Building apps – internal tools or otherwise – is 

. But actually working together with your teammates when code is involved is easier said than done. Taking screenshots, adding annotations, sending a flurry of Slack messages, and then adding Jira tickets is 


In this post, we’ll walk through how to use 

 (a fast way of building internal tools used by DoorDash, Warner Bros, Peloton and more) with 

. Cord lets you add comments, annotations, and guides directly in your favorite apps – so you can talk with your team in the apps you’re working in. Cord also 

 (Jira, Asana, Monday, etc.) so you can create and manage tickets without leaving your app.

Save time by building internal apps with Retool and Cord

Here’s a few suggestions for how teams use Retool and Cord to build better internal tools without all the back and forth.

Write onboarding guides directly in the app. 

Onboard new members of your team by creating annotations and comments with Cord. Attach relevant files to document how the internal tool works, right inside the tool. This is a lot easier than outdated walkthroughs lost in Confluence or Coda. Plus, teammates can @mention you if they have a question and you can chat directly in Retool– almost like sharing your screen on Zoom, without having to sit through another video call.

Write onboarding guides directly in the Retool app with Cord.

Create tasks that will automatically appear in Jira or Asana. 

Anytime you write a comment using Cord, whether it’s to 

 or change a dropdown to a search input, you can make it an Asana or Jira task so it fits right into your workflow (and it will actually get done!).

Create tasks that will automatically appear in Jira or Asana with Cord.

Your internal ops team can log edge cases and leave a record of the conversation. 

The users of your app can record edge cases and leave notes about what was decided inside Retool to increase efficiency and speed up onboarding for new team members who may run into the same issue.

Add Cord to your browser to start collaborating in Retool

Cord is a Chrome extension that you can activate on SaaS tool or website. Install Cord in a few quick steps:

2. Sign-in with Slack (Or, sign-up to be notified when we add Google and Microsoft Teams support)

3. Complete onboarding: Watch a 30 second video, install the extension from the Chrome store, and import relevant Slack messages by adding the Cord Slackbot

Complete Cord onboarding

5. Then, go directly to your Retool app and start annotating with your team!

Go directly to your Retool app and start annotating with your team!

If you don’t have a Retool account yet, you can sign up on 

Build together in Retool with Cord comments and annotations

People already realize the power of collaboration.

Just think of the tools you’re working with daily: SaaS products like Google Docs, Figma, and Pitch have already added collaboration elements to their platforms (hello, Anonymous Muskrat 👀). Software companies know people want it — that’s why they gradually add chat abilities to their products, but it’s usually at a cost.

SaaS products like Google Docs, Figma, and Pitch have already added collaboration elements to their platforms.

“This creates sub-par and inconsistent collaboration experience for the end-user,” said Nimrod. Notes go in separate inboxes, feedback gets lost, teammates cry in frustration.

The way we use multiple tools is way clunkier than it needs to be.

But as it stands, it’s unavoidable – you have to use them all to get your work done.

 working in Mailchimp may grab copy from Google Docs, designs from Figma, and feedback from Slack to create a campaign back in Mailchimp. We don’t need work to be this excessive.

You already use a lot of apps, and it’s time to connect them for a streamlined workflow. 

One inbox. One notification to check. Many sighs of relief.

“Switching costs” aren’t in your budget.

The average small business uses over 100 different apps

, and Matt shares that Capiche’s four-person team uses over a dozen tools.

Think of all the lost energy, time and brainpower it takes to switch from coding/designing/writing to chatting apps, then back to coding/designing/writing, at least a dozen times per day.

“Every time we switch, we’re losing seconds of our time." 

, you can stay in the context of what you’re working on to stay in deep work mode.

Cord’s long-term value = streamlined collaboration
Immediate relief = eliminating clunky interactions

Nimrod has an extensive engineering background, specifically surrounding chat, productivity, and community (aka peopleware). His tenure as a PM at Facebook inspired much of the vision for Cord.

When Facebook’s development teams kept running duplicate analyses, Nimrod knew the overlap was wasting valuable resources and time. They built a way for related data conversations to integrate across an expansive suite of internal tools.

“With Cord, we’re doing that more broadly,” he said.

And you don’t need a Facebook-sized organization (or budget) to use Cord. Even if you’re using a dozen different SaaS tools for your startup or scale-up, you feel as interconnected as the most productive companies in the Valley.

“You want to have a record of the conversation attached to the context for posterity and clarity. You can access this information when you need it versus looking in a different tool.” - Nimrod

Informational architecture is a lot like Animal Crossing.

Abby gives an unexpected metaphor for how we use tech: “The internet is spatial software—when you’re on the computer, you’re always walking around. We’re walking back and forth like in Animal Crossing.”

Work is the random interactions you have in those spaces, and you want to form memories in specific locations.

