Lucidchart Reviews

I am primarily using it to draw org charts but I also use it to create flow charts.

My goal is to make sure that my org charts are presentable, and that they look great.

The look of the org charts and presentation of them to the management time is better and neater with Lucidchart. Things are more aligned; it's easier and quicker for me to create them. It used to take ages to make the boxes look the same and make the lines look the same.

This product has helped me to realize efficiency in the projects that I use it for, otherwise, I would not subscribe to it. I have explained to my HR department that it is easy to use and not very expensive.

I like Lucidchart's organizational charts for visualizing and understanding team hierarchies and relationships. I take instructions from the management team on how the charts should look, so I create them following their guidelines. In the past, this was a manual process. In Lucidchart, I don't copy the examples and use those, because I think every company has different ways of doing their org charts. However, I am able to create what I need.

Lucide chart is user-friendly and quite easy to use. In terms of ease of use and intuitiveness, I would rate this product a nine and a half out of ten.

I like the panel on the left of the screen that has all of the shapes that are available to use in the charts. It's easy to use because you can just drag and drop.

Drawing and connecting the lines is really nice.

I would like an on-premises version of the software that I can just download and use. I think that it's easier that way.

I started using Lucidchart approximately three weeks ago.

Stability-wise, I haven't run into any trouble so far.

Our team in Singapore is very small, so I'm subscribing as an individual user for now. I have a subscription for one year. I have recommended this solution to my wider team in our main office and they are looking into getting a team of users there. The things that I do here may also coincide with some of their charts and other types of drawings.

Prior to using Lucidchart, I was using Visio. I really struggled with drawing lines and with other actions. For example, it is difficult to make boxes symmetric. I find Lucidchart much easier to use.

Because of our experience with Visio, we started exploring other org chart drawing applications. This is when I tried Lucidchart and found it quite easy to use.

When I switched over from Visio, I did not try to import anything. I did it all from scratch. I prefer to do that, so it's clean.

The initial setup is very straightforward and the deployment is very quick. I started with a test and then I decided to pay for it. Once you pay, you can use it. You just have to choose what you want to do.

I deployed it myself. There is nothing complicated about it.

I have not seen a return on investment after only three weeks.

I have a subscription as an individual user for one year, and it is not expensive.

For me, the price is acceptable, which is why I'm able to get approval to use it. It is cheaper than other solutions that I have looked at.

I compared Lucidchart with one to two other applications, and I think the price is more reasonable.

This is a SaaS solution and I did not understand why it was that every time I wanted to get into Lucidchart, I had to go through Chrome or IE to open it and then log in from there. For most applications, you download it and you can just drag and drop it into your Windows and work from there. I wasn't sure if I was opening my charts the correct way. I really didn't mind because as long as I can get my work done, I'm happy.

The biggest lesson that I have learned from using this product is that I don't need to struggle with creating org charts. It's quick and easy to use.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

A lot of people in my company are using it for mapping processes.

We use it for mapping sales processes and product management processes. We look at a product and map it, including how we interface it through the product life cycle. Personally, I use it a couple of hours a day for project process mapping work.

In general, this product has improved our organization because it makes accessing up-to-date processes and planning a lot easier.

In terms of documenting things such as processes, systems, and new teams, it's easy to go in and share it with people as you're putting the process down. They can interact with it as well, and make changes at a later date. It stores all of these pages together under one folder and allows others to make changes, and it is also documented.

Lucidchart's capabilities for visualizing and understanding process flows and workflows are very good. There are lots of different shapes to use, they are easy to connect, easy to drag and drop, and the user interface is good. Changes and updates are also very good.

Overall, it's a very simple and very easy application to learn and also to use.

Lucidchart is integrated with Atlassian and it works fairly seamlessly. It's fairly important to our operation and the way it has been set up, I don't notice the integration.

The most valuable feature is the user interface. We use it live, so as we're having a conversation and deciding on the process that we're working on, it's easy to map it down, drag and drop components, move the different boxes around, and then add labels and things.

This solution allows for real-time collaboration among users so that everybody is working on the same version of a document, and this has definitely improved our development process. It has saved us time because of the time difference between myself and my colleagues. For example, I work in the UK and I have colleagues that work in Calgary, Canada. There are several hours of difference between us. Whenever we have a meeting in the afternoon, we can sit down and see the same document that we're all working on. We can edit and create processes in the live format, which means that we can maximize the amount of work we can do in this limited window of opportunity.

