Building a Better Comms Planning Tool

It’s fair to say that internal comms pros have strong opinions on what makes a good comms planning app. But there’s only one person I know of who decided to build their own internal comms planning app: Tom McIlroy. Frustrated by generic planning tools, Tom built Comms Planner, an app designed specifically to address the unique needs and workflows of internal communications.

I spoke with Tom about his journey building Comms Planner, how it uniquely helps internal communicators, and what the future holds for the Comms Planner platform.

You’ve spent your career as an internal communications professional across a variety of organisations. What was the specific challenge or frustration you repeatedly faced that made you decide, “I need to build a solution for this myself”?

Whether I’ve been part of a big comms team or in a team of one, my biggest challenge has usually been showing how all of the day-to-day activities I’ve been working on (or asked to work on) contribute to the bigger goals.

Like a lot of comms people, I get a real buzz from the creative side of the role - coming up with new ideas for storytelling and seeing those brought to life. That’s the fun part for a lot of us. But the tools we’ve often had to plan with - SharePoint, PowerPoint, Asana and so on - don’t make it easy to express how different activities, plans and objectives connect together. That is unless, like me, you spend a lot of explaining and outlining that context, which then takes you away from working on the activities themselves.

That’s where the idea for Comms Planner really came from - wanting a simpler way to create comms plans, show how they link together and to the broader goals, and freeing up time to work on the things I enjoyed.

Many internal comms teams feel like they’re constantly in a reactive mode, juggling endless stakeholder requests. How is Comms Planner designed to help teams manage the daily chaos while still keeping an eye on the bigger strategic goals?

In the first instance, Comms Planner brings all of that activity into one place - you can plan individual activities or big campaigns in one space and see that reflected in a shared calendar across your team. Just as importantly, users can see the detail behind what their colleagues are using on; for example, what audiences and channels are they targeting, and what’s the context? All of that information is visible across your team (not in version six of a PowerPoint on OneDrive somewhere), which makes it easier to collaborate together and not as a collection of individual business partners.

At the same time it’s also about creating a single source of truth. Comms plans can change really quickly, and Comms Planner is designed to help you to make those changes as effortlessly as possible so you can focus on the important tasks and maintain momentum.

There are many generic project management tools available, like Asana, Trello, or Monday.com. What makes Comms Planner uniquely built for the specific workflow and needs of an internal communicator?

At face value, a lot of what we do can fit into many of these generic management tools, particularly when we think of our work in terms of owners, tasks, deadlines and so on. But, underneath that, I think there’s a lot that these tools don’t give us.

One example is thinking about how your communications might lean on one channel far more than others. If you could see that, would you adapt your plan to take advantage of those underused channels, or would you rethink which channels you’re investing in more broadly? What about the same for audiences, stakeholders or topics?

A lot of management tools are not designed for that deeper value because they’re built for a broad audience who don’t necessarily have the same needs as us. Comms Planner is built solely for internal communicators, and so every feature is focussed on our specific needs. That includes the Insights tab, where you’ll see how your work is spread across different channels, topics, audiences and stakeholders, helping you to think about where you’re investing your time, energy and budget.

From your experience working with data, insights, and OKRs in internal communications, how has that shaped the features you’ve built into Comms Planner, especially around measurement and proving the value of internal communications?

I think the recent boom in AI has brought the idea of value even more to the forefront of internal comms, because people can now create all manner of content from a few simple prompts - and companies like Microsoft are bringing out more tools for all employees to take advantage of that. So, as AI picks up more of the ‘doing’ in our roles, and stakeholders - rightly or wrongly - start creating more content themselves, we need to be seen as strategic advisors, curating and managing that increasing amount of content based on all of the insights we have available.

Those insights will come from a lot of different places, whether it’s channel dashboards or third-party tools that help you to see how well your comms are being received across the company. Comms Planner doesn’t get directly involved in those, but it does try to give you more time to spend with those insights, and makes it easier to adapt plans based on what you’re seeing and discussing.

But, more than anything, Comms Planner keeps your goals and objectives at the heart of the planning process. That’s because - and I know this first hand - it’s all too easy to say yes to something that then ultimately serves as a distraction, and that isn’t helping you or the company at the end of the day.

What has the journey been like to build a new software product while also working your day job? Do you have any advice for other comms pros who might have an idea for a tool or a side hustle they want to pursue?

In many ways, it has been both the most challenging and rewarding thing I’ve worked on. I’ve always been interested in technology and tinkering with different tools to see what’s possible. However, this has had to fit in around my day-job, and it has taken a bit of balancing to commit to that and then find time on top to build this app from the ground up.

But, looking back, I’ve tackled it in very bitesize stages. I’ve typically built a new feature over a few weeks, and then taken a bit of a break while I think about the next one, and that’s how I’d encourage anyone to explore their own ideas. We’ve got so many new tools and technologies coming out every few months, and - while not every problem needs an app - there’s a lot of different ways to address the challenges comms people like us are facing.

Personally, I’d encourage anyone to find a common problem and think about potential quick fixes. Are there any AI prompts or dashboards you can create that can help to solve it? You may find there aren’t, and that’s where the bigger solutions tend to sit. But, at the same time, think about the sort of tools you would love to see out in the world, and then work on them slowly week by week, and in a way that excites your creativity. Before you know it, you’ll have something really awesome to share with others, and I think that’s something we’re all keen to see more of in the world of internal comms.

On your website, you mention that Comms Planner is a “platform with a purpose” and that you hope to create a space for professionals to connect. What is your long-term vision for the community aspect of the platform?

Absolutely and, while there are plenty of excellent peer communities for internal comms professionals, I think there’s space for another that talks about comms planning and insights more specifically. For example, how do you balance reactive requests with long-term plans and goals? And how do you measure the right things and show value without drowning in data? These are the kinds of questions that I see come up again and again, but they don’t always have an obvious forum.

So, in addition to Comms Planner as a tool, I’m looking to launch a small selection of online workshops and sessions, in which comms people can share their challenges, experiences and ideas, and we can discuss how to best tackle these sorts of questions and topics.

The Comms Planner is currently in a free, open beta. What is the most surprising or interesting piece of feedback you’ve received from early users so far, and how is it shaping the future of the product?

I did get a lovely email from a user last week, who said that the tool was really helpful in bringing a new starter up to speed with what the team was working on, and how they were all tackling their company’s OKRs. That’s not something I had really thought about before - where Comms Planner can help with onboarding as well as day-to-day work. More so, it got my mind going back to when I first got into internal comms 10 years ago, and what I wish I had at the time to help with that early journey. Needless to say, it’s already feeding into the ideas for my first set of community workshops.

If an internal comms team of one, or a larger, global team, were to start using Comms Planner today, what’s the one feature you think would give them an immediate “aha!” moment of clarity?

I think it would be the objective hierarchy I’ve built into the OKRs feature. This visually shows you which objective an OKR supports, and what other objectives and key results are supporting it in turn. The reason I built that is because, even if you have clear, defined objectives for every activity and plan, grasping how they relate to one another can be difficult. For example, does hitting 85% uptake in a new benefits platform just sit in isolation, or does it ladder up to a bigger goal like boosting employee sentiment, retention, or even productivity?

It’s still being refined as the beta plays out, but I think it gets right to the heart of how we show the value of internal comms because, when we zoom right out, our role is to help the organisation achieve its goals. Having a feature that makes those connections visible gives you a really powerful way to show that your work isn’t just busywork - it’s directly moving the business forward. That’s the kind of clarity I think teams of any size are craving.