Animal Crossing

Cord contextualizes your conversation based on what “room” you’re in while you’re on a stroll. 

“We’re changing a fundamental habit, like how do we communicate and where do we go?” said Nimrod. It’s the same set of challenges Slack had to go through migrating people from email.

Check out Slack’s 2013 post that Nimrod mentioned, 

 about getting the internal team on board.

Cord has its company set up for deep work and minimal disruption. There are almost no standing meetings, and Cord is standard across all business functions. As “user zero” itself, the company has a wishlist of future feature releases.

Marketers and product managers are already seeing Cord as a faster way to give feedback to their teams.

“We’re early and just getting started,” said Nimrod. But the innovation is happening, and customers’ needs are paving the way for an even better product.

 that allows users to embed parts of the tool (e.g., Excel data) in the chat. “What if we could do that for our SaaS vendors?”

Enter the future of collaboration with Cord.

Nimrod Priell, CEO of Cord, joined by Abby Barsky, Head of Marketing and Partnerships, sat down virtually with Matt Guay to chat about the future of collaboration on Capiche’s 

The future of collaboration is here, but we need a mindset shift

"It's like having access to screenshots, Slack, Jira and our site without having to go to all 4." - Cord user 

Cord will simplify the way you work. Give feedback, leave documentation, and report issues quickly and easily with our two new features:

**NEW** Comment, annotate and create tasks on ANY website or web product

No code snippets. No special URLs. All you need is the 

Cord works wherever you do. Whether you're 

, start leaving comments and annotations, and creating Jira or Asana tasks on any page.

The ability to mark up any page, see your notifications, and chat with teammates is a click away. 

You can also disable the launch button for a set amount of time if you're going full heads-down. 

**NEW** Conversations (threaded messages) allow for multiple discussions on the same page

Similar to Slack, you can now create multiple conversations on the same page. That way, you can discuss different topics without cluttering the chat bar.

For example, you can discuss copy changes for an email campaign in one conversation, and design feedback in another, all while staying on the email campaign editor page.

To join an existing conversation on a particular page, click the conversation, see all the messages, and at the bottom you'll be able to reply or collapse the conversation.

You'll be notified of messages in the conversation if you've written a message there, been mentioned, or been assigned a task.

To start a new conversation, click the Aa and type your first message. 

 by selecting the drop down menu beside each message and selecting "Share to Slack" and the #channel you'd like to share it in. If you've taken any annotations, those will be included in a screenshot in the Slack message too.

 and decreases friction and distraction, so you can get back to doing your best work. 

Have Slack like conversations, add Google Doc or Figma style comments and drop pins on ANY website or internal tool to work more effectively with your team.

Asynchronous communication just got easier. 

Download the full 2021 State of Project Management report

How do companies use task managers as part of their project management? This question was burning a hole in our to-do list for our tasks feature, so we did something about it. We knew that this in-depth research could help companies think about how they work in a new way. We surveyed over 50 respondents about their practices with task managers at work to get a deeper, more honest look behind the scenes.

Here are a few highlights from the results.

Survey says: The task-management industry needs a little task management.

The project management software industry is whopping 

 and is expected to hit nearly $6 billion by 2027. We think we know why.

What the survey results reveal is that task-management practices are all over the place. Most companies are juggling two or more tools, overlapping responsibilities, and making it harder for themselves to report and get actual work done (because 

our brains don’t love context switching

Teams can’t even handle standardization of one project management tool, let alone all the extras.


Teams are crafting quite the tech-stack cocktail.

64% of teams are using multiple task managers.

We saw a theme with engineering and development teams using Jira while the rest of the organization worked on other project management tools.

"Yes, different teams use different tools (brand team uses Jira, UX uses Asana, dev uses GitHub, etc.)"

"Monday and Jira overlap - Each also has stuff the other doesn't include. The long tail of tasks is spread evenly and chaotically."

The most popular task managers in our survey:

Honorable mentions (35%): Linear, ClickUp, 

Task assignment and prioritization have little uniformity across organizations.

The way people assign tasks is all over the place. Some have a project or product manager who give tasks, whereas others have an every-contributor-for-themself approach. And no one knows how to prioritize them.

"We're pretty fluid as a startup, so no real 'management' of tasks, tasks are added by anyone, discussed and prioritised."

"At the moment, engineers self-assign according to their area of expertise. The engineering lead should also help with assigning. However, the process is still a little broken as the engineering leader doesn't quite grasp prioritization, so it often is a task between the designer and product manager."

When prioritization doesn’t happen in the actual task manager, that’s when “touch bases” and “fleshing out” comes into play.

“Let’s take this offline” is where project management is really happening.

