Introducing Asana: The Modern Way to Work Together(blog.asana.com)
blog.asana.com
Introducing Asana: The Modern Way to Work Together
http://blog.asana.com/2011/11/introducing-asana-the-modern-way-to-work-together/
64 コメント
My tweet is actually all I have to say about it: https://twitter.com/#!/davidu/status/131738215227981825
"Asana is beautifully designed. Seems too generic for bug, applicant or project tracking but it's going to be my new To-Do list manager."
But to expand a bit -- I have a hard time seeing this replace specific purpose-driven tools (JIRA, Cerberus, etc.) even though it's gorgeous, functional, and has a cool off-line mode. It's just too generic for me. But for people who aren't coming from one of those products and have nothing today, it's a great way to introduce productivity. I'm surprised they didn't build in an SSO / LDAP kind of integration...
Finally - Salesforce focused on CRM as a use-case before branching out and getting less specific (support, chatter, etc.). Starting out generic requires your users to figure out how to apply it to their life, which I think is the wrong strategy.
"Asana is beautifully designed. Seems too generic for bug, applicant or project tracking but it's going to be my new To-Do list manager."
But to expand a bit -- I have a hard time seeing this replace specific purpose-driven tools (JIRA, Cerberus, etc.) even though it's gorgeous, functional, and has a cool off-line mode. It's just too generic for me. But for people who aren't coming from one of those products and have nothing today, it's a great way to introduce productivity. I'm surprised they didn't build in an SSO / LDAP kind of integration...
Finally - Salesforce focused on CRM as a use-case before branching out and getting less specific (support, chatter, etc.). Starting out generic requires your users to figure out how to apply it to their life, which I think is the wrong strategy.
> Starting out generic requires your users to figure out how to apply it to their life, which I think is the wrong strategy.
It worked for Trello.
It worked for Trello.
I've been in the Asana beta for a while & while it's a nice product, as far as I can tell, http://www.getflow.com/ is better in nearly every way. I just logged into Asana again today & it looks like they have started copying some elements from GetFlow, like the tabbed projects/tags/people bar on the left.
Anyone seriously use both tools & have an idea of their comparative strengths and weaknesses?
Anyone seriously use both tools & have an idea of their comparative strengths and weaknesses?
Just Flow, not GetFlow ;-) Appreciate the kind words.
The iDevice emphasis is a big turnoff for me. I'd have been more inclined to try it out if it only had a web mode, rather than touting its Mac and iPhone integration.
Hard to explain why. It almost feels like an elitist snub, or something.
Hard to explain why. It almost feels like an elitist snub, or something.
Hm. We do have an awesome web experience—it's our primary focus—and we're working on a mobile-friendly web version as well.
Really love Flow. Tried Asana, but Flow is just better. My one critique - Flow MUST be cheaper to allow me to get my whole team on it. Come out with Team plans for $14.95 (5 people) to $24.95 (10 people), and I will have all of my friends and colleagues on it fast.
www.orchestra.com (notable for being the App Store "App Of The Week") has an eerily similar layout as well. I wonder why this space became so hyper-competitive seemingly overnight.
For me, a strength of Asana is it's free (under 30 users)
Sign up button crashes chrome immediately
I watched both Joel's trello video and the asana video. I came away from Trello's video really understanding what the product was about.
With this one, I didn't really understand what the product does. The repetition of "this is not micromanagement hell; instead you'll have more time to do the really fun stuff" in the video made me suspicious.
But hey, maybe that's just the over-literal cynical nerd in me who wasn't touched by the "emotional" impact of the video.
With this one, I didn't really understand what the product does. The repetition of "this is not micromanagement hell; instead you'll have more time to do the really fun stuff" in the video made me suspicious.
But hey, maybe that's just the over-literal cynical nerd in me who wasn't touched by the "emotional" impact of the video.
