Asana is out - free collaborative task manager

< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >

Posted by JBfrom
Nov 4, 2011 at 09:07 PM

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/gigaom/articles/collaboration_asana_launches_a_task_management_tool__e2_80_9cyou_can_actually_use_e2_80_9d.html

After reading this article, I understand and believe the hype.

To be clear, I would endorse this for group coordination but not a solo user.

And it’s free.

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Nov 5, 2011 at 06:37 PM

Thanks; I’ve signed up to try it out. From a first look its basic concept looks similar to Strides (strides.do) though it appears more complete as a tool. As noted here http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3328/0/team-solutions-2-collaborative-webspace-for-project-management I’ve tested several such tools in the past and made my selection for specific projects, but remain open to new offerings.

The ‘free’ aspect for me is actually a counter-incentive. With free products I am always concerned about their long term viability and service quality. Asana’s own words are not very helpful: ?We?re really focused on going for ubiquity, for mass-scale adoption, [...] so at this point in time, we don?t even have a pay model. That?s something we?ll announce later.”

There’s clearly some big money behind Asana. But investment is not a guarantee of viability, nor is mass-scale adoption. There’s a very interesting article on this, suggested here in the past by Neville Franks: ?The bar for success in our industry is too low? http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1890-the-bar-for-success-in-our-industry-is-too-low

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Nov 6, 2011 at 05:47 PM

First impressions: seems well thought out for teams, since tasks integrate collaboration in their core. It’s indeed fast, and the keyboard shortcuts are useful, though not always intuitive (Tab Backspace to delete a task?) The workspace is clean, but takes quite a bot of screen area. With slight modifications, it could be kept always visible in a small browser window. This may happen; I’ve received two notifications of improvements since I started using it, so Asana is clearly a work in progress.

One thing I dislike—and I know a lot of others in this forum will too- is the lack of subtasks. Tasks can belong to projects and under tags—curiously tags and projects are shown under the same heading in the task list—but that’s about it. I cannot imagine a complex project with all tasks under a single flat list.

Posted by Ken
Apr 26, 2014 at 04:33 AM

I realize this thread is over two years old, but since I just spent some time with Asana, I thought that I would link this thread to a more current one where I discuss some initial impressions of it: http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/5339 . I apologize for the “crosspost”, but felt the link was helpful to folks later searching about Asana and seeing it in the title of the thread.

—Ken

Back to topic list