August Question of the Month - Join the conversation and receive a badge

Rebeca S.

If you’re a mentor, or want to be one in the future, July’s question is a must-read. Some of the responses were especially popular, and I’ve been looking forward to sharing them with you.

Drumroll please… 🥁 What YOU value the most in a mentor is — empathy, patience, encouragement, support, inspiration, and trust. A great selection!

Now, let’s move on to our next question, and your new chance to earn badges and points while getting to know your peers.

How would you describe Smartsheet to a child?

I know you’ll have great responses for this one, and can’t wait to read all of your descriptions! Share them in the comments section below. ⬇️

About Question of the Month:

We kick off each month with a new question. These monthly ice breakers are just one way to help you get to know your Smartsheet peers and rack up some badges and points in the process.

Everyone who participates by answering the question prior to the end of the month will automatically receive a unique participant badge once the question closes at the end of the month.

In addition to the participant badge, the top three answers based on Community member votes will receive the Top Answer badge. To vote on an answer click on the upvote icon associated with an answer in the comments below. Multiple votes allowed and encouraged!

Will Duplex

This is such a funny prompt for this month, I love it!

I guess I'd have to say: "Imagine you have a toybox with all of your toys in it. It's neatly arranged so whenever you're looking for a specific toy - whether for yourself or to play with friends, you can immediately find it and you get to go play! Every time that you get a brand new toy, you know you have a spot for it in the toybox and it's always there when you need it. That's what Smartsheet is like!"

Isis Taylor

Interesting topic, as I often ask people to explain things to me like I'm a 4 year old, with no corporate jargon. I would describe Smartsheet to a child as a huge playground equipped with all the coolest new toys and all of your friends are there too!

adam.b

Great question, because when I speak about Smartsheet and what I do, it goes over a lot of people's heads. The best way I explain it in Layman's terms to let's say a 4 year old is that I take information from all walks of life that has some sort of problem, and I put it in a house, and each member of that house is responsible for cleaning up the mess that was brought into the house. Once the messes have been cleaned up, we can let the owners of the house that it has been cleaned up so they don't stay upset.

ymckern

I would compare it to Legos. Lots of blocks and buildings. Some of those blocks are able to connect and then connect to other buildings. Your sky is your imagination of what you can build with your blocks to get the buildings and joinings the way that you want them to be to build what you have determined is your design that you needed to accomplish.

Of course I would have a bucket of Legos in front of me and different size blocks and as we talk about each building, we are talking about what we want that building to do to be connected to the rest of the community of buildings.

JenniferTorres

I honestly don't know where to begin! Smartsheet is so many things and I use so many aspects of it - Sheets, Automation, Forms, Dynamic Views, WorkApps, Reports, and Dashboards. I would have a hard time explaining it as a whole. I'll try to explain a few features:

Sheets - a list of your important stuff

Automation - a way to make things happen magically

Forms - a way to add to your list of important stuff

WorkApps - a place to keep all your parts of Smartsheet together

Protonsponge

Smartsheet is like a big LEGO set!

Its like a LEGO set that lets you use different LEGO pieces to build and create amazing things for your work.

Just as you might use LEGO pieces to build a cool car or a spaceship, in Smartsheet, we can use different features and functions to build the things we need for our jobs.

Just like how you and your friends play together to build awesome LEGO creations, in Smartsheet, we work together to build things our for our work.

It's a special LEGO set, but instead of building toys, we are building tools but it is just as fun a LEGO!

Laura McDonald

Smartsheet is like lego! You have your main/primary pieces like a base and the standard blocks. You can build basic stuff, but after a while, you want to make it cooler! So you add windows, wheels, flowers, etc. to make it more exciting and fun. And, you can even add people!

Matt Johnson

Me: Think of a way to track all your Fortnite skins in one view. Like…when you got each one, how much it cost, how often you use it, is it still cool, etc. This can do that.

My kid: That's great, but I'm on with my friends and they can hear you so PLEASE LEAVE!

Ray Lindstrom

Like a treasure chest. Full of surprises! The more you dig in, the more you find.

Tina Ciak

I'd say Smartsheet is like a giant digital notebook where you can write down all your tasks, ideas and notes.

Imagine you have a big piece of paper divided into squares. Each square can hold different things like lists, pictures, or notes.

It helps you keep everything organized so you don't forget what you need to do.

It's also like a magic notebook because you can share it with friends, and everyone can see, but only the things that are important to them, and they can add to it at the same time!!

mcullen

Smartsheet has a lot of uses! It helps me keep all the things I need to do organized and reminds me when I need to do them, similar to a school planner. Except it's a really smart planner that I can share with my friends and help remind them of the things they need to do too. We can even use it to send messages to each other!

Bruce Case

Speaking to a child, you will quickly know if you are speaking to someone interested in Lego's vs. a junior Einstein, who could probably take one look at Smartsheet and tell you more than you thought you knew it.

amjannik

Smartsheet teaches multiple ways to prioritize, how to divide and conquer, provides organization skills - great way to show this is by using colored crayons to organize, use classroom friends as resources, assign a task and walk them through how to complete to show a completed status, etc.

Stephanie_G

Oh my, how would I describe Smartsheet to a 4-year-old? I have no idea. I love @Jennifer Torres analogies, so I'm going to build on that:

DataShuttle - a way to move stuff onto a list (sheet)

Dynamic View - a way to limit viewing of the stuff on your lists

DataMesh - a way to keep your lists synced when needed

RebSchr

Imagine you have a big piece of paper where you can draw and write anything you want. Smartsheet is like a magic paper on a computer where you can make lists, draw pictures, and even play with colors. It’s a fun tool that helps people keep track of their toys, games, and all the fun things they do every day!

If it is an adult - I say, well, if you take Excel and put it on steroids, then sprinkle a little bit of MS Projects, plus add easy to build metrics (aka dashboards), then you have Smartsheet!