🔥 Hottest feature requests and their workarounds

Hi all,

Asana isn’t perfect or at least isn’t perfect for everyone. Like any software, there are open feature requests and some of them are hosting really heated debates! I believe the workarounds available are not always easy to extract from the conversations and figured I would list them together here!

PS: I numbered the features and workarounds to allow for easy discussion in the comments. :rotating_light: This thread is not meant to host discussions about the feature requests themselves! Please use the appropriate threads instead.

:hammer: F1. Multi-assignee on task

  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W1.1: create a guest to represent a “group of people” and assign tasks to that guest. Use rules to move those tasks to a specific project and/or use a report to see them together.
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W1.2: assign copies of a task, using the existing “Assign copies” feature
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W1.3: assign subtasks
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W1.4: multi-homing a task into a team “bucket/inbox”

:hammer: F2. Subtasks should count in Workload

  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W2.1: promote subtasks into tasks
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W2.2: multi-home subtasks into the same project
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W2.3: multi-home subtasks into a “repository” project and add that project into the same Portfolio

:hammer: F3. Subtasks should show up in Calendar and Timeline

  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W3.1: promote subtasks into tasks
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W3.2: multi-home subtasks into the same project

:hammer: F4. Template tasks should not show up in My Tasks

  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W4.1: complete tasks in the template, and when creating a project based on the template, incomplete tasks in the project
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W4.2: create a “Future Assignee” column and assign users after creating the project based on the template
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W4.3: train people to spot and ignore those tasks (and push them to Later)
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W4.4: use the “Assign To” feature of Flowsana’s Dynamic Duration workflows - a dependent task is not assigned until its predecessor task is completed
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W4.5: store templates as CSV file and import them (from @LEGGO)

:hammer: F5. Add a description on a section

  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W5.1: add a task at the top of the section to hold a description
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W5.2: use a task with a special name (e.g. “----Section1----”) to act as a visual section

:hammer: F6. Trace custom fields update

:hammer: F7. Apply template changes to its projects

:hammer: F8. Apply template on an existing project

:hammer: F9. User-friendly task address

:hammer: F10. Multi-select for custom fields

  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W10.1: create main combinations as extra-options in the custom field
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W10.2: create several custom fields with the same values
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W10.3: add the option “Multiple” as the last option of the field, and add a text field to the project to let type all the values
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W10.4: use tags instead of custom field
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W10.5: use multi-homing (add to project) to add multiple values to a task

:hammer: F11. Print timelines

  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W11.1: use Instagantt
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W11.2: zoom out and screenshot the page

:hammer: F12. Guests should not see custom fields from projects they don’t have access to

  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W12.1: make the custom field local (not in library)
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W12.2: obfuscate values of that field (by coding with internal code, e.g. :banana: is high priority, :green_apple: is low priority…)
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W12.3: use an external tool to manage that information (e.g. a time tracking tool the guest does not have access to)
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W12.4: store the value on the task, and share the subtask in which you duplicate public info
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W12.5: store the value on the task, and share another task in which you duplicate public info + add link to the private task (showing up as a private link for the guest)

:hammer: F13. Ability to add sub-sections

:hammer: F14. Allow to have multiple forms attached to the same project

:hammer: F15. Get a list of all forms