If Action Method would succeed in getting a large user base it will be the best thing that happened to humanity. It is a ‘workflow manager’, and the results are probably better than having your own personal secretary:

• Accessible from any computer connected to the internet. Standards based Javascript/DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict means you won’t be in trouble if using Safari or IE8.
• A well thought of interface, with different types of tasks clearly differentiated, and absolutely no digging through menus – an achievement considering the feature set that this app provides.
• You can create your own Projects and add tasks under it, in a typical 2 level branch scheme. The tasks you create can be delegated to other Action Method users by simply typing their email. You can communicate with them, send a nag if the job didn’t get done or thank them via ‘Share the love’ button. Set up a due date and monitor the time it took to complete is a cinch.
• References lets you store files, links, documents anything you need to achieve a certain task. Instead of searching every time for the Sticky Notes or notebook you’ve got everything in one place, neatly organized.
• Discussions, a major breakthrough of Action Method, gathers all communications, files, decisions into one place making it extremely easy to work with – and you can do this with many people! Doing this in Yahoo! Mail would be a total disaster and even GMail would require setting up filters and labels for each of the participant – Action Method does it for you without lifting a finger.

• Backburners – ideas that might be genius but you just can’t work at them right now, now have a place to live.
• Events manages deadlines for projects or tasks, meetings, conferences, it’s what you need it to be.
• Inbox – the place where you receive delegated tasks, new discussions, backburners and references.

The team behind Action Method has created a very insightful short video that explains the main features of the product along with live examples of a situation which is available here.

If you’re worried what you’re going to do when you’re offline, well, there are Action Method paper products: Action Book – a notepad with a task oriented printed pattern, Action Runner – the smaller brother, cards and stickers.

There’s only one downside to Action Method – when you reach the limits of the free version, and believe me, you’ll want all the features, you’re going to have to get a subscription. It’s not terribly expensive considering what you get out of it and the work that the team put towards creating this amazing web app. In the meantime, you should definitely try it by going here and setting up a free account.

I had the chance to ask Scott Belsky from Behance, the company behind Action Method, a few questions:

Q: What was the inspiration for ActionMethod? Was it a personal need that later developed into a product?

A: The inspiration was the fact that creative people and teams have too many ideas, but seldom take enough action to make their ideas happen. Productivity is sorely missing in the creative world. We developed the Behance Network to help organize the creative world’s work. Now we wanted to help organize the creative process – all with a bias towards action. What started as a small project for our team (Action Paper) became a major project to build an online productivity application fro the creative world.

Q: AM is certainly one of the most advanced solutions out there; How long did it take to bring the idea to fruition?

A: It took us over a year to get it to where it is – and we’re just getting started. We have many improvements in our pipeline. Another interesting and little-known fact is that our team used Action Method to build Action Method. We developed the Action Step functionality (creating action steps and delegating them) first. And then built the rest of the application around this basic functionality.

Q: Most of your competitors are advertising supported. How would you justify a paid subscription? Why not have that just for business users?

A: If users adapt Action Method Online as their primary task/project management solution, they typically take advantage of our advanced file-storage and project management capabilities that cost us on the bandwidth and storage side. As such, we structured the product to provide UNLIMITED action steps to iPhone users and up to 50 for those who want to test the full online capabilities.

Also, we believe that design, functionality, and methodology are sacred. So, we decided against introducing advertising into an application that is all about focus and productivity.

Q: How would you imagine AM evolve in the future?

A:We think that “ACTIONS” should be removed from email and other forms of communication. Action Steps are a unique element that must be managed accordingly. After all, progress in any project ultimately comes down to taking action.

Q: If you had to pick one feature of AM you can’t live without, what would you choose?
A: Definitely the Action Steps!  We feel that every idea – and every project – ultimately comes down to taking action. I log in every morning and see ALL of the Action Steps for every project in my life – personal and professional – sorted by Target Date. I can then further filter these action steps by color (priority) or by keyword.  To me, this is the most valuable aspect of the system.

I’m currently doing research for an article geared at free, simple, collaborative organization tools, and I’d like to hear about what you use, and, of course, your opinion on Action Method.