How difficult is it to manage a field team? Is there a way to understand the field without being in the field?

Can someone outside the field truly understand it?

While trying to answer this question, we realized the importance of seeing things from the perspective of a field worker. Understanding the challenges they face in field management can bridge the gap between office and field operations and make our solution more effective in overcoming those challenges.

To define it briefly, the term "field" refers to specific areas where individuals or teams perform their duties outside an office. These individuals are called field workers or field teams. Who are they? Boiler maintenance technicians, couriers, municipal road repair crews, or teams setting up internet infrastructure—all are examples of field workers. Every day, hundreds of thousands of people work in the field, often unnoticed.

What challenges do they face in field management?

Isolation from the office

Field workers often carry out their tasks individually or in small teams. Due to this setup, they rarely have immediate physical access to someone who can approve their work or assist with challenges. This leads to a sense of isolation from the office.

Spending extra time on reporting

Fieldwork is usually labor-intensive and physically demanding. Manually documenting tasks with pen and paper after such tiring work consumes additional time and effort, creating a significant burden for field workers.

Difficulties in prioritizing tasks

No matter how well a field worker understands their tasks, their workflow often depends on customer requests. Constantly changing demands make it challenging to prioritize tasks, even when using pen and paper, often resulting in confusion.

Challenges in measuring performance

Since field workers operate outside the office, monitoring their performance is highly challenging. Only team-based field activities can be observed, which leads to a lack of insight into individual productivity. This, in turn, hinders accurate forecasting and decisive action for future projects.

Now we understand how difficult it is to coordinate the field without being physically present. While brainstorming solutions, we developed Pintask, an application that brings the field and office closer together. With Pintask, real-time communication between the field and office is possible, allowing you to feel as if you’re right there alongside your field workers, even from your desk!

You can explore Pintask in detail to learn more.