To Trello or not to Trello

In my last blog, I talked about my top tips for surviving home working during the lockdown. Routine was top of my list but here at Adapt, we use a range of tools to help keep things on track. Today I am going to tell you about Trello which we use for managing our projects.

What is Trello?

Trello is a project management tool that allows you to organise your projects into boards, so at a glance, you can see what is being worked on, by who and at what stage the project is.

Gone are the days of paper and multiple post-it notes covering your desk. Trello enables you to keep all your notes, documents and images relating to a topic in one place. Being a cloud-based system it is accessible from everywhere, as long as you have an internet connection and a smartphone or computer.

We have used Trello for several years now as it allows us to set up boards which we can share access with our clients. The boards are enabled so clients’ can add new tasks to their boards, ask questions, add comments and upload documents, images and videos. This keeps communication in one place which certainly helps ease the strain on my email account.

Why Trello?

There are several similar products available on the market which we have explored but to be honest they are all very similar in nature. We find Trello meets both our needs and our clients. You can get a number of free addons to use on your Trello boards and there are some which you can purchase as well.
The main custom addons we use are:

Butler

This offers built-in workflow automation, which allows you to set rule-based triggers for certain tasks. We use this to automate certain tasks on our Trello cards which cuts down on the manual element of moving and allocation of the cards.

Custom Fields

This add-on is very flexible and easy to use:
Add custom fields for text, numbers, checkboxes, dates, and dropdown lists.
Display information as card badges on the front of cards.
The field names support emoji for extra visual interest.
They are also supported on mobile devices.

Trello for Gmail

This add-on enables you to link your email account to Trello so you can add new requests more easily should they arrive via email.

Google Drive

As we work remotely, we use Google Drive to store documentation and images securely. The Google Drive Power-Up in Trello enables you to attach documents, images, videos and folders to Trello cards. You can search your Google Drive from a Trello card and attach relevant files and folders.

Harvest

This genius add-on allows us to track the time taken on tasks. By adding Harvest to your Trello boards a new button appears on each card you create which allows you to start a timer or enter a duration as you work, without leaving Trello. You can see how much time has been tracked to each card. Cards are also linked from your Harvest timesheet, so it’s easy to see the details behind your time entries.

We love using Trello, we hope you will too