Craft, from the company of the same name in Tel Aviv, is presented by the vendor as a better way for Product Managers to manage and plan their products in agile environment.
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Javelo by Tellent
Score 4.0 out of 10
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Javelo is designed to allow users to build a continuous monitoring of performance, empower collaboration and communication in teams. Javelo is built to ease performance management on what the vendor describes as a clear and intuitive interface, that allows users to conduct continuous conversations with coworkers through light feedback, to set up and launch 360° or individual, formal or informal performance reviews. Follow and manage campaigns in a few clicks, and watch the…
Craft.io is well suited for medium to large digital product teams that have some experience with the tools and features of the agile and lean models. Users that are new to those methodologies can have some difficulties understanding the platform. It is less appropriate for small projects too. It's a great tool but I think you can shape a project management tool to your needs in theses cases and it will work better.
In my experience with using Javelo to complete my career evaluations, it generally performs adequately as long as I complete the full review in a single session. Once you're in the written question-and-answer portion of the review, the platform gives clear guidance and is easy to follow. However, if you exit the session partway through, it is difficult to find out what actions you have remaining. The dashboard language is ambiguous in this case, using terms like 'preparation' to refer to the written review (because it is in preparation for the in-person interview). Also 'finalization' means completing the written interview but there is another acknowledgment that needs to be completed after the in-person interview; it is only after this step that the full evaluation cycle is complete. Additionally, I have had the experience of my in-progress session not being saved although I took what I thought were the right steps to save my answers to return to later. After the first time this happened, I made sure to type everything in a separate document and just paste it into Javelo rather than risk having to start over again.
'Sync' usually works flawlessly in syncing my artboards to Invision. Once you set up the plugin, I can easily forget about tinkering with any of the settings - it just 'works'.
'Library' is pretty great for generating a style guide from my design doc. Clicking one button makes magic happen, and creates a super succinct document for me to share between teammates and other teams.
'Data' also works wonders when trying to approximate 'real' data into a static design. It turns the painful job of having to fill in designs with 'real-world' data a piece of cake. It helps me validate rough designs using an actual approximation of real content.
If you exit the review before completing all prompts, the answers will not always be saved. I have had this happen twice when I couldn't finish the questions in a single sitting and despite saving my session, I had to start from the beginning.
When returning to an in-progress session (assuming it is saved correctly), it is less clear at what stage in the review process you are, and what is remaining.
I have had difficulties with the language defaulting to French on my login page and in automated emails.
Craft has a completely unique tool set that has functionality that really is not duplicated any where else in the industry. It cannot really be compared to any other tool I have had experience with, especially with the larger cloud infrastructure that Invision has built around their plugin and their platform.
Javelo.io is the primary platform my company uses for reviews and interviews; the other products mentioned primarily serve as HR management and organization (such as PTO requests, employee handbooks & guidelines, salary calculator, org structure, and benefits enrollment). In that regard, Javelo.io offers a more social-focused approach to HR that is well-suited for performance reviews and interviews.
