All tasks that are assigned have to be in Asana. But how should an Asana board be structured for the most streamlined communication with the team? First, let’s define some fields:
Core Setup
Each project will include a few core custom fields:
- Due date: When is the task due
- Type: A single selection around the type of task it is.
- Hours: This is how many hours it will take to complete a task.
- Status: This is a single-select field that denotes the status of this task.
- URL: If there is a specific page/URL this task refers to, please copy that URL into this field.
How to Build a Task
Task Title: A task title should give enough detail that the anyone looking at it can easily tell it apart from other tasks. One way to know the Task Title is good is to use it in a sentence:
“What do you have to do today for the [Client Name Project]?”
“I have to [Connect Mailchimp with Ninja Forms Email Signup] and [Add Missing Metadata for FAQs].”
If the Title is too vague, it wouldn’t make sense, and you wouldn’t be able to tell it apart from other tasks:
“I have to [Ninja Forms / MailChimp].”
“I have to [Missing Metadata].”
Video Link: Depending on the type of task, it may be easier to “show than tell.” Please record a Loom video and link it in the task. This does not remove the need to fill out the rest of the items, just allows for less “novel-based” writing
Goal: Define the goal/end-result of this task. This should also include the Acceptance Criteria for the client.
Details: What are the deliverables and what details are necessary to know about each one? If the client has a specific “why” include that here to make sure that the approach we take will properly solve their issue.
Subtasks: Use these as simple “checklist items” for the items that were explained in length in the Details section.
Due Date: Not shown in the screenshot, but any task over 3 points should utilize a date range. The starting date should be when the team member should begin the task, and the ending date should be our internal due date. By setting a range, it will evenly distribute the points over the range of time, thus allowing us to tell how busy people are in our aggregated view of all projects. Whether using a range or a single date, the due date should be the date for internal review and not the date the client is aware of.
Section Organization
Retainer Clients
If you are running a retainer-based project, each Section should be the Month and Year combination. This will allow easy tallies of hours/month so you can best recommend when tasks can be completed when you are talking to a client. For example:
Single-Project (Simple) Clients
Our goal with most flat-price clients (that are not full website creation clients) is to be able to tell what is in the backlog, being actively worked on, and completed. You should adopt a board structure with the following Sections:
- WIP
- QA
- Backlog
- Completed
There is a project template in Asana called Retainer Project that can be used as a starting point for this project.
Website Build Clients
These clients have a workflow that will need to be divided out into logical sections. Those sections should be:
- Content Structure (Sitemap)
- Design (Wires and Mockups)
- Development (core components and features)
- QA
- Launch
There is a project template in Asana called Website Project that can be used as a starting point for this project.