The ability for people to look at a diagram, rather than reading through written documents, has saved us time. I estimate that it saves us perhaps five hours per week. The savings comes from the fact that it's all there in front of us and we can refer back to it when we're referencing something else.

It would be helpful if there were different options available for organizing the folders, such as having a high-level display with pictures.

I have been using Lucidchart for between two and three weeks. The company has been using it for quite a long time.

This product is very robust, as far as I can tell.

Scalability is very good. You can map a whole product development cycle through sales and interacting with the customer, and probably roadmaps going forward.

It is being used company-wide and I think that most people are probably using it. We have approximately 30 in the UK and in Canada, it is probably 150 more. It seems to be the de facto system and I suppose that as the company expands, the usage will increase.

The initial setup was straightforward. It took a while to get my password for the license, although that may have been an internal issue rather than an external one. I expected it to be pretty quick but it took a couple of weeks, through our IT people.

Once I had my password, all that was required was for me to log onto it. I've also been given links that were shared by a couple of colleagues that I was working on things with.

I probably use 20% of the features available in the product. I'm sure there is a lot more than I could be using it for and over time, I'll figure out more of it.

My advice for anybody who is looking into implementing Lucidchart is that if it fits what you want to do, I recommend it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

It is mainly for sales and business development. We use it for account mapping. If we have a target account, we want to know who the key players are. They include the decision-makers, individual contributors, etc. We map this information out on Lucidchart.

We are probably using the latest version. They're pretty good about that. In terms of deployment, it might be SaaS.

When we have target accounts, we really need to see and get a really clear overview of who's who, who does what, and who the champions are. Lucidchart has been in charge of that.

I have used Lucidchart's abilities to modify existing data structures. When I joined the company, they had existing account maps, and I was able to duplicate them and then tweak them to my needs. Lucidchart supports such processes very well. It is very user-friendly. It was easy for multiple users to collaborate on a single chart. Anyone can jump in and start adding and changing to an existing chart. All that activity is also trackable, which is helpful.

We have integrated it with Salesforce and G Suite. These integrations are important because when you make tweaks on Lucidchart, you want to make sure that those tweaks are also reflected on Salesforce and other solutions. You can update on one, and it gets updated automatically on the other and vice versa. These integrations are critical to what we do.

There is also integration with Slack, which is our main communication channel. It is definitely something we use more than email. Having this integration between Lucidchart and Slack really allows us to share documents for feedback. For example, I can share a Lucidchart via Slack with my boss, and then he would take a look at it and give me immediate feedback over Slack, which works in conjunction with the comments in Lucidchart. Basically, when I'm speaking with my manager, we communicate via Slack about the Lucidchart file, but when I'm speaking with my counterpart, who's working with me on the same account, then we would make the tweaks directly in Lucidchart. Slack just complements the collaboration that's within Lucidchart. It adds another layer for sharing with the wider organization.

Lucidchart provides real-time collaboration among users so that everyone is accessing and working on the same version of the document. This real-time collaboration is key because I would be on Zoom with one of my colleagues, and then we would jump into a Lucidchart file and start tweaking it as we go together.

It has definitely saved time. More efficiency gains are definitely there. It has cut our time. Previously, we used to create something in a PowerPoint or Keynote file, but they were just not as collaborative, dynamic, and adaptable as Lucidchart. In terms of numbers, it has saved us at least 20% of the time that would have been spent on other programs.

It has definitely helped us in realizing the efficiencies in the projects. It has made us more efficient as a team. The collaborative nature of it is something that's key to time-saving and being efficient in our workflows. Each of us manages multiple accounts, and it is just easier to keep track of things with Lucidchart.

The ability for people to look at a diagram rather than reading through written documents has saved time and, as a result, money, but I don't have specific metrics to show for that.

I really like the drag and drop feature. It makes it really easy. I also like the comment feature that enables various users to comment on the chart in real-time.

I like how all the contacts in my chart are linked to LinkedIn. That's what makes it really easy for outreach and for making sure we have all the contacts right there in front of us when we need to.

