Zenhub onboarding: Making employee and client onboarding easier

Switching to a new project management tool can feel overwhelming, especially when your team is deeply rooted in its current system. Setting up the tool, migrating data, and getting everyone comfortable with a new platform can be both time-consuming and frustrating.

This process is even more challenging for consultancies and teams managing client projects. The constant need to onboard new clients and projects means regularly setting up new GitHub repositories, configuring workspaces, inviting clients, and managing permissions—tasks that can quickly become a significant time drain.

In this article, we’ve sat down with Sy Mender, Customer Success Manager, to examine how Zenhub streamlines onboarding and simplifies new client project setups, making the transition smoother and less stressful.

Seamless data transfer from GitHub

If your team is already working on GitHub, we have some very good news for you: “Zenhub has done something a little bit different. We’ve created a project management system that sits directly on top of GitHub,” says Sy. 

This means that not only is the UX familiar for software developers starting in Zenhub, but all of the pre-existing project data your team has been working on within GitHub will be accurately and instantly reflected inside Zenhub. “This ensures that no work falls through the cracks.”

Zenhub’s one-step process

So, how does your team get started in Zenhub? It’s pretty simple: “Zenhub’s onboarding is easy because it’s a one-step process. Any project information on the GitHub side of things can immediately be brought into Zenhub. This excludes code for the security of our customers.”

To make this happen, all you need to do is create a Zenhub org (when you sign up for app.Zenhub.com) and link it to your GitHub organization. “As soon as you grant access to your GitHub organization, any workspace in Zenhub can comprise as many or as few GitHub repositories as you deem necessary. We pull in every GitHub-related piece of information automatically.”

Github data includes: 

• Issues
• Pull Requests
• Repositories 
• Permissions and users (can also be edited at the Zenhub level)

Tailored permissions structure on top of GitHub

Zenhub brings in all of your GitHub data, including knowledge of your GitHub permissions structure. While Zenhub respects your GitHub permissions structure, we’ve added an additional permissions structure on top of that on a Zenhub workspace level. 

“These permissions allow you to tailor workspaces to those who need to see those workspaces. If you are working with multiple clients, you can create a figurative wall to maintain your client’s privacy and security.”

This second permissions structure also allows you to extend the privacy to Zenhub-only features like Zenhub Issues (Zenhub’s version of Issues). 

Instant insights and effortless setup: Zenhub’s features work for you from day one

One of the best things about getting started with Zenhub is that you get instant access to insights you may not have seen before and an immediate setup of reporting features to power future insights. 

Immediate insights from GitHub data

If your team has already been using GitHub, there are a few reports Zenhub will be able to generate for you, including: 

GitHub Insights: GitHub Insights is your one-stop shop for all your basic engineering metrics, including issue completion rate, lead time, cycle time, and PR throughput. Zenhub provides a benchmark based on the top 100 GitHub repos to compare your team’s metrics against. Additionally, this dashboard gives you tailored tips on how your team can improve these metrics. 

Milestone report: If your team is using GitHub milestones, a milestone report will be visible in Zenhub. Zenhub’s milestone reports provide a clear overview of project progress, allowing teams to track key deliverables, monitor completion rates, and ensure alignment with project goals.

Daily feed: Once members are added to the workspace, the daily feed will be up and running. Daily feeds are a breakdown of which tasks are attached to which individuals, who is blocked on what, and any PRs your team members are waiting for. 

Effortlessly enable sprints and reporting

When setting up new project management software, it is common to spend a lot of time configuring reports, dashboards, sprints, etc. In Zenhub, all of this is automatically enabled by default, allowing you to get up and running with your team faster. 

Automatically enabled sprints

Sprints in Zenhub are automatically enabled, with tasks (issues) attached to sprints. As your team completes a few sprints, a natural velocity calculation emerges. This calculation measures how much work your team can realistically handle in each sprint, using story points as a guide. With this data, Zenhub’s sprint automation can then pull the correct number of issues from your product backlog into future sprints, reducing the time spent on sprint planning and allowing you to focus on delivering value.

Reports enabled by story pointing

Zenhub has a wide suite of Agile reports your team can use to track their progress and improve processes. All of our reports are automatically enabled by the changes you make in Zenhub, primarily story point tracking. Once your team has been using story points, sprint reports (burndown charts), velocity reports, cumulative flow charts, and release reports are all automatically generated. 

Final thoughts 

Onboarding employees and clients can often feel daunting, but Zenhub simplifies the process by integrating seamlessly with GitHub, automating sprints, and providing instant insights wherever possible. From effortless data migration to intuitive reporting, Zenhub helps teams save time and focus on what truly matters—delivering value. Whether managing multiple clients or scaling your internal projects, Zenhub’s automation and tailored permissions ensure a smoother transition and enhanced project management efficiency.

If you’re ready to streamline your onboarding process and get the most out of Zenhub, reach out to us for personalized support.