Have you ever heard of Kanban? It’s a scheduling system popularized by the automotive manufacturer Toyota in Japan. It is a type of workflow where items, or tasks, move through from one stage to another across a board.
Software developers have adapted Kanban because the system is easy to use and at the same time keeps things pretty organized. You, too, can use it for your team, project, or processes like how I am using it for my team. As an online marketer, I work with several home-based employees, and I manage them and the tasks that they are handling by adapting Kanban through a web application called Trello.
WHAT IS TRELLO?
Trello is an application that organizes your tasks, processes, and projects into boards, much like how Kanban works. It is a collaboration tool that makes it easier for a team to track the progress of each other’s tasks or even the main project. Simply put, Trello lets you know who’s working on what, which task is getting worked on and which part is in a process flow.
If that sounds confusing, just think of your to-do lists that you used to jot down before starting a task. Trello just does that and more.
Trello is a product of Fog Creek which was founded by Joel Spolsky and Michael Pryor back in 2000. Fog Creek is a software company which specializes in project management tools like FogBugz and Copilot. Trello was launched in 2011 and is a horizontal application.
Software is either created for a vertical or horizontal market. For example, Point Of Sale system or POS is used for cash registers. This is a vertical application and used only by establishments. Facebook, on the other hand, is used by everybody for whatever purpose they want which makes it a horizontal application.
Trello is a horizontal application which means anyone can use it to help in organization and management.
Trello is not a software package that you need to install on your desktop or web server. It is a hosted web application which means you can access it anywhere as long as you have a browser. The best part is you don’t have to worry about upgrades and hosting.
WHO SHOULD USE TRELLO?
Trello can be pretty much used for any organizational needs. Whether you are
- responsible for assigning tasks
- working on a project that requires task distribution
- monitoring your team’s progress
- working with home-based employees
- working on a project by yourself
- handling several teams for different companies
- working with individual clients
- handling any other task that requires communication, collaboration, and regular updates,
Trello is the perfect productivity management tool as it lets you share, do collaborative work, monitor, and communicate with your team while following the efficient Kanban scheduling system.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Using it is as easy as dragging and dropping cards between lists to show progress. You can add as many team members as you need and add them to the cards. If you need more cards, all you have to do is reorder. Trello is very flexible and easily adapts to your project, your team, and your workflow.
By simply glancing at the board, you will see everything you need to about the project at hand. No need to set up anything complex as everyone instantly gets it. Trello is that easy.
To even simplify how it works, here is a list:
- Grab some boards
- Each board has a set of lists
- On each list, ou can add cards
- It is up to you whether your cards are sub-lists, notes, links, etc.
- Assign card to your team, give them due dates, tag cards, color code them if you want, and you have the power to move one card to another list, or you can allow them to do that so that all you need is to do is monitor
- You and your team members can comment, subscribe, or vote on these cards.
Cards are the incredibly flexible and versatile basic building blocks of Trello and using them properly will ensure that your projects and tasks are managed properly.
With Trello’s cards, you can post comments for instant feedback, upload files from various sources like your computer or your virtual drive, add labels, checklists, due dates, website links, and more. With notifications, your collaborative team knows when important stuff will happen and can keep everyone on their toes.
WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH TRELLO?
First off, you can invite or add as many people to your board as you need. You can add your entire team or even your entire company. To assign tasks, it is as easy as dragging and dropping people to the cards. Collaboration is easy because everyone sees the same board with the same cards and tasks all at the same time.
You can start discussions through comments, attachments or detailed notes. To notify a member, all you need to do is mention them in a comment. To share your files and provide real-time updates on some projects, you can upload them from wherever the data source is whether is is Google Drive, Box, DropBox, OneDrive and other hosted sites. You do not have to get out of Trello for any other collaborative efforts.
Trello’s notification system will keep you posted on whatever is happening with the team. You can get notifications even if you are outside the app. It can be setup so that you can get notifications via email, through your desktop, via mobile push or any device you are using for that matter.
Never miss any important tasks, upcoming events, items and pending projects with checklists and due dates. The Calendar Power-Up feature shows everything you have in your Trello Board to always be on top of things.
With a lot of boards come great responsibilities. And with great responsibilities come pretty daunting organizational tasks. If you have too many boards to handle, use organizations to keep everyone connected and at the same time keep you organized. You can make as many organizations as you want and build a company-wide structure. It is like having a virtual organizational development committee.
Trello is mobile responsive and works pretty much with any device and any platform in the market. Since it is a cloud-based software, you need not install it on your desktop. For your mobile device, all you need to do is install the app. Manage your business while keeping yourself on the go.
It is Trello’s commitment to keeping things simple to the core. It tries to step away from overloading the application with features of no use or little value. Though there are features like Calendar, Voting, and Card Aging, everything is still kept dead simple. Organizing a team is already difficult and keeping on top of everyone’s tasks is not less confusing which is why Trello focuses on how to make your job easier.
You can comment via Trello and comment via email as well. It works both ways. Every board has a special email address that you can use for card creation. Trello uploads the attachments that you have send and whenever you get notifications via email. You can reply to it without opening Trello which kinda works handy especially if you are out of the office or doing something else.
Every business demands security. Trello understands that which is why all the data that goes through it is secured via an SSL/HTTPS connection which is literally the same security that banks use. In cases of fortuitous events, your data is secured and encrypted in one of Trello’s off-site backups.
INTEGRATIONS
Trello indeed is useful, but sometimes, business owners still look for more particular functionality as every business has a unique set of needs. Which is why this platform easily integrates with other apps and services to suit every business’s functional needs.
- Ganttify – to create Gantt charts for clearer project overviews and target dates
- Flowdock – to add notifications from different Trello boards
- Harvest – for more direct time tracking using a Chrome browser addon
- Zapier – zaps trigger actions from events and other systems into Trello
- and much more…
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Trello is totally free. You can use it for your business, you can use it for your team, and you can use it for your company and enjoy the full version for free. Click here for more Plan details.
If you are a huge fan of Trello and you like extra fun and functionality, you can go for Trello Gold for $5/month or $45/year. Here is what you get with Trello Gold
- Custom Backgrounds, Stickers, and Emoji
- Premium Backgrounds and Stickers
- 250MB Attachment Limits
- Saved Searches
What’s great about Trello Gold is that you get one month free for every member that you successfully invite.