It is very user-friendly for documenting things such as processes, systems, new teams, etc.

Lucidchart's organizational charts are very good for visualizing and understanding team hierarchies and relationships. That's the reason we use it. It gives you a very clear overview of who does what within the company. I also like how adaptable it is. It is very easy to tweak if someone leaves the company or someone joins, or as we find out more information about the company that we're working with in terms of who the players are. It is almost like playing chess. We can just move the pieces around the board.

It is very good for visualizing and understanding process flows or workflows. When I first started using it, I didn't feel the need to read the whole manual. It is very intuitive in terms of what the steps are. It is integrated with Salesforce as well, which makes it very easy to import leads from Salesforce into Lucidchart to create those maps. The workflows and processes are very seamless.

It would be nice to be able to import not just contacts from Salesforce but also leads. In the beginning, when I was still learning the ropes and my way around it, I couldn't find such an option. There might be an option, but I just don't know about it.

I have been using it for only about a month, but my company has been using it longer.

It is really stable. I honestly haven't incurred any issues related to stability.

It is scalable. As our team grows and we hire more people, it can definitely accommodate all the users that we need. I do not have the numbers, but I just know we're hiring a lot of new people, myself included, recently.

We have more than 100 licenses, and its users include the Business Development people and Sales Account Executives. I'm on the Business Development team. There are also some Customer Success Managers who get involved once a deal is closed. They need to know who the players are at various accounts. We also have a team of Sales Engineers. They definitely get involved in it as well. So, Business Development, Sales Account Executives, Customer Success, and Sales Engineers are the four groups that are the main players.

I have never interacted with their technical support.

I was not there for that. There is a whole team that does that. They know how to handle Lucidchart. They handle other tools too.

For its maintenance, maybe one or two people are required on a regular basis. They just need to send out very quick and short surveys to see our experiences with the software. It is usually done when we are getting close to renewal, and then they see if it's worth extending the licenses.

I would definitely recommend it. It is a tool that I wish I had in my previous jobs and companies. I would advise others to start with an existing template from the company and then reverse engineer that. It is very easy and very intuitive to use, so I would say go for it.

Lucidchart really has a clear overview. Once you have your players charted out, it is bound to change at some point, and it is not going to be static. It is dynamic, and Lucidchart can definitely accommodate. It is adaptable enough to accommodate all those changes.

Our company only uses Mac. So, it's not important for us to be able to access it on PC. I have not used Lucidchart's ability to compare versions of documents.

I would rate Lucidchart a nine out of 10.

We are mainly using it for flow charts, organization charts, and process flows. In terms of deployment, we have a subscription for it. It has a login and a password, and we have to log in.

I joined my new company at the beginning of May. I'm in HR, and it is called the People Performance and Culture (PPC) team. One of the things I was told to do was figure out the process flow for onboarding. Because it is APAC and we have some people in India, Japan, China, and Singapore, it was confusing to understand who comes under which part during onboarding. My manager wanted to make a process flow, so I decided to make a flow chart. I literally just searched for flow chart software or easy-to-use tools on the web, and I came across Lucidchart. I really enjoyed using it. I was quite quickly able to understand how to use it and get on with my process flow. This process flow has really helped all the regions in understanding how onboarding works across all the regions. In the future, we can easily see how the process works rather than thinking it is too complicated, and we don't want to get into it. It just makes things simpler. Now, more people use it, and obviously, I can add more features to it if I want to. I think we have used it for our org chart as well. We've just rolled out a new org chart. I wasn't part of that, but I can see that they've used Lucidchart for that.

It is very useful for documenting things such as processes, systems, new teams, etc. because it has everything. It is very easy to document, and it is very easy to see the date you created or gave access to something.

It provides real-time collaboration among users so that everyone is accessing and working on the same version of a document. This real-time collaboration has affected our project development process. I was able to get someone to look at the org chart while I was working on it. As opposed to making changes at the end, I could make changes as I was working on a document. Its real-time collaboration has saved us time. It has approximately saved an hour worth of work.

The ability for people to look at a diagram rather than reading through written documents has also saved time, and as a result, money. It has saved about an hour.