This looks pretty great. Signed up and taking a tour of the internals. However, I don't think I'll be using this unless the following are addressed:
1) doesn't appear to support external users. I can't seem to give a client access so they can comment on tasks, answer my questions or track my progress. All people you invite to a team appear to have unfettered access to all things.
2) no spec/pricing sheet on what's included. blog says "is and will remain free for teams with up to 30 members", but how much will it cost afterwards? Also, for the free plan, how many attachments can I add? What's the max size of an attachment? I don't want to invest my time into a new thing and then hit some invisible limit. (Yes, I've tried to look in the support/help faqs)
3) import/export. will you make it easier for me to move in from my current system? once I'm in the system am I locked in?
I'm currently using Apollohq, and it's been doing pretty well. It has all the features I mentioned above, as well as time tracking. Only thing is it costs money (a bit too much for my small team) and they've been slow to get a phone-friendly version. The interface has also slowed down since the beta, but for the time being I'm overlooking it because I expect growing pains.
1) doesn't appear to support external users. I can't seem to give a client access so they can comment on tasks, answer my questions or track my progress. All people you invite to a team appear to have unfettered access to all things.
2) no spec/pricing sheet on what's included. blog says "is and will remain free for teams with up to 30 members", but how much will it cost afterwards? Also, for the free plan, how many attachments can I add? What's the max size of an attachment? I don't want to invest my time into a new thing and then hit some invisible limit. (Yes, I've tried to look in the support/help faqs)
3) import/export. will you make it easier for me to move in from my current system? once I'm in the system am I locked in?
I'm currently using Apollohq, and it's been doing pretty well. It has all the features I mentioned above, as well as time tracking. Only thing is it costs money (a bit too much for my small team) and they've been slow to get a phone-friendly version. The interface has also slowed down since the beta, but for the time being I'm overlooking it because I expect growing pains.
Now that I've switched to Trello, I can't see trying something new. Looks like the space is getting crowded though.
We've been using Fogbugz for a while at my company, but we've been playing with Trello recently. I think Trello is wonderful and I hope that some of the newer UI features get incorporated into Fogbugz (i.e. inline editing).
The problem we're having with Trello is that we can't get a good view across all projects. Trello requires me, as a manager, to constantly hop in and out of projects. I hope they can offer something to get a higher view. I'd love to use Trello more.
The problem we're having with Trello is that we can't get a good view across all projects. Trello requires me, as a manager, to constantly hop in and out of projects. I hope they can offer something to get a higher view. I'd love to use Trello more.
I much prefer Flow by Metalab (http://getflow.com). It's virtually the same product only much more fleshed out including a Mac app, an iOS app and more. I tried Asana several months ago but Flow is just miles ahead of where Asansa is today. Not to mention constant iteration in all of their apps (web, Mac, and iOS). Big A+ for the Metalab team.
I really like your proposal. Everyone else should definitely read.
http://www.asana.com/kittens
http://www.asana.com/kittens
http://www.asana.com/kittens if anyone missed it
Tips:
Take advantage of keyboard shortcuts, it's what makes Asana feel so quick.
Asana lets you do things your own way (ie. it doesn't dictate a project management style), but a little structure is useful. Read their 'Best Practices:' http://help.asana.com/customer/portal/articles/84980-best-pr...
Take advantage of keyboard shortcuts, it's what makes Asana feel so quick.
Asana lets you do things your own way (ie. it doesn't dictate a project management style), but a little structure is useful. Read their 'Best Practices:' http://help.asana.com/customer/portal/articles/84980-best-pr...
How would you manage the different stages of a development task in Asana: backlog -> in progress -> pending deployment -> deployed
In Trello, changing from one state to another is a matter of drag and dropping to the next list. How would you do that in Asana?
In Trello, changing from one state to another is a matter of drag and dropping to the next list. How would you do that in Asana?
1. A task can belong to a number of projects. You could have projects for backlog, in progress, etc. and move a task between these (no drag/drop, but can be changed in the task panel)
2. Use tags instead, and use the tag filtering options.
2. Use tags instead, and use the tag filtering options.
What is the business model for this product? Are they counting on organizations needing more than 30 users?
