Cross-function team working on the same project

English Forum Use Cases
1

Hi there,

In a project that needs collaboration between different teams such as business development, marketing, and technical development, what would be the best way to handle this kind of project? My company has Asana set up as, say, BD team, MKT team, and TD team, and I don’t know how to create a project that involve some members of those teams except create a new Asana “team” for this particular project.

Thanks.

2

Hi

According to my experience with Asana, you have 2 options:

  1. Create a specific team for this project as you mention
  2. Decide that the project is owned by BD or MKT or TD. You create the project in that team, and then you add the orther members to the project. You can add members from other team.

Here is how I choose between the 2 options:

Option 1 if:

  • the project involves many members
  • if the project is not owned by a specific team
  • if there are many tasks, I mean if I need to separate activities for MKT, TD, … with a team you can create a project for MKT, one project for TD, … You’ll have several projects, but you keep transparency and collaboration as all members of the team will access to all projects
  • if I want to have several ways to communicate. You have the conversation for the team, and then by project for TD, for MKT, … so that you can separate the flows of conversations.

Option 2:

  • If I’m not in one of the cases of Option 1 :wink:

Julien

1 Like
3

Hi Julien, thanks much for the reply! I have some follow-up questions below…

a) Is option 2 available for the Asana free version? I don’t seem to find how to add a member from another team to an internal project.

b) For both options, would there be a good way to track mandays/resources? Say, I’m a BD team lead and there are multiple cross-functional projects like this, which option should I choose to track my resource and have a visibility of what my BD team is working on.

4

Hi @Wang!

a) Yes, option 2 described in @Julien_RENAUD’s post is available with the free version of Asana. You can invite a member of another team into your project following these steps: Setting Up a Project in Asana | Product Guide • Asana Product Guide

b) One good way to track this would be to run an Advanced Search and look for tasks assigned to BD members within these cross-functional projects. However, the Advanced Search is a Premium feature so it might not be available to you. Another way to track tasks your BD Team is working on is to sort out your cross-functional projects list by assignee as shown in this articlehttps://asana.com/guide/help/views/list.

Hope this helps! :slight_smile:

3 Likes
6

Using option 2, does adding someone from another team to a project automatically add them as a member of your team? Say, for instance, my Marketing Team has 40 premium seats and I need someone from the Sales Team (using the free version) on a project, will they take up a seat in my Marketing Team?

7

Hey @Amber_Baumer
Yes, if you are inviting someone from another Team to a your premium space, they take up a seat as a limited access member. This is because they are using the premium features in that space.

Once you are done collaborating, simply remove them from your premium team, in order to free up that premium seat for someone else to use. Tips on how to remove folks from your Team are available here.

Hope this helps
:slight_smile: !