It has definitely helped us in realizing efficiencies in our projects. It has made everything more visual. Once things are more visual, it becomes easier for me to see whether there are glitches in the process, whether there is a better way of doing things, and whether we have too many steps for one thing. The visual aid has definitely helped us look at the processes in a different light.

We use Microsoft Teams in our company, and one of the reasons for using Lucidchart is that you can integrate it with Microsoft Teams. If I need to send somebody a document through Microsoft Teams, it is very easy. This integration is highly important for our operations because otherwise, we will have to use another solution or way to do the same thing. We are already using Microsoft Teams, so it is much easier to tag it on to Microsoft Teams.

The flow chart is most valuable. It is a very user-friendly and simple-to-use product. Quite quickly, I was able to understand how to use it and just get on with my process flow. 

Its organizational charts are pretty good for visualizing and understanding team hierarchies and relationships. These organizational charts are very visual. The colors also help. It is also easy to create an organizational chart.

I use it for visualizing and understanding process flows or workflows, and I would rate it really high from this aspect because I found it very easy to use. It has some suggested themes, so I can make them look pretty. There was access to videos or tutorials if I got stuck. That was really good as well.

It can have more colors or graphics. Currently, it is a little boring. It can have a little bit more fun factor.

I have started to use it very recently. 

It is quite stable and reliable.

It is quite scalable. We are a small department. Currently, two departments have access to it. We have only about 30 people, and out of them, only four are using it.

I am pretty new here, and we're just figuring out APAC processes and hiring new people. I will be using Lucidchart a lot more in the coming months because we're trying to figure out all the processes and the process flows amongst all the regions.

It is pretty good. They were videos available for any questions that I had while I was using the solution. I'm more of a visual person, so the videos really helped.

It was straightforward. It took just a few minutes.

I did it on my own. I was using the free account because you can use a free account. It turned out that we had a company account with Lucidchart. My manager gave me access to that, and then basically, I uploaded the flow chart that I had created over there.

For its deployment and maintenance, probably only one or two people are required.

I did come across Visio, but I looked at Lucidchart first. Visio wasn't as user-friendly.

I have definitely told people to use it. It really makes things easier. The visualization is really good, simple, and neat. For me, visuals work much better, and it is easier to spot mistakes when you can see it all in one go rather than in different steps. I would definitely advise people to integrate it and use it as much.

In my organization, we currently only use PCs, but it is good that it is compatible with Mac and PC. I have not used its ability to compare versions of documents. I have also not used any other product from their suite.

I would rate Lucidchart a nine out of 10. It just needs a little bit more fun factor.

The ability to have more than one person editing at the same time is the most valuable feature. You can have one diagram and have multiple users on it at the same time. We haven't been able to do that on other software. So that's the main reason we moved to Lucidchart.

The main benefits of Lucidchart are collaborative working and also being able to just create documents really quickly that are still editable. Even though you've done an initial quick layout, you don't lose the ability to go back and continue with that same chart and turn it into the final version.

The real-time collaboration among users, where we're working on the same version of the document or chart, sped up our project development process. Especially with remote working, you can have two people working and looking at it while discussing it at the same time. It just sped things up and especially eased remote working.

This real-time collaboration has also saved us time. It's just been quicker than it would otherwise have been if we didn't have it.

It's been more efficient than not using it. It's not like we had a regular process and we've changed over to this. It's that we've had a project and this is what we selected. It's been pretty good at visualizing and understanding workflows. We haven't come across anything that limits it.

It might already exist and I haven't used it, but in terms of improvement, I would like a hot-key system for some of the diagrams to auto-generate things a bit quicker to be able to produce charts a lot faster, or have more standard templates that you can just go to if you're trying to generate something quickly.

I have been using Lucidchart for a month and a half. 

I have not had performance issues. 

If you lose internet connection or you're in and out of the internet, then that can be an issue for loading it up, but that's the only issue.

We haven't rolled it out across too many people, but we haven't had any issues so far with adding people. We're not a massive company, so we're only looking at 10 users or so, but on that sort of scale, it's not an issue.

The users are all engineers of varying levels.

We switched from Visio to Lucidchart for some of our documentation. One of the main reasons why we use Lucidchart is to switch from Visio to that.

We haven't migrated any prior documents. We're still keeping them as a legacy on Visio, but anything new going forward is moving to Lucid.