A lot of convos are happening around tasks in a separate arena than the project management tools. We’re coining the term “work-planning inception” because that’s what many companies are doing — creating tasks around the tasks.

use the comment functionality in the task manager

The new work norm: disjointed conversations, lost information, and notification overload.

Information overload is real, and it’s destroying productivity.

Poor task management = information overload (or not enough).


When employees receive hundreds of emails a day, they miss a huge chunk (up to a third). 

, satisfaction, burnout, and bad business.

Additional issues that come from messy task management:

Work planning inception (when managing your tasks becomes a task)

“I moved to Asana versus an Excel status sheet that I have a weekly meeting with the client and review, and it drives me crazy. It takes me an hour trying to update that, and it's always an hour before the call.”

Task managers aren’t inherently bad—we love them! According to a recent report from 

, project management software adoption is linked to high-performing projects.

The way teams use task managers is the problem. We know these 50 companies aren’t alone. 

How is your team using task managers? Do you fall into the new work-inception norm? Read the full report to see what trends you identify in your organization. You may find that your frustrations aren’t so unique after all.

And it's more complicated than you thought. Our State of Project Management in 2021 report is the most comprehensive data on what teams are doing with their task managers.

State of Project Management in 2021 Report Reveals How Companies Use Task Managers

Let's face it: you’re over toggling back and forth between Asana, Slack, and Google Docs for every. little. update. 

That’s exactly why email marketers are ditching distractions and collaborating right inside HubSpot using Cord.

Easily collaborate with teammates and manage approvals

Email pros are the best at “workflows,” but sometimes it’s their own that gets thrown off. More changes and more eyeballs = less efficiency in getting work done.

And it’s worse than ever. According to the 

Litmus “2020 State of Email Workflows”

 report, the pandemic made the approval process worse for email teams.

 Nearly 70% of companies changed their strategy, adding extra stakeholders to the approval process. This added more to the email marketer’s plate: 37% of teams reported spending over two hours on approvals alone in 2020, up from 20% in 2019.

How will Cord help clear your plate as an email marketer?

You forgot if you asked Darius from design about the preferred logo in Slack or Asana. Or maybe it was Google Docs? Gah. Email managers can invite their copy and design teams into HubSpot to spare the search for notes. Spend more time ensuring you have sleek graphics and powerful messaging.

 No more screenshots pasted in a deck, bad PDF saves, or “New Campaign Test_v.98” for email creative reviews. After so many back-and-forths with your manager, going past Review and pressing SEND looks so tempting. Get there faster with centralized feedback on drafts.

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing your campaign land in people’s inboxes. You did it!

Cut distractions with do-it-all-in-HubSpot integrations

You’re setting up campaign workflows, marrying design and copy, and optimizing landing pages. HubSpot is your home base for it all, whether you like it or not.

 without getting sidetracked by the pings from your team’s project management tools. 

Integrating with tools like Asana and Slack, Cord ensures project management isn’t another chore.

Cord allows you to make intentional, not distracting, visits to Slack (you know, for when you need to get right to business without being thrown into a whirlwind of GIF wars). Selective notifications means you won’t miss your @mentions but you can stay working in HubSpot.

Email marketers love that Cord is unobtrusive but easily accessible via a sidebar on the right of your browser.

 to address feedback in real-time. You can even chat quickly back and forth. The best part? It integrates with apps you already use.

For example, let’s say you need the price of a product in a sales email. You can message @Laura: “Can you confirm with Sales that this is the correct price?” Then:

Assign this task for Laura in the sidebar, to which it then 

. Then, update any task’s status in less than a second with Cord.

 into HubSpot (coming soon!). No more switching tabs.

 with your conversation for other people to chime in. Cord sends a link to the campaign with replies in a thread so it won’t crowd up your channel.

Cord is a Chrome extension that adds Google Doc- like collaboration to your HubSpot tab. Here’s how to install it:

Go to Cord.com and click “Add Cord to Chrome for free”

Sign-in with Slack (don’t have Slack? You can sign-up to be notified when we add support for Google and Microsoft Teams)

Watch a 30-second onboarding video to learn how you can start using it immediately

Better email management and collaboration = you shining at your job. 

With Cord available for HubSpot, you can focus more on managing campaigns in the space you work best. What are you waiting for?

HubSpot is the orange inbound giant that releases a new feature just when we've mastered it. Sure, the platform has a better user experience than other email solutions. But just because it’s all-in-one doesn’t mean there’s only one person involved.

Work with your team directly in HubSpot with this add-on

ICYNT (In Case You’re Not Tom): On 4/20, Tom sent a hot take about how more efficient marketing ops is the answer to better B2B marketing departments.

Tom’s thesis resonated with us. As a B2B SaaS company in the workflow biz, we get the pain points of messy marketing ops and a changing how-work-gets-done landscape.

So Tom, not that you asked, but here’s our take.

