Asana - Beautiful Collaboration
January 14, 2014
Asana - Beautiful Collaboration
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Website and Mobile App
Modules Used
- Custom Projects
- My Tasks
- Inbox
- Task Assignment/Collaboration
Overall Satisfaction
We are currently using Asana as a project management and collaboration tool for a small technology event planning non-profit. The whole organization uses it. Asana allows us to break down focus areas and assign them to individuals as well as "follow" or subscribe to tasks we need to see completed (excellent management tool). My specific involvement with using Asana was to receive tasks, ask questions through the comments, and then mark them completed. One recently discovered feature is the ability to add attachments to comments on a task. This was used to send images to me to be added to the website.
- The mobile app is very well written. The time they spent focusing on user experience makes the mobile version as easy to use as the desktop version. (speaking from iOS experience only - can't comment on Android)
- Being able to follow tasks and then be notified when they are updated is very important and Asana does this well.
- Asana doesn't just have to be used for a large company. After using Asana with the non-profit I began using it to manage my own personal projects. It could even be used to keep track of and manage ToDo lists around the house.
- I think Asana could do a better job of touring new users through the functionality. It's not necessarily intuitive for when there is a button to do something or when you simply press Enter. You do see tooltips with hotkeys at the bottom of many pages, so that definitely helps.
- One problem, and I'm not really sure if it's on Asana to fix this, but actually getting people to take the time to use any project management tool can be trying. Folks are already trying to get their work done and have their own pen-and-paper ToDo lists, or keep a running list in their email. So to get people to take the time to use this project management tool might take some convincing. However, I think once they start using it they'll find out how beneficial it can be.
- One feature I guess I haven't seen is the ability to create a private ToDo list that only you can see. Allowing the user to privately add tasks and prioritize them without being open to the whole company/management.
- I definitely feel more organized and more effective when I'm assigned a task via Asana. It makes it easier to keep track of than email. I also work off-location from the rest of the team.
Asana was developed with a very specific function in mind. Assigning and tracking tasks and projects. It does this very very well and doesn't really do a whole lot yes, which is perfectly fine. The only alternatives I could think of would be some sort of Dropbox or Google Drive document keeping track of task assignment. While, this might work, it's definitely not as feature-packed as Asana. And you'll still use either Dropbox or Google Drive for document collaboration.