If they are able to build something that people like, it's an easy app category to monetize.
Is it? That's incredibly hand wavy.
For example I tried remember the milk but it immediately crippled itself with the iPhone sync. Not like they're billionaires either.
And their strategy includes leaving out a massive proportion of users by making IE a no go area.
What are their prices? I can't find the damn things anywhere. Am I going to get a £1000 bill when I reach 30 users?
They've a long way to go.
Product is great BTW, if a little programmer centric with the shortcut obsession, just pointing out great product doesn't mean great profits.
For example I tried remember the milk but it immediately crippled itself with the iPhone sync. Not like they're billionaires either.
And their strategy includes leaving out a massive proportion of users by making IE a no go area.
What are their prices? I can't find the damn things anywhere. Am I going to get a £1000 bill when I reach 30 users?
They've a long way to go.
Product is great BTW, if a little programmer centric with the shortcut obsession, just pointing out great product doesn't mean great profits.
I think you're right - on it's own it probably is hard to monetize well.
BUT - there are good options available to them.
Once you have more than 30 people using it, if it jumps to say $5/person/month it is over $10000/year for the next 30 users.
There's the Yammer model: Free to use, until you want things like security controls (think "who sees which task"), customization ("match your company color scheme") and integration ("single sign on, Salesforce integration etc etc")
The truth is though that this is a feature for an enterprise software company. It makes perfect sense for someone like BMC, Citrix, VMWare/EMC, or even Atlassian (if they could afford them?) to buy them out to fill holes in their offerings. Their sales channels can push an enterprise version to existing customers and then is makes sense for everyone involved.
BUT - there are good options available to them.
Once you have more than 30 people using it, if it jumps to say $5/person/month it is over $10000/year for the next 30 users.
There's the Yammer model: Free to use, until you want things like security controls (think "who sees which task"), customization ("match your company color scheme") and integration ("single sign on, Salesforce integration etc etc")
The truth is though that this is a feature for an enterprise software company. It makes perfect sense for someone like BMC, Citrix, VMWare/EMC, or even Atlassian (if they could afford them?) to buy them out to fill holes in their offerings. Their sales channels can push an enterprise version to existing customers and then is makes sense for everyone involved.
Asana is focused on designing something that only they like. Trello seems to have focused on actually empathizing with the "any person."
Asana is much more of a business app than Remember The Milk. Business apps that people like are very easy to monetize.
No, I respectfully but vehemently disagree. To-Do apps are a dime a dozen. No matter how much better any given app may be than another, there is very little reason to pay for a solution to the problem of to-do lists. There are just too many free options, and it is an easy problem to solve with a home-grown solution. Or Notepad. Or an actual notepad.
They need more.
They need more.
I disagree. Lots of companies making money in this area. Unfuddle, Pivotal, all of Atlassian, all of 37 Signals, Yammer, Evernote, FogBugz, SharePoint, etc. If you can get consumer-like adoption and add business value, you can easily make money.
Very clean product. Love the shortcuts, and key at the bottom. Looks like a great tool for development and business teams. Took a look through the site and didn't see any future integrations (i.e. dropbox, github issues etc.). Does anyone know if there are integrations in the pipeline?
Does anyone have experience using Emacs Org-Mode in a distributed manner?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Org-mode#Distributed_issue_trac...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Org-mode#Distributed_issue_trac...
Has anyone tried it already?
NOTE: I don't know anyone who works at Asana, I have no relationship at all with the company, investors, etc. I am purely a happy user.
Our organization (Kiip.me) has been using Asana for a couple months now. We've tried a variety of tools for task management and project planning: Basecamp, GitHub issues, Pivotal. With each of these tools, up until Asana, we didn't find it helped our team very much.
Asana has changed all that. Our whole team, including BD/Sales, have been using Asana to coordinate various tasks. The biggest thing: Asana is _fast_. It doesn't get in your way! You can tab over and add a task in less than the time it takes to even load the tasks page on something like BaseCamp. Some additional features that make it great:
* Followers - You can add followers to a task if you want other people involved. This emails them and notifies them of the task.