Embrace remote, global talent without sacrificing unity.

“An astounding amount of talent at a fraction of the price of your city can be found when you open up roles to fully remote candidates.”

 who plan to shift to more remote work even after the pandemic permanently.

Fully remote work is scalable, cost-effective, and promotes diversity.

 and employees thousands. But arguably even more critical is the impact on the diversity of your team.

It’s not easy to achieve diversity when you keep fishing from the same pond. Gender and ethnically diverse companies are 

, even as much as 35 percent. By expanding your recruiting efforts outside of your city, or even country, you find people with fresh takes and practices.

One big caveat: your tech stack has to be async-work-friendly for those amazingly talented and diverse humans.

Automate everything (that you can). Integrate everything else.

“Most tasks now performed by lower-level marketing resources can be

Companies don’t need to keep hiring marketing assistants or buying new software. They need to automate.

 to do the work. We coined a term for the work done to plan and prioritize work: “work-planning inception.”

Automation (done well) eliminates the round-robin of that.

 automate Asana or Trello tasks, project management hits a threshold. That’s why we’ve created a way to manage tasks inside the tool you’re working in.

Because creating tasks should never be a to-do item.

In-app task management needs these three things to succeed:

On-the-spot creation (aka, not only after meetings)

Relevant context (e.g., screenshots and links)

Collaboration (e.g., ability to @mention)

This can help teams scale their project management without hiring more team members to manage projects.

There’s no need for a steep value ladder.

“As team members progress and master their tasks, they should either be handed onto a junior team member or to a machine as per the step above.”

Like anyone scaling a business or a team, there are growing pains. And there’s an art to letting go.

You hit the nail on the head when you said: “everyone on your marketing team should be climbing the value ladder.”

Cord helps marketing leaders pass the baton to junior team members by leaving clear documentation, onboarding guides, and a lifeline (aka an ability to chat or ask for feedback) exactly where they'd need them.

Whether members of the marketing team are in an app like 

, Google Analytics, Trello, or on your company’s website making some updates, they can quickly chat with their manager in context. This can eliminate the tendency to “jump on a quick call” or create a Slack-storm.

Meet less without sacrificing collaboration.

We know “asynchronous work always wins” as you said. When teams stop jumping into group-think mode and actually 

Tom, we love that you have zero scheduled meetings at Fame and bCast. Cheers to that.

Cord helps eliminate meetings by adding context without the need for screen-sharing or bad walkthroughs.

Asynchronous work still requires collaboration (just not all on Zoom calls). That’s why it’s better to keep conversations where the work happens-- don’t throw off the deep-work groove.

Document everything, but not just in a Drive somewhere.

“If we agree that asynchronous communication beats synchronous, then we need to get better and more organised with the documentation of the information needed to run the marketing department.”

Documentation is the enemy of the infamous "move fast and break things." But if you don't document, you're going to move fast, in a circle, and break the same damn things over and over again.

Toggling back and forth between where the work happens, your company’s chat app, email, and a report on the work is dead.

Instead, document what you anticipate reusing again to set up teams for success and avoid bottlenecks.

A sucky onboarding experience sets up a new hire for failure, and they’ll be 

With Cord, you can provide the resources right within the apps where work is happening by:

Adding annotations and comments explaining how things work

Provide next steps and reminders (aka, digital post-it notes)

Documentation right where it needs to be is a lot more convenient than outdated walkthroughs lost in Confluence or Coda (or Google Docs, if you're still into that).

Empower your team to take tasks across the finish line. Team members can send messages from inside the tools they work in to Slack to quickly get their manager’s input or approval, whether that's from 

, social media ad platforms, or analytics dashboards.

And we mean beyond the flying unicorns in Asana. Track campaigns and other milestones KPIs in analytics tools. Use Cord to nod to wins, emphasize significant initiatives, and share performance and opportunities with the team.

Cord enables B2B marketing teams to create, collaborate, and update the status of tasks where deep work happens. Sounds like a way to keep growing.

So Tom, when’s a good time to show you 

 on “the power of marketing ops,” and we have some thoughts.

Build together in Retool with Cord comments and annotations

The future of collaboration is here, but we need a mindset shift

Asynchronous communication just got easier.

State of Project Management in 2021 Report Reveals How Companies Use Task Managers

Work with your team directly in HubSpot with this add-on

Hey, Tom Hunt — We know how to make B2B marketing ops even better.

Heal your love-hate relationship with Mailchimp with this add-on

In flow and in context: How to unlock that 10x productivity for your team

How in-app collaboration is changing the way we work

Enabling Developer Velocity

Cord + Slack = Collaborative magic ✨

Add comments and annotate inside any tool you use at work, get updates in Slack

Part 2: Server Side Tech Picks

Part 1: Client Side Tech Picks