I accepted the invitation to trial the client management module and tested it against my own business. I have two significant gaps to report.
- No bulk import or migration path
I could only find a way to add clients and contacts manually, one record at a time, and clients and contacts are separate records. I think it’s safe to assume that most businesses adopting this module will already have a book of business. For even a small business with an active client list, the idea that someone will need to spend the time to hand enter each record is ridiculous, in this day and age. For a mid-sized or large company it’s a non-starter.
What I’d like to see:
- CSV/spreadsheet import for clients and contacts, with field mapping
- Migration or sync from common CRMs and from existing Asana projects
- The ability to assign an AI teammate or agent to create and update client and contact records. (I could not get an agent to recognize the module let alone create a new client or contact for me). Given how much Asana is investing in AI, this is exactly the kind of routine admin work it should handle.
- Client fields assume a B2B company, with serious bias for tech industry jargon
If this module is meant for software and SaaS teams, it would help to say so in the marketing. If it’s meant for every kind of business, it’s far from ready to compete with other established Client Management systems.
For example, the default client record includes fields like Employee band, Segment, ARR, Annual revenue, Lifecycle stage, Sales region, and Renewal date. I could not find a way to edit or remove these fields or to replace them with my own. That makes the module a poor fit for anyone whose clients aren’t companies, or whose companies aren’t in a narrow handful of industries. This module is going to be a very awkward fit for businesses like interior design, architecture, construction, professional consulting, professional services, retail, healthcare, education, and many others. My clients are individual customers, not accounts with an ARR and Employee Band and other corporate jargon terms.
The same assumption shows up in profile setup. When I searched “design” under industries and skills, every result was tech-related. No interior design, architectural design, clothing design, industrial design, sound system design, etc… the same thing happened when I searched “architect” - the only options were tech related.
What I’d like to see:
- Fully customizable client fields: rename, hide, add, and choose field types
- A system for individual and consumer clients, not only business accounts
- Field templates for different industries, or a neutral default
- A broader industry and skills taxonomy that reflects non-tech work
- A more industry-agnostic design within Asana in general
I’m glad to be in the trial and happy to give more detail or test changes. I run a small residential building design studio as well as a systems consulting business, so I can speak to how service businesses work.