* Comments - Comment streams are very nice. They provide a nice timeline of activities happening on a task.
* Keyboard shortcuts - I never touch the mouse in Asana. Ever. And this increases productivity by tons. You can fly around multiple projects, tasks, etc in seconds.
So there is some reasoning behind our use of Asana, here are some reasons we didn't like other options:
* BaseCamp - Had all the features we wanted, but it got in the way too much. No keyboard shortcuts, slow page loads, etc. Taking 30 seconds to add a task == too slow.
* GitHub issues - All the issues are on each separate repo. It is difficult to quickly navigate between them and to get other people in the company to look at them.
* Pivotal - The UI was completely non-intuitive to us and didn't jive with the way we wanted to work. We didn't want a tool that forced us to work with IT, we wanted a tool to work with US.
That being said, I wish there were some other features that Asana would implement:
* Dependent tasks - It is not possible right now to have a hierarchy of tasks towards various goals. This makes it weird to have one big task that is like "Ship the whole product v1" then have a ton of little tasks that are related but not obviously so.
* Multiple assignees - There are some tasks that just make sense to have multiple assignees.
Hope that helps.
Mitchell
Our organization (Kiip.me) has been using Asana for a couple months now. We've tried a variety of tools for task management and project planning: Basecamp, GitHub issues, Pivotal. With each of these tools, up until Asana, we didn't find it helped our team very much.
Asana has changed all that. Our whole team, including BD/Sales, have been using Asana to coordinate various tasks. The biggest thing: Asana is _fast_. It doesn't get in your way! You can tab over and add a task in less than the time it takes to even load the tasks page on something like BaseCamp. Some additional features that make it great:
* Followers - You can add followers to a task if you want other people involved. This emails them and notifies them of the task.
* Comments - Comment streams are very nice. They provide a nice timeline of activities happening on a task.
* Keyboard shortcuts - I never touch the mouse in Asana. Ever. And this increases productivity by tons. You can fly around multiple projects, tasks, etc in seconds.
So there is some reasoning behind our use of Asana, here are some reasons we didn't like other options:
* BaseCamp - Had all the features we wanted, but it got in the way too much. No keyboard shortcuts, slow page loads, etc. Taking 30 seconds to add a task == too slow.
* GitHub issues - All the issues are on each separate repo. It is difficult to quickly navigate between them and to get other people in the company to look at them.
* Pivotal - The UI was completely non-intuitive to us and didn't jive with the way we wanted to work. We didn't want a tool that forced us to work with IT, we wanted a tool to work with US.
That being said, I wish there were some other features that Asana would implement:
* Dependent tasks - It is not possible right now to have a hierarchy of tasks towards various goals. This makes it weird to have one big task that is like "Ship the whole product v1" then have a ton of little tasks that are related but not obviously so.
* Multiple assignees - There are some tasks that just make sense to have multiple assignees.
Hope that helps.
Mitchell
My team (aestasit.com) has also been using Asana for the last 3 months and, overall, we are satisfied.
I'm not going to summarize the good and bad aspects because the previous comment does it egregiously. Asana is fast and it feels like a native application on both my Mac and Win box.
The feature I miss more is the possibility to assign tasks to multiple team members. I'd also love to see a native iOS application. Asana team recently released a mobile-compatible version of the site that works great but I'd still prefer a native app.
I have also tried out Trello but it has a "toysh" feeling to it and Asana just has more features.
The feature I miss more is the possibility to assign tasks to multiple team members. I'd also love to see a native iOS application. Asana team recently released a mobile-compatible version of the site that works great but I'd still prefer a native app.
I have also tried out Trello but it has a "toysh" feeling to it and Asana just has more features.
I'd love to hear your thoughts about Interstate (http://interstateapp.com) - if you have the time. From your comment I think you'd like it.