The interface for Visio is obviously common to all of the Microsoft programs, so it's quite easy to pick that up, but despite Lucid not being as well known or having that background of being part of the 365 packages, I think it's pretty good for that integration and how easy it is to use.

We still have Visio for the old documentation that we have to keep information on. So we won't be getting rid of that, but won't be buying any new versions. It's not a subscription-type setup, it's that we own those versions of the software. We'll just keep them for when we need to do legacy-related support.

We won't be getting rid of the old documentation that we have to keep information on but we won't be buying any new versions. It's not a subscription-type setup, it's that we own those versions of the software. We'll just keep them for when we need to do legacy-related support.

The initial setup was really quick. It was already set up within the organization, so I didn't do that, and then somebody just sent me an email invite and that was it.

Lucidchart is really intuitive for a new user. We didn't specifically do any tutorials or anything like that. There's pretty reasonable support when you want. If you just Google how to do something, there's normally a step-by-step guide. I'd definitely encourage you to go with this solution especially if they want to do this concurrent working.

I would rate Lucidchart a nine out of ten. 

We use the data models. We create technical architecture and system architecture, usually for technical diagrams that we need processed.

On my team, there are business and technical people who all are using Lucidchart. It gives us really clean, professional-looking diagrams that we have tried to make in PowerPoint. Also, if you can leverage their templates, then you aren't starting from a blank canvas.

The templates are very useful. We get the templates for technical systems, which are helpful.

There is a connection to the system where you can directly pull the data model. There is a Salesforce Connector that you can use, which pulls out your diagram from the system. That is really cool. When we click on the data model, you can connect to your technical system, like Salesforce or AWS. This helps create a data model that you would otherwise have to do manually in a better looking format, like PowerPoint. It pulls the data model into a kind of presentation mode. You don't have to drag and drop lines and relationships between objects.

It is good for documenting processes. I see the salespeople organize ideas and brainstorm with it.

I use Lucidchart to create database schemas and modify existing data structures. Lucidchart is pretty good in its ability to support these processes. I would rate it as a four out of five.

We use Lucidchart's integration with Salesforce for getting the ER diagram and enterprise relationship architecture. We need it to connect to the database, which is very important.

It is important to me that the solution accommodates both Mac and PC users because the developers in our company use Mac, then the business people use Windows. The technical people create the technical architecture using Lucidchart. So, it is important that it is compatible with both the systems.

Lucidchart has helped us realize efficiencies in the projects that we use it for. The leveraging of templates has been a great help. Previously, I was creating an ER diagram in PowerPoint, which was very tedious to do. Now, I just connect to the Salesforce database and have to pull the data model. The Salesforce Connector pulls the relationship automatically, which is a very big help. It is a great feature.

I would like to have more text boxes to write more comments so I can write a small note below a picture. I would like some flexibility.

I started using it this month.

My team consists of five people. In my company, there are a lot of people who use it. We get our licenses on an as-needed basis, e.g., if we need to run a project, then we use it. Not everybody in the company uses Lucidchart. If we need it for a project, then your credentials are created and you are enabled access. 

Only people who are a little bit in the middle management level of leadership use it. Not even our leadership uses it because they have people working for them.

I have not contacted Lucidchart's tech support.

We previously used PowerPoint.

I need to tell my company's IT that I need access to Lucidchart. There is a single sign-on that gets enabled, then I just need to set my password. It is pretty self-explanatory. It doesn't take much time. I just had to explore and browse a little bit to see what templates were available. It is pretty easy to navigate and use.

The ability for people to look at a diagram, rather than reading through written documents, has saved us a lot of time, and as a result money. In our clients' requirements, they need to see what our deliverables are and we have to produce these pictures, which is also better now.

Go for it. Try it. The solution is good.

I do have plans to increase my usage. I just use it for deliverables and to generate a few diagrams and documents. I have not explored the full features of Lucidchart so much.

I would rate Lucidchart as an eight out of 10.

I make the domain-driven designs (DDDs) for my teammates as well as ER diagrams (ERDs).

I usually use Lucidchart with my work for some idea improvements or brainstorming.

Our company has a linking system where we can share hierarchies and general information with our teammates. I use Lucidchart to visualize the main system of our old game systems, like the DDD.

