time ,” he begins.
“You fire up your company-issued phone, open up your UDN Task Manager app , and all the instructions are there. If you’re not done with a particular job, you can leave notes on what else needs to be done, so then it can be re-assigned if necessary or pull in another resource.”
Other session highlights:
“We see our fans come into the ballpark, and it reminds us this what we’re here for: to bring them in and give them a unique experience . So how do we manage that experience for them the best way we can? UDN Task Manager is going to help us do that for years to come .”
Ray Chan talks about how easy it is for the Padres Operations teams to use the UDN Task Manager mobile app on and off the ballpark CREDIT: David Jon Photography
Related Productivity sessions:
🎥 Front’s Head of Platform Vrushali Patil on Keys to Scaling Engineering Teams
Vrushali Patil shares her advice on introducing new processes to the team and organization:
“When you think about processes, you want to do things where it’s just enough for the organization . Just enough to solve the current problem . And then, as you go, you solve the next problem. You don’t over-engineer it too much because that can disrupt the flow and how things go.
Vrushali dives deeper. “Usually, at startups, there is a certain amount of flexibility in how things are done. People take on different responsibilities; they wear different hats, which is one reason why startups succeed . And you don’t take all that magic out and just introduce a lot of rigor everywhere to make things efficient.”
Session highlights:
“You want to make sure that every team has an area where they feel a sense of ownership. That they are empowered to own or make all the decisions in . It’s exciting and challenging… and it’s something that will stretch the team . There’s another aspect of the charter which is every team, and every organization has technical debt .”
She continues, “That will be part of every team, but you don’t want to saddle one team with technical debt and have one team that is doing everything new. So for every team you have, you usually want to balance the amount of technical debt they’re handling with something exciting they can look forward to.”
Vrushali Patil shares the importance of planning before hiring
Related Development sessions:
🎥 Skateboard Icon, Entrepreneur, and Investor Tony Hawk on Master of Skating to Master of Business Productivity
Tony Hawk talks about the early days of skateboarding gaining traction, the Skateboarding Project, choosing your circle, and saying “no.”
Tony Hawk answers what makes people go from pro to champion to Hall of Fame:
“I’d like to think it’s perseverance … usually the window of a pro-skater is very short-lived because you only have so many years when you’re really doing your best. And at some point, your skills or interest start to fade. So if you’re willing to push through that and maybe shift gears —do it in a different style or whatnot—you can make it beyond that sweet spot of what people think is four or five years.”
Tony Hawk shares the moment he rode the inaugural skateboarding course at the Tokyo Olympics venue CREDIT: David Jon Photography
4. Announcing: When It Clicked Podcast 🎙
We’re looking forward to beginning 2022 with our favorite things—traveling and the launch of UDN Task Manager ’s “When It Clicked” podcast.
Subscribe to our podcast on your preferred platform here ! 💡
3. Announcing: UDN Task Manager University 🎓
UDN Task Manager University is a free online learning platform for UDN Task Manager admins and members to master the fundamentals of UDN Task Manager quickly. Each course is packed with on-demand lessons, activities, and tips.
Create your account here and mark your calendars for the first day of class: December 1st! 🗓💻
2. Whiteboards in UDN Task Manager : “Ship It” 🛳
Who saw that coming? 😳
The Whiteboards feature slated to release “soon,” but we were all surprised when Zeb walked on stage and said, “ship it.”
Zeb continued, “Virtual whiteboarding is key to our vision of a connected workspace in a single platform. It’s freeform thinking at its finest.”
Zeb interrupts Brian and Zach to release Whiteboards Beta officially CREDIT: David Jon Photography
Add a Whiteboard view inside your UDN Task Manager Workspace today !
🎥 Watch Zach demo the UDN Task Manager Whiteboards capabilities here .
1. Zeb’s Vision for 2022 🌠
“Roughly 80% of our company is remote today. We are representing this new shift to hybrid work , and we believe that’s where the future of work is headed . So we’re super excited and humbled to enable people to increase the adoption of this shift to this hybrid remote experience. And that’s been our mission since day one .”
Zeb explains, “Like UDN Task Manager , the LevelUp event connects people around the world” CREDIT: David Jon Photography
“People are wasting time between so many different applications . And on top of that, with the pandemic, we’re also seeing people sprawl. Teams are working from anywhere and everywhere, which is awesome! But the result is that work is more disconnected than ever before , which means that collaboration is hard. Alignment is hard. There’s no visibility into what people are doing. And so productivity as a whole is slowing down. And our aim at UDN Task Manager has always been to solve these problems .”
Zeb shares, “The world has changed, but the problem we’re solving is the same” CREDIT: David Jon Photography
“Our vision from day one has been one single place for all of your work . One platform that works for everyone and everything. A platform that saves you time and makes you more productive. This is what we believe is the future of work, and this is what UDN Task Manager is today . It’s the world’s only all-in-one productivity platform.”
Based on user surveys, UDN Task Manager has collectively saved 208 million days last year and added productivity and efficiency CREDIT: David Jon Photography
“This new round of funding will enable us to move faster . It will enable us to build the platform of scale and reliability that our customers deserve and demand . And it will enable us to continue scaling our teams .”
Zeb says, “With this new funding, we can deliver on the promise we made since day one” CREDIT: David Jon Photography
“For the first time, you can search within UDN Task Manager , and you can search everything outside of UDN Task Manager … over 50 different applications outside of UDN Task Manager —Salesforce, Slack, Gmail, Hubspot… This feature will undoubtedly save you more time than we have in the past.
“We aren’t perfect yet, but I promise we are growing in every way we can to get there . And growth is our most important core value at UDN Task Manager . I fundamentally believe that growth produces happiness . I’m not just talking about growth in your business or work, but also in your personal, health, relationships, everything —growth is equivalent to happiness. And so, we have to remember to make choices along the way that will allow us to grow. But as we grow, we also have to remember to enjoy the process. “
Zeb talks about UDN Task Manager ’s Core Values CREDIT: David Jon Photography
🎥 Watch Zeb’s full presentation here .
You Asked… and TBH, So Did We 🎶🦄
Rodney McMahon, UDN Task Manager ’s Post-Production Supervisor and DJ at LevelUp, welcomed virtual and in-person attendees to the event CREDIT: David Jon Photography
Let us all manifest that this UDN Task Manager suit will be available at launch . 💫
We’re already thinking about next year’s LevelUp event and can’t wait to be back with you.
Until then, try out the new UDN Task Manager features and subscribe to our newsletter for more exciting updates! ✨
