App Review: Podio

Can you believe the Agile Manifesto was published over 20 years ago? At its core, the document differentiates software development from traditional engineering methodologies. Software is not bound by real-world constraints. Builders should embrace this plasticity instead of planning too much ahead.

The Agile method has had so much success that now even politicians use the buzzword to promise how they will make public administration less awful.

Nevertheless, Agile has yet to penetrate the purchasing methodologies of many large enterprises. Requests for Proposals (RFP) will enumerate hundreds of needed functionalities that aim to cover every little use case, with ponderations that require college-level statistics to figure out.

I prefer the opposite. I come to the market with a clear business problem. Show me how you solve it. Show me what I didn't know I needed.

If you are Podio, though, RFPs are your bread and butter.

Born and bred in butter

Exploring the app

Podio takes no time showing you it can do everything. The free trial's pre-provisioned templates let you visit an intranet, a customer relationship manager (CRM), and a project management workspace. Podio allows employees to move flawlessly between expense reports and vacation requests, without leaving the app (see images below).

Podio's versatility comes from its use of apps, most of them first-party. For example, I used a fun "workplace mood" app that I used to send "high fives" and "satisfaction surveys" to my bot friend, Rachel Ojeg. The workflow of an app consists of "instantiating" objects and providing them with attributes such as tasks, polls, statuses, dates, etc. The second image below shows a Kanban board I built from scratch based on a "Template" and "targets". This is a lot of definitions. The immense text block on the right worsens the cognitive load.

The app marketplace idea opens up Podio to infinite customization. I used values from the intranet and the CRM to build a project management custom app. I can imagine people around the office smiling at each other: "There's an app for that!"

These generic "office happy people" photos have to come from somewhere, right?

The mobile app exhibits the questionable use of screen real estate, too. The landing page presents the last "Activities". I fail to see how this information can be relevant to somebody looking to work. The chat feature puts the "new message" option in a minuscule icon in the top right corner. As a left-handed person, it was impossible for me to write a new message without dropping the device.

Recommended Use Cases

Podio's ability to respond in an integrated manner to all enterprise's needs makes the app the prime candidate in every large enterprise RFP. If a Chief Information Officer (CIO) is looking to build a digital transformation on a comprehensive app, Podio will tick the most boxes.

Limitations

Despite the pre-populated workspaces, Podio remains overwhelming. The necessity to fill endless point-and-click forms will frustrate you. My reflex creating my Kanban was saying out loud: "Can I just import a spreadsheet?" Not the experience an app wants to elicit. On top of this, I identified:

• Important learning curve
• Lots of tedious manual input
• Few integrations, most of which are traditional enterprise systems (Microsoft, etc.)
• Text-heavy design

Pricing

Podio prices itself per employee per month, like most of the market. The app relies on automated workflows to differentiate Plus and Premium.  

Given the ample customization options, I expect Podio requires partners or professional services as well as a team of two or more administrators, especially if it becomes an intranet.

Verdict

Podio's impressive versatility will allow the app to enter any immense enterprise digital transformation RFP and tick all requested feature boxes. A huge learning curve and lack of inspiring design will prevent it from winning the hearts of creative-minded startups.