I make the domain-driven design, and through that I make the ERD. Then, through the ERD, I make the database schema. So, all the charts that I make or propose for new systems go through that process.

Lucidchart provides real-time collaboration among users so everyone is accessing and working on the same version of a document. First, I make the proposal or concept of the domain, then I review it with my teammates. If they accept the whole concept of the domain, I make it as a domain model through Lucidchart. So, that loop of feedback makes a better version of the DDD, ERD, or schema.

The concept of a product is something that can always change over time. So, it is good to have a diagram for visualization that makes changes easily. This is the essence of Lucidchart. I fully agree with the concept of Lucidchart because of this reason.

The best part of Lucidchart is its comfortableness when sharing it with my teammates. Lucidchart provides me with a folder for my ERD. I can make a dozen lists of my chart, then share them with my teammates easily through the diagrams of Lucidchart. This is their main comfort, which is the reason why I choose Lucidchart rather than some other chart program.

We use Lucidchart for documenting things, such as processes, systems, new teams, etc. I can share these via email to my product team using a Lucidchart shared link. I also declare the main domain of our game as Lucidchart. Then, the majority of my work is the relationship between domains and visualization through Lucidchart. 

It is very important that Lucidchart accommodates Mac and PC because of my job. When our designers usually make their presentations to customers or my teammates, we usually use the iPad. Lucidchart also provides an application version that works from PC to iPad. It is very comfortable to use and present to someone with my iPad. Therefore, it's very important to provide versions for both Mac and PC. 

There are some situations where there is a difference between their iPad, mobile, and PC versions. For example, when I use Lucidchart on a PC, the PC provides a layer system for Lucidchart. When I am using the PC, I can assign or change the layer of my chart. However, when I use Lucidchart on the iPad or mobile, I cannot find any UI or UX that provides a layer system. I am unable to find the shape or other layers on the mobile or iPad.

They could provide more documentation or tutorials of ERDs or DDD on the Lucidchart site. That could be better.

If there were any charts from Lucidchart that can be shared as real-time collaboration through Slack or DataPal, then that would make it better to use as a software program.

I have used Lucidchart for two months. 

It is stable.

There are 50 employees in our company who already use Lucidchart. So, everyone in the company is using Lucidchart.

I have not used the technical support.

In the past, I used draw.io for ERDs.

We switched because Lucidchart has standalone libraries, which makes it comfortable for me to create some draw charts or data flows. draw.io doesn't have anything like standalone libraries. When I use draw.io, I usually have to make my own standalone library for my work. Using Lucidchart, there is no reason to make my own standalone libraries because Lucidchart already has many good standalone libraries for their ERDs.

Lucidchart is essential. When I use other charts programs, like draw.io, there are no standard shapes nor standalone libraries. They cannot import my ERD or schema to a secure database. When I found Lucidchart, the program already provided the input system to SQL and MySQL. So, it is very comfortable to use this solution rather than another program.

I also switched from Visio to Lucidchart. Visio does provide some good functions and nice directories, but it is very hard to use on an iPad or mobile that is iOS-based. The major feature which made me decide to use Lucidchart is the compatibility because Visio doesn't provide good compatibility for the mobile or iPad. 

draw.io is a free program, but they provide very few standard libraries and no import programs. Visio has good features, but it does not have the compatibility. The reason that I selected Lucidchart was for my chart program.

There were no problems downloading this program to my computer or iPad. Our country has a very good trial on the Internet. 

The real-time collaboration saves two hours a day for my team.

The ability for people to look at a diagram, rather than reading through written documents, has saved my organization time, and as a result money. Developers/artists don't want to read the documentation. They want to see the essence and relationship of their concept. They just want some simple diagrams to help them imagine their main concept. So, the visual diagrams are better than the documentation.

Other programs don't provide a print system, which Lucidchart does.

It is not a complex system. It is very easy to use, collaborate, and share. I like it. It is easy to share, easy to learn, and has compatibility with PCs and iPads.

I already learned most of the information on how to make a schema or DDD in other assets. So, I did not use Lucidchart as my starting material.

We plan on exploring the solution’s integrations with Atlassian, Salesforce, Microsoft, Google Workspace, or other solutions.

