Product Review: Trello

Trello is an online collaboration tool for project management. While it may initially appear to be as robust as some alternative project management tools, its relative simplicity at a base level lends it versatility, and it remains feature rich. A website called CompareCamp, which reviews and compares similar software, lists Trello’s features as follows:

· Detailed & Quick Overviews of Front/Back Cards

· Easy, Drag-and-Drop Editing

· In-Line Editing

· Easy Organization with Labeling, Tags, and Comments

· Progress Meter Checklist

· Card Records Archive

· Easy Upload (Local Devices, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box)

· File Attachment

· Data Filters

· Deadline Alerts and Notifications

· Automated Email Notifications

· Activity Logs

· Individual/Group Task Assignment

· Information Backup

· Information Retrieval

· SSL Data Encryption

· Mobile-Friendly Views

· Developer API

· Customer Support

· Easy Upload (Local Devices, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box)

· File Attachment

· Individual/Group Task Assignment

· Voting Options

· Discussions

The basis of Trello is organizing workflow through the arrangement of cards on a board (much like a corkboard in real life, covered in pinned index cards). Put simply, the boards represent different projects, and the cards different tasks. By labelling and arranging the cards, a team can organize their thoughts and tasks in a meaningful, intuitive, and easily discernable structure. A team can choose from pre-designed templates at the outset, from things as basic as “weekly team meetings” (for things like taking minutes and distributing responsibilities) to templates as nuanced as job hunting. There are literally dozens of different pre-defined templates, arranged into the following categories: business, design, education, engineering, marketing, HR & operations, personal, productivity, product management, project management, remote work, sales, support, and team management. There is little, if any, redundancy between categories, and each category has about twenty templates. The “personal” category has 52(!) different templates with two examples being “Home Purchase” and “Writing a Book,” while the “development” category has more generalized organizational templates like “Kanban,” “Scrum” and “Web development.”

Regardless of the template a team selects (or doesn’t: you can easily create a blank board and add cards from scratch), the board layout consists of columns of cards which can be moved and modified at will. One column might be labeled “backlog” and contain all the upcoming features to be implemented. One might create a column called simply “to do.” Each of the cards in the column can be assigned due dates or priority levels. Each can be colorized for visibility and grouping purposes. Importantly, the team (or the team leader, as the case may be) is able to assign tasks to team members, whereupon there is an option to email everyone with regular updates about their responsibilities. Particularly for more complex projects, this is a very useful feature. It’s this sort of communication enhancing feature coupled with the simplicity and fluidity of task arrangement that makes Trello such a powerful tool for project management.

Even without any features beyond those already mentioned, Trello would be a great tool for the management of any type of project, at any scale. However, the list goes on: Trello supports different forms of automation, even beyond the already very convenient email reports. The “Butler” feature works in a “when this, do that” format to execute different functions based on conditions. Probably the most common usage for automation is to have a card moved to a different category after its completion, or after its due date has passed. However, the are other uses such as changing a card’s properties when it’s moved, or when a card is created with certain criteria, like its text content or title.

It should not go unnoticed that Trello’s ability for integration is outstanding; almost any other software or API that a project team could want to integrate into their board is possible to integrate. It’s even possible to integrate other project management software such as Jira and Kanban directly into an existing Trello board. Project management, squared!

I have only had experience using the free version of Trello, but there is an option to pay for a Premium version (for $5 USD per month), which includes an even greater list of features. There are Power-Ups, which is Trello’s pet word for extensions or add-ons, including virtually unlimited new functionalities such as bulk actions, countdown timers, board exportation, and just about anything one could imagine. Teams can import other services for use in the board, like Google Drive or Slack. There’s a Power-Up to enable polls on cards, so that teams can vote on important project decisions right in the app. Premium also allows for “unlimited boards, advanced checklists, admin and security features, unlimited automations, and more!” I’ve never met any limitations in my use of the free version of the app, but I believe you’re capped at a certain number of separate boards, and certain other features are limited by quantity as well.

Ultimately, I feel that while Trello has the potential to be extremely versatile and robust, its simple, intuitive interface is one of its greatest strengths. A project manager or team can choose to make their board a virtual Rube Goldberg machine of productivity or use it simply as a board of index cards where they post their thoughts. Considering its free version allows all the functionality I’ve ever used, and it has still been incredibly helpful regardless, I would suggest it’s worth a look for any project team needing a little extra organizational fluidity.

Resources:

Trello

https://trello.com

CompareCamp

https://comparecamp.com/trello-reviews-pricing-benefits-and-features-analysis/