Hello everyone ! Wanted to throw this out there as an idea and see if anyone else either feels similarly or found a creative solution !
Use Case:
We use custom fields extensively for project management tracking (effort estimation, priority scoring, t-shirt sizing) that are essential for portfolio rollup reporting and capacity planning. However, individual contributors working on tasks don’t need to see these fields in their day-to-day workflow, and having 5-7 custom fields visible by default can create visual overwhelm.
Current Behavior:
Custom fields are always expanded in task detail view by default
Users can manually click to collapse the custom fields section
This preference doesn’t persist across tasks or sessions
All team members see the same expanded view
Requested Feature:
Add the ability to set a default collapsed/expanded state for custom fields at either:
Project level (preferred): PM can configure “collapse custom fields by default for all team members in this project”
User preference level: Individual users can set “always collapse custom fields in task view”
Task template level: When creating tasks from templates, inherit collapsed state
Why This Matters:
Reduce cognitive load: Team members focus on task description and core details without estimation metadata
Maintain data integrity: Custom fields remain attached for rollups/reporting while hidden from task executors
Flexibility: PMs/team leads can still expand to review fields when needed
Adoption friction: Currently hesitant to roll out robust custom field systems due to team pushback on “too many fields”
Workaround Limitations:
Asking every team member to manually collapse on every task is not scalable
Removing custom fields from projects breaks portfolio rollup calculations
Creating duplicate projects (one with fields for reporting, one without for execution) adds complexity
Impact:
This feature would enable robust project tracking systems without compromising team member task experience, supporting better capacity planning while maintaining clean UX for individual contributors
@Sarah_Yeung A couple of thoughts here to help your team.
Everyone can (and probably should be) work from My tasks. In My tasks each user is able to display only the fields they need. This will definitely reduce the overload.
Caveat: When opening a task detail pane, the other fields will show. However, if each user has the fields displayed that they need (whether to update or for reference) there will be little need to open the detail pane.
Another option is to create a work view in the project and hide the fields that do not need to be seen in this view. Make this the default view. Then whenever someone pulls up that project, they will only see the relevant fields. The fields are still present in the project they are just hidden in this view. This will not break any portfolio roll ups. With this the PM and team leads are still able to click on the full list view and see all the fields.
I prefer each user setting up their My tasks in a way that works for them. This is where most people will be spending much of their time, as well as in Inbox. This facilitates keeping all of the fields as the default view on the project itself for fewer clicks for the PMs and team leads.
Please look at these existing English Forum > Product Feedback requests and vote for any you agree with; note that some are “considered” and one is “in-development” already. Look for @Garrett_Knoll’s posts in these threads:
And my request, because ultimately expand/collapse often turns out to be a bad user experience, I and some others with an interaction design background believe:
Thank you so much for the links and detailed response @lpb ! Super helpful to know of other prior suggestions from users. I think in this case my request most aligns with the ability to hide custom fields from another project. I’ll add my two cents there (:
I don’t think I’ve ever perused the Product Feedback section so this is really neat to learn!
And yes, I think @Ron_Sanga was speaking more to Project list view vs task detail view, but I appreciate the feedback anyhow ! And to the note of My Task view, unfortunately I came into a team that never had full roll out/buy in of Asana as a tool, and part of my workaround in restructuring our projects with these custom fields was to create a unified transparent space for everyone to view their workload cause I do not believe they are actively utilizing their My Task view .
Many of us feel My Tasks and Inbox are the foundation of good Asana use, and workflows in Asana, even if well designed, rely on these two areas always.
For My Tasks, here’s what I recommend to my clients and all customers:
Thanks so much @lpb ! I do have My Task view set up similar to you article so its nice to validate my asana set up. The concern with team roll out is that Asana was introduced to our organization almost 3 years ago and unfortunately did not have a strong onboarding / roll out process that left varying degrees of use across the organization.
I newly joined the tech team as an interim PM and from a recent presentation I shared with the IT manager, there is caution on team pushback for changes to task and project management - part of the feedback is what spurred this original post.
If you have any strategic advise on change management I’d love to hear it or if there is another dedicated space for that on the Asana forums!
That’s a tough, but unfortunately common, situation, but it sounds like you have a good handle on Asana and generally!
If you search the Forum (and elsewhere) there’s plenty on change management and the “Asana Way of Change.”
Very briefly, I do run into this a lot with clients, sadly. I like to ensure there’s leadership support and modeling behavior (using Asana!), but then I like to make it so everyone wants to use Asana. That starts with training (I do what I call Asana Citizen Training for everyone that will touch Asana) and good workflows (which take time to design after Discovery). Asana champions are needed too. Sorry, that was probably too brief!
No apologies needed, your feedback is appreciated and its always nice to hear that the experience is shared - even if not ideal.
I would say my best bet and focus thus far is designing workflows and automations to secure buy in and keep as much of a hands off experience as possible for our devs. Asana was introduced by a senior leader who does not unfortunately utilize the tool regularly so its hard to argue from that stance.
I’ve been finding the forum very helpful though and uplifting even to connect with other Asana users and find some camaraderie so thanks for that !
@Sarah_Yeung our Asana Partners like @lpb are incredible in helping you deploy and scale industry / use case / persona based tailored processes for your org within Asana if you’re able to argue for the resources (I have zero incentive here, but just have seen how much more effective having an Asana or an Asana partner on your team to accelerate your deployment can be!).
But regardless @lpb will always hold me accountable to feedback from our community! I as a Product leader love our Forum so @ me whenever
Thanks so much, @Garrett_Knoll, on behalf of Asana customer success folks, Asana Partners, and me!
@Sarah_Yeung, sometimes external consultants are magically listened to when internal folks are not, sadly, so that can help. I’ve worked with senior leadership in all kinds of organizations large and small and they have unique challenges relative to other roles. I find what works well is not giving them a pass on my “Asana Citizen Training;” in some ways, they need it more than the others! But they may only be able to watch it on video not live due to scheduling. Then an individual or team senior leadership follow-up session with just them works wonders.
I’m happy to share that I was able to present my workflow and project set ups last week to the web team and they were open to the changes ! Fingers crossed for the next imminent timeframe to really test out how robust this process is and what feedback we can refine on . My TL gave me really kind feedback that the workflow itself exceeded anyone’s use case within our organization before so I’m very grateful for the opportunity to introduce a new way to view Asana
I definitely understand how external advice holds up against internal voices. Shame sometimes it’s the case. Our org is designated with Cirface as our Asana trainer and unfortunately I was unable to argue a strong enough use case (so far) to invest resources in having regular Cirface rep time. Thus this forum has been a god send !
PS I noticed yesterday the task detail view has been updated since my initial post so looks like my original query has been answered in a way !
@Sarah_Yeung I love hearing that you’ve been able to get validation on your workflow! Please keep the feedback coming in the Forum - we’re ultimately here in service of you, and my team loves receiving feedback rooted in use cases and how it is impacting your workflows
Hello everyone ! Wanted to throw this out there as an idea and see if anyone else either feels similarly or found a creative solution !
