Staring at an empty board? This is when AI can help you overcome the fear of the empty Kanban (FOTEK) and turn vague project ideas into clear, actionable task list. Dive into our latest post to learn how the InLoox AI task wizard transforms uncertainty into efficiency—without the hype, just smart planning.
We have all been there: It is the beginning of a new project, and the the scope is not yet completely clear. Yet, you are supposed to present a rough plan with tasks, estimated effort und approximate deadlines the kick-off meeting. Then it suddenly hits you, the Fear Of The Empty Kanban, or FOTEK for short. Paralyzed, you stare at the empty Kanban board and don’t really know where to start.
This is where the AI task wizard comes in handy. With a few hints about the planned project, the assistant starts its work completely unencumbered by your emotions and does the work for you.
The InLoox AI task wizard ensures that the project task list is generated swiftly and comprehensively – only entering a short project description is necessary. Whether it’s “Implementation of a new CRM software”, “Migration of server into the cloud” or “Conquering the world” (give it try, it’s fun): simply type in what needs to be done and the AI delivers customized task lists, including estimated effort and a suggested due date. If the level of detail is too coarse, you can use the slider to generate more granular tasks.
Care to get some examples? Here we go: Let’s say we’re planning an IT project to upgrade to SAP HANA. The prompt for the AI assistant could be:” I am a project planner in the IT department. I’ve been asked to plan the SAP HANA migration project. What needs to be done for a successful migration?” One click and bang! Tasks such as “Analyze project requirements”, “Set up test environment for SAP HANA” or “Plan user training” are directly suggested.
If a rough plan is not enough and you realize that important tasks such as the creation of test scenarios are missing, the AI assistant can generate more specific tasks with a higher level of detail.
By the way: The InLoox AI also supports you generating a project description. In the project details, you can generate a text outlining the project with just one click. This saves you time and ensures that your projects are presented clearly and professionally.
The more complex the project, the more you should think in terms of project phases. For example, if you are planning a construction project, it is best to follow the HOAI planning phases and use the AI task wizard to plan the tasks in each phase. A prompt could then read: “I am a general contractor and responsible for building the new elementary school. I plan according to the HOAI service phases. What tasks do I have to complete in service phase 1: basic evaluation?”
Project planning methods such as Stage Gate® can also be taken into account via the prompt, in order to plan according to this company specification. For example, a prompt for a product development project in the pharmaceutical industry could read as follows: “I am managing a product development project for a pharma company and would like to create a task plan using the Stage Gate® method. Please, generate a structured task list for the phase Scoping.”
Also, take the opportunity to incorporate lessons learned from past projects. For example, if the flow of information on the project status is rather slow, the add a this to the prompt, e.g. “Consider the importance of internal project communication via regular project status reports.”
Even lengthy emails that contain a large number of tasks often trigger an emotional defensive reaction in the sense of TL:DR (too long, didn't read). You don't want to extract the facts from the story and then laboriously pack them into a task. Good thing InLoox has a solution for this too! In the InLoox for Outlook add-in, you can delegate this chore to the AI assistant. One click on the magic wand, a few seconds of analysis and voila, the InLoox AI assistant suggests tasks with name, estimated effort and due date. You can breathe a sigh of relief and tackle these tasks. Watch the InLoox AI task wizard in Outlook in in action in this video.
Every emotion that prevents us from taking action and tackling unpleasant or effortful projects is actually based on the fear of making mistakes. Not least thanks to the myriads of funny examples, we all know that Artificial Intelligence – despite its name - can get things wrong. However, the advantage of AI tools such as the InLoox task wizard is that they help us take the first step. The get us over the initial fear threshold, so to speak, and once that’s done, we’re good to go.
Conclusion
With the InLoox AI task wizard, the fear of the empty Kanban dissipates more quickly than the sweet smell of success. Whether you need to start your project planning with a rough task list, identify tasks from a long email, or create detailed tasks for a single project phase quickly and with an effort estimate and deadline: the InLoox AI task wizard does it for you.