Works Well With Others

Works Well With Others

I’ve never been described as a “team player.” I’m a loaner, a rebel. Like Pee Wee Herman in his Big Adventure. The reality is that we all have to work together, and for many of us, that working together is shifted across time and responsibility. I work across multiple teams on multiple projects, and keeping it all in order can be an impossible task. But there’s one tool that I’ve found to sync all of our different tasks in one place.

I determined easily enough what was needed:

  • Virtual – because the main purpose is to keep track of what needs to be done. The doing can be organized on the individual level.
  • Shared – keeping multiple lists up-to-date is near impossible.
  • Robust – to handle a variety of projects and tasks.
  • Flexible – because the cookie cutter options are what cause me to not be happy in the first place.

Then I found Trello. An incredibly simple framework, that is flexible and robust enough to handle everything from application development to zoo management. The web app has mobile clients for everything from in browser, Android phones and tablets, iPhone and iPad, Kindle Fire, and Windows 8.

The best part, is that Trello is just a framework. Like moving post-it notes from one column to the next to designate status, person responsible, importance, or literally whatever. The whole team can use the system that works best for the whole team. But then imagine the post-it notes are infinitely expandable. That’s Trello.

The con is that a system this so flexible it might be daunting to set up. My advice is look at what you have in the analog world, and duplicate that on this frame work. Despite the possible difficulty, company is really helpful. Just take a look at this “Getting Started” video to see what I mean.

Or sign up for free now.

Kenton Hansen

Technical Co-Founder Kenton makes digital things. He is a technologist and has had his part in a few startups including software, advertising, and client services. @KentonH