Yes, I've been using the beta for the past 4 months with a few people from work. The product has come on leaps and bounds, especially with the new UI refresh.
It's more akin to a web based collaborative version of Things http://culturedcode.com/things/ and it does this job very well. The keyboard shortcuts help you to quickly jot stuff down, throw it into a project or assign it to someone else. Anyone can leave a comment on an item or take ownership of someone eles's to-do that's been added to a project. Plus there's a personal section so you can keep the Milk reminders away from your team's projects.
Two things I'm excited about.
a) I've read somewhere that Asana wants to be the platform and if our workspace needed a custom time logging application we could build / buy this functionality and have it built into our workspace.
b) Because of the real time nature of comments / assignments the email notifications are sometimes a bit slow, it would be great to have an Jabber / iChat interface to receive and reply to incoming comments and to-dos.
It's more akin to a web based collaborative version of Things http://culturedcode.com/things/ and it does this job very well. The keyboard shortcuts help you to quickly jot stuff down, throw it into a project or assign it to someone else. Anyone can leave a comment on an item or take ownership of someone eles's to-do that's been added to a project. Plus there's a personal section so you can keep the Milk reminders away from your team's projects.
Two things I'm excited about.
a) I've read somewhere that Asana wants to be the platform and if our workspace needed a custom time logging application we could build / buy this functionality and have it built into our workspace.
b) Because of the real time nature of comments / assignments the email notifications are sometimes a bit slow, it would be great to have an Jabber / iChat interface to receive and reply to incoming comments and to-dos.
We used to use it for bug tracking but dropped it in favor of Pivotal (which isn't perfect either), but we still use it for candidate tracking and it does an OK job. My major complaint is that they break core functionality (like being able to attach files) without fixing quickly. I'm hoping that since they're out of beta things like that won't be an issue anymore.
Yes, I set up an account earlier today and found it quite delightful. I set up a project and some tasks for my latest hack and so far it looks like it will be very useful. The interface is top-notch, and it encompasses a full range of uses such as bug-tracking etc...
I've been a beta tester for a few months and I like it a lot. Definitely a long way to go but it's at the intersection of a text file (for ease of use) and a full fledged project mgmt system, which certainly helped as we added new people to the team.
Very intuitive interface. You might want to help increase speed adding/editing tasks by providing many possible ways of adding due dates. See todoist, they've done it very nicely.
Weren't Asana the guys working on Lunascript? I remember being pretty excited about it, and it'd be awesome if you built off of it for this.
What's the status on Lunascript?
What's the status on Lunascript?
Asana is indeed built on top of Luna, our sweet in-house programming framework. http://asana.com/luna
(Lunascript was a DSL we were initially writing for coding against Luna; we ended up deciding that wasn't worth optimizing and going with a JS syntax instead)
(Lunascript was a DSL we were initially writing for coding against Luna; we ended up deciding that wasn't worth optimizing and going with a JS syntax instead)
Anyone else using http://www.thymer.com ? Super easy 2d (team members and projects) task list!
Any feature comparison?
Any feature comparison?
Cool product, but a lot of lag on my 3Ghz Core 2 Duo. What is the recommended system requirement? An i7?
one of my biggest issues with asana is that it doesn't make it easy to see due dates, weekly to dos etc. for tasks (let alone real prioritization). I really suggest they put in a facebook-notification style section so I can see what I have due in my near future
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I think Moskovitz has another winner on his hands.
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Did anyone of u guys give workflowy.com a shot...its really awesome.
Very lean. Shortcuts. Mobile Html version.
I really like it a lot.
Very lean. Shortcuts. Mobile Html version.
I really like it a lot.
I signed up. Haven't received an email yet.
I'm bored at work and I'm very impatient.
I'm bored at work and I'm very impatient.
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I see no feature beyond the basic tasklist features that all PM software has. Not even velocity like Pivotal Tracker.
What is innovative about Asana? The customer doesn't give a shit whether it's done in Luna.