Tools We Use – Asana
The first tool we want to discuss is Asana, our project management software. Simply put, Asana keeps our team well organized and on schedule when delivering multiple projects for multiple clients. My personal motto is that I don’t want to waste brain power trying to remember what I need to do — I’d rather spend that brain power doing what I need to do.
Projects
For our team, everything that has to be done, gets put in Asana. Each task is first grouped into a project. The Urban Geeks use a separate project for each client. On top of client projects, we also have projects for internal processes such as Invoicing and TUG website updates.
Views
Our team is mostly visual so one key aspect we love about Asana is the ability to display tasks in different views. Sometimes we use a list view; however, our favorite is the board (Kanban). The board view reminds me of using a whiteboard to group tasks under columns. With the board view, we create columns with different names that represent different steps in our process. For example, we have some projects with the following columns:
- Todo
- Waiting on Client
- In Process
- Complete
We simply move each task to a new column as it progresses through our workflow.
Tasks Assignment and Due Dates
With each task grouped into a project and within a status on a board, we then assign an owner and due date to each task. Each team member is able to see their tasks and work to complete their tasks. Another great aspect of Asana is that we can communicate directly in the platform skipping emails. We typically use this feature on tasks to clear up any requirements.
Other features we love:
- Project plan view
- Tags
- Can invite clients to a project to collaborate
- Google Drive integration
- Mobile Apps (iOS and Android)
- Toggl integration for time tracking (via Chrome plugin)
Asana is an awesome tool that can grow with your business. They offer a free tier that provides a lot of great features. Once your business grows and your needs change, you can then upgrade to one of their two premium options. For our team, we actually just jumped up to the premium plan a few weeks ago. After years of use, Asana will continue to be a central point in running our business.
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