I would rate this solution as an eight and a half out of 10.

We primarily use it for process improvement in a factory setting. What I am primarily using it for is making process flow diagrams—with the rectangles, circles, diamonds, arrows, and whatever else you would build into a process flow. 

We've had discussions about using it to build engineering-type stuff, as well. For example, "Here's the room, here are the dimensions. Here's what it would look like if we moved this piece of equipment, what space it would open up. Here are other constraints or barriers that it might create." We've had discussions on that, but we haven't really delved into that yet. 

I have the web-based for my laptop, and I have the app downloaded on my iPad Air. I've been using it on both of them.

We're primarily using it for process mapping and it's much quicker than trying to do it in Excel. 

Doing things digitally means that if I'm on a Teams or a Zoom meeting, I can get input from people and they can see it as we go. I'm a pretty big user of whiteboards. I have two in my office and those are great. But what I hate sometimes is when it comes to, "All right, let's take this away. Let's run with it," I have to take a picture and send it out. Then, at nine o'clock at night, someone on the team will say, "Oh, I just thought of this step that we completely overlooked..." I can't do anything about it because it's on my whiteboard. But using Lucidchart, I've been able to say, "Okay, I've got my iPad, let me add that in really quickly." I like the convenience and the user interface.

It is so great for understanding process flows or workflows. With the prior training that I had, doing things on whiteboards and in Excel or Word to manually build stuff was clunky. Because it was clunky, it was slow. When it's slow and you have a meeting, you lose people's attention. Because this is fast and not clunky, people are able to say, "Oh, okay. This is the next step and the next step." I get better engagement and I get through mapping the processes quicker. Because it has the different shapes and the explanations of what things mean, I'm able to get more out of it. Visually it is the best application that I've used.

I'm also getting productive engagement and productive challenge from my teams. Someone will say, "Well, that step shouldn't really be represented by a diamond. It's more a case that somebody has to go and get things and that causes a delay, but it's not necessarily a decision because it's built into the process." 

Per week, I probably do two of these exercises, and each one would take three-plus hours to get through when dealing with some of our more complicated processes. Now, we can get them done in about an hour. That's a huge improvement because of the software itself, but it has also helped us to see, "Wow, we have a lot of excess steps and waste in our process." For example, we were working on it with a team over the last two days and we got two new maps up in the span of an hour and a half or two hours. We're getting much quicker at process mapping and understanding what we need to address.

Lucidchart has also helped with training and developing standard operating procedures. Before, we would just use a piece of paper, and maybe it would have a picture of what is going on. And on that piece of paper would be a list of sequential steps. We still have to do that for FDA regulations of having and maintaining SOPs. But having printed out flowcharts benefits us because you can just flip over the piece of paper and see, "All right, here are the four or five little steps I take before I get to a decision, and here are the two branches from that decision." That extra context helps us in building a development tool. And we can post the process flow map for, say, operating a hopper, right on the equipment. That way, people can see things. And if they need more context or deeper instruction, they can bring up the actual SOP with all the words. But a quick little chart that shows the flow: "This is what I do. This is what I do if this fails, et cetera," is something that we're getting a lot of immediate benefit from.

It is important that Lucidchart accommodates both Mac and PC users because if you support Mac, that means you also support the mobile applications on the iPad. Because of the kind of factory setting we're in, all of the office personnel and management have laptops, but they also have iPads. Some of the other employees have access to an iPad, but not all of them do. When we're trying to talk through a process with them on-the-fly, or at the point of occurrence, it's so much nicer if we can both have it up on the iPad. That's why I would say the Mac support is essential.

It's easy to click and drag and automatically insert shapes. And once you have selected an arrow to move to a new location, it auto-associates the shape with it and you can right-click and change. There's no copy, paste, make next steps, start typing. It's all seamlessly integrated.

Integrations with third-party software are pretty important. I do a lot of work out of Tableau for data analysis. One of the things that I find frustrating is that all of our Tableau information is on a server, so when I send that out people can't open it and use it. I then have to go back and do extra work to convert everything into an Excel format that everybody can use. It would be really important to me, if I send something out to somebody who doesn't have a Lucid account, that they can just click and see it, instead of having to log in and create an account. I can understand if they can't edit it; that makes sense, to restrict that behind the paywall. But in terms of actually being able to open up the data, it would help. With Tableau, for our data management systems, it's a big constraint. The user interface across other software is very important to me.

Something that would also be nice—and maybe it's just a feature I haven't explored yet—would be to be able to link the data from other sources, whether Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, or even straight from Excel. That way, if we build processes we could immediately assign data, whether its defective units, operational uptime or operational downtime, changeover time, et cetera. It would help to be able to put it in there so that we can have the data collected and then somehow integrate it to each step of the process. For example, if this step of the process fails, it causes X minutes of operational downtime and Y number of defective units coming out of the machine. I understand that it might be a little advanced, but right now I'm taking the charts and correlating them to existing data from Tableau and from Excel. If there were a way to make it seamless, so I could click on my flow chart and show, "This decision point, this diamond, is potentially responsible for X number of minutes operational downtime, and Y number of defective bottles," that would be the continuous improvement dream.

I have been using Lucidchart for close to a year.

I've only had one or two issues where the performance of it was delayed. I don't know if the cause was the internet connection or if it was because I was trying to fill out the charts on the iPad. But using the Apple Pencil, there were time delays between drawing lines between different process steps and getting things entered in. It was a little awkward on the timing. When you build something on the iPad, its performance might just not be as effective as building it on the computer.

Other than that, every time I build something there's no buffering or issues with it deleting my work or not saving things. It seems to be doing all the things that it needs to be doing. The iPad issue is the only little snafu I've had.

I can't speak too much abou its scalability. We could probably expand it and get multiple supervisors at my plant using it. But in terms of getting the information made and sharing it out, it's pretty quick and pretty easy. If we were to add a company server for it and 18 people working on it at the plant, I don't know if there would be scaling or server issues.

I hope we have plans to increase usage of Lucidchart. Our business is split up into four plants across the country. In the Continuous Improvement department there are four of us. We each have a license. There are plans to bring one more person onto the team. I'm hopeful that we would then be looking at getting it at least for our operations and production managers, which would potentially be an additional two licenses per site.

I have not needed to use the technical support yet. I've not had any major issues.

Before Lucidchart, we were building process diagrams in Excel.

The initial setup of Lucidchart is a pretty straightforward process. There is still stuff I'm learning as I go, when it comes to knowing what to look for with different templates. But if the most basic function you need is to make process maps, and to do it quickly, and then figure out what you've got to improve, it's very effective at that.

While it's not directly saving money, because it is a paid-for service, it saves us money in the sense that we have a better understanding of our processes, what can be changed, and what we need to attack. We then go out and attack it, do it, update the maps, and then we get the return on the investment.

I used Visio here and there when I worked for another company, but I was not the main user of that application. Still, between it and Lucidchart, I prefer Lucidchart. It is a lot simpler and a lot more accessible.

In my current company, we have not evaluated any other solutions. I think our engineers do have CAD for facility layout, but in terms of competitors to this, we have not looked at any directly.

Watch some of the tutorials, check the reviews, and definitely talk to folks who are using it. Figure out what they like, what they don't like, and what they would want changed. There's a lot that I like about it. I find it to be a pretty good service. Get involved and play around with it, especially if you're working on facility layouts. I have printouts for some of the areas where we're implementing 5S and changing processes in. It's nice having something that the engineers have printed out, like a schematic or a blueprint for us.

Also, if you're going to try it out, try to make a simple process that you already know all the steps for; one you've already done it in Excel or in something else. See how much faster you can do it on this. That would be the big selling point. Trying to make some of these process maps in Excel, because it's so clunky and so slow, could take me 35 minutes just to get a 15-step process properly built, connected with the decision points in the lines, and for us to really understand where the pain points are. Taking something as simple as a 15-step process, timing out how long it takes to build it in Excel or PowerPoint, and then comparing it to this may show you, "Wow, with Lucidchart it took, maybe, five minutes."

I've been discussing getting this implemented in other departments at my facility.

In terms of its integrations, we've used it with some of the Microsoft suite for sending things out. I haven't used it for Slack yet, although I do use Slack for a nonprofit that I'm in. That actually might be a good opportunity because then I could just make some process maps for some of the nonprofit stuff that I do. And could then just send it out that way.