Brightpod Customer Case Study - Sandy Cummings of High Desert Museum

Sandy Cummings of High Desert Museum // Bend, Oregon, USA

Sandy's favorite gadget is credit card-sized office (with flashlight, tweezers, pen, nail file, scissors all in a plastic case the size of a credit card). Her favorite news-reading app is NY Times. Her favorite time-saving trick is typing really, really fast.

What does your department do?

We're a museum with a focus on the High Desert region's history, culture, wildlife and art. We care for injured animals and educate the public about their habits, behaviors and environments.

Describe an average day at your college/ university/ department?

Hundreds of visitors pass through the museum each day. Early in the morning, wildlife staff tend to the hundreds of animals in the museum's care. We have a store, cafe, permanent exhibits, changing exhibits, educational programs, living history programs and a working 1904 sawmill. The museum is set on 135 acres, which keeps our facilities staff busy! Behind the scenes, we're fundraising, working on memberships, coming up with new exhibits and planning the marketing and advertising for the museum.

What is your work routine? How do you start and end your day?

With caffeine, mostly! I check emails and respond to the urgent ones right away, check voicemail, then the rest of the day is a wildcard. We have many meetings across departments, juggling the day-to-day business with long-term strategic planning. We never know what surprises will pop up on any given day. I think of it as juggling a feather, a bowling ball and a chainsaw at once.

"Brightpod is becoming a go-to to help me work smarter."

What are your top 3 productivity hacks that help you work smarter?

iPhone keeps me connected. Carving out time in my calendar to do focused work. Brightpod is becoming a go-to to help me work smarter.

How many projects and team members do you have in Brightpod? Could you give us some insight on what kind of projects/ work you manage with Brightpod?

We currently have about 20 projects and 16 team members. We're just getting started so I anticipate both will grow. We manage communications related to new exhibits, events, our newsletter, advertising, invitations and more.

Were you using any other tool or method before Brightpod? Why did you make the switch?

We were using a shared Outlook calendar. We liked how Brightpod organizes projects, how we can assign tasks and set deadlines.

Have you ever relied on Brightpod for something unexpected related to a project or a client etc.?

Not yet but I'm sure we will.

"It's pretty intuitive and it was easy to get started."

Was there a learning curve associated with Brightpod? How did your team adapt to a new software?

It's pretty intuitive and it was easy to get started. I know there's still much to learn.

What is your favorite, or most used Brightpod feature?

The calendar is very helpful, as is creating pods for each project. I like that we can create workflows that can be reused for similar projects.

How would you feel if you could no longer use Brightpod?

Sad!

Is there any advice you want to give to other universities looking to switch to Brightpod?

I've been very impressed by how responsive Brightpod's staff has been to questions and how patient they've been. I'm looking forward to becoming more fluent with Brightpod so I don't have to reach out as often!

Thank you for your time, Sandy!