How Dodo Pizza Uses Wrike for Project Management

Dodo Pizza is an international pizza chain located in 14 countries, including Russia, the U.S., China, and Europe. The Dodo Pizza franchise uses the custom cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Dodo IS, which facilitates online ordering via website and mobile app, order queue and coordination of deliveries, supply management, sales analysis, etc. Founder and CEO Fyodor Ovchinnikov believes that the key concept of Dodo Pizza is openness and transparency of processes. The IT system helps scale workflows due to important metrics and indicators, controls the quality of pizzas, and serves customers in over 600 restaurants all over the world.

The Challenge

Dodo Pizza faced serious structural changes about a year ago, and it became more difficult to work in the chaos. The company previously had two departments: product and marketing. The business had to synchronize team processes and workflows, which is why it decided to merge both departments.

“We started looking for a flexible project management system with certain features for Agile teams,” says Anastasia Detinkina, Delivery Operations Manager at Dodo Pizza. “We needed a tool that allowed us to organize marketing workflows and support development processes, such as prioritizing the backlog, managing sprints, and viewing work progress. We decided to choose Wrike as the platform since it met our requirements and needs.”

The Solution

Before working with Wrike, the teams analyzed and optimized their current processes. They started implementing Wrike in the marketing department and then connected other teams to the account: R&D laboratory, logistics, testing, and design. Wrike is now a centralized hub that connects all employees working with product releases and launching marketing campaigns.

Standardization of new product development process

Developing a new product at Dodo Pizza is one of the most important strategic processes; on average, it takes about seven months. Before implementing Wrike, the teams used Google Docs, Excel Spreadsheets, and checklists, leading to data silos as project information was stored in different places.

“We created a large template with step-by-step instructions, tasks, timelines, deadlines, and assignees in Wrike. The Gantt Chart helps us visualize the project dynamics with all stages and milestones. It allows us to minimize risks associated with project deadlines and other key factors impacting the project launch date,” says Detinkina.

Teams are also able to define the milestones that can’t be delayed. This is important, as a marketing plan is developed half a year in advance and the market launch of most products is planned for certain days and months. If something goes wrong, Wrike immediately sends notifications on overdue tasks. At this stage, the product manager decides whether to accelerate the project implementation or transfer it to a new marketing cycle.

As templates were successfully used, blueprints were also developed for other projects — such as launching promotions and opening new pizza restaurants. When a new employee is hired, they immediately get access to blueprints.

Interregional collaboration and improved transparency

Aside from its Eurasia marketing teams, Dodo Pizza has a small brand promotion department for Europe and Asia. As the teams collaborate with one logistics department and R&D, they need to view the backlog. Based on the workload, the heads of the departments assign tasks and define key priorities.

“We decided to create a separate space for the EMEA team, where they can manage their projects. We also provided them access to templates, so they can add their own project blueprints in English,” says Detinkina. “By the way, they like the Gantt Chart view. They can share links with external users, even if they don’t have a license. We had an interesting case with one of our German partners. They liked the Gantt Chart with checklists and deadlines so much that they decided to buy a Wrike license for their team.”

Quality improvement of task assignment and business results

Requests are commonly received via email or Slack, but Wrike’s dynamic request forms ensure they’re all sent to one place. Users can also clearly divide tasks into sprints, as all briefs, assignees, and project statuses can be seen in Wrike.

Request forms can be used for meetings as well. A manager processes requests and prioritizes them, and brings in experts. Briefs transform into tasks stored in the spaces of the assigned teams, giving visibility into your team’s work and making meetings more productive.

Results

Now all product launch projects are managed in Wrike. The Head of Eurasia Marketing accesses the tool as a Collaborator. They can’t create projects, but they can view the product calendar and progress. Wrike provides a complete view of projects in one click thanks to Reports, and users can reassign tasks to other assignees based on resource availability. Wrike empowers Dodo Pizza managers to receive the required information in real time.

Detinkina comments, “Internal changes aren’t always well received. It took a year for our employees to adapt to and accept a new tool, but the results are worth it. We had company ambassadors who helped teams organically transfer from Trello to Wrike. Now all our employees are trained and rarely have any questions on how to use the platform. We constantly introduce something new and improve. We even have a Slack channel where our colleagues share Wrike life hacks. I hope that our experience will send a message to other teams.”

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