The use of self-directed teams in design project-based courses is common in engineering schools around the world. Despite the technical proficiency of students, project targets are often not met due to poor management and communication between team members, as well as between teams and the course instructor. In this article, the authors present a spreadsheet-based approach to facilitate the management of design projects in order to ameliorate project outcomes. Using Excel for the approach provides advantages firstly for institutions because no investment in another software is required, and secondly for students since they are not burdened to learn a new software package. An assessment investigated the impact of this new approach on students’ design performance along with its ease of use. The results provided in the article suggest that the overall implementation was very effective.