Why and how we rebuild the 21st board app

21st was launched in 2018 as a simple single-purpose tool for board meetings. The team behind the app has been using it faithfully ever since and gradually gaining motivation to expand the vision substantially. We have decided to embark on a journey to make company governance more valuable in general, but cautiously step by step. Board work is one crucial part of company governance, but it is interconnected with many other processes and decision forums. Therefore, we are extending the app to support shareholder work as well as general company management work.

To lay the grounds for this ambitious mission, we needed to do a complete overhaul under the hood, on the backend side of the application. So much of the work still needs to be visible to the end users, but we also did some essential first steps on the UX side while we were at it. The app is now fully mobile-first, ready to support on-the-move board work. As part of the UX overhaul, we have also improved each step to set up and execute as successful, friction-free, and compliant board meetings as possible. You manage the board members' membership in the app, and based on that and using the meeting module, you can plan, schedule, and execute meetings in an easy end-to-end flow and get the protocol signed and filed quickly.

The rebuilding process resulted in an entirely headless solution that enables machine-to-machine control of all 21st features for powerful integrations with other essential business systems, but as mentioned above also major improvement in the user interface of the app.

The first contact of the user with the application is the dashboard view.

This essential of the application has been visually refreshed and enriched with new widgets. In the latest version of the dashboard, in addition to the well-known yearly admin wheel, we will also find basic information about the company, a reminder of upcoming meetings, and a list of board members and shareholders.

Company stakeholder register

Keeping up-to-date information about all relevant stakeholder persons and companies in one place is a feature the 21st must-have. In the 'Team' tab, there is a list of company management team members along with their functions and contact details.

Managing team members is easy - the edit window opens after clicking on the avatar or name of a given team member.

In turn, in the 'Shareholders' tab, you will find a clear list of people and companies that are shareholders of your company. There is also information about the persons representing the shareholder at the shareholders' meeting when the shareholder is a company. This view also shows information about shares and votes at the disposal of a given shareholder. You can find more about the shareholders' module in the article on this subject here.

Meeting module

However, the program's key feature was and still is the meeting module. In its current version, it handles meetings of two of the company stakeholder groups - i.e., both board and shareholders' meetings. This module supports users in organizing and conducting meetings at every stage of work - from planning and sending invitations to accepting and signing the meeting minutes.

This support is implemented through various functionalities. Let's summarize it succinctly in order of use when conducting meetings.

Planning

Setting up a new meeting starts with selecting from the list the meeting you want to schedule - choosing between a shareholders' meeting or a board meeting.

After making this selection, you will see all the necessary information on one screen.

In addition to the obvious things, such as the date and place of the meeting (as well as the option to add a link to the online meeting), the agenda section is obviously a main part of planning meetings.

This is the place for the essential functionality of the 21st app, i.e., meeting agenda templates. These are powerful for the user because, on the one hand, they speed up the process of setting up a meeting. On the other - they significantly reduce the risk of missing some vital point of the agenda. Existing templates cover the most common situations in business organizations, but they are not set in stone. In cases where there is a need for a specific agenda, it is enough to modify the selected template, which is easy to do.

In the same view, you also have the option to attach documents to the meeting.

The course of the meeting

Also, conducting a meeting with all formal requirements is easy, thanks to the 21st. At every stage, the application supports the user by reducing hassle to a minimum and, at the same time, ensuring that all formalities required by law are completed.

21st helps from the first step - that is, checking and recording the presence of all invitees.

In shareholders' meetings, the application enables easy and quick selection of the meeting leader and additional signer.

Also, the issues related to the creation of the minutes of the meeting are simplified. The meeting leader has a template created based on the meeting agenda. The only thing that needs to be done is to supplement the content with any notes or change the protocol text for individual cases - unless, of course, the content proposed by the 21st app is already covering the needs.

After the meeting

The formal requirement imposed both on meetings of the management board and shareholders' meetings is - of course - the acceptance of the content of the minutes by all those obliged to do so. This document is sent automatically after clicking the appropriate button. The notification about the need to accept the content of the protocol comes to the e-mail box of those interested, and the signing itself is done by confirming the identity by logging in to the application again.

As you can see, the mission of the 21st team is to make company governance more valuable and reduce administrative hassle - and the whole team takes this mission deadly seriously. The 21st app is only at the beginning of the road, so you can expect a constant evolution of our solution towards an easy-to-use and convenient tool that makes your board and shareholder work, and eventually step-by-step all company management processes most effective and streamlined and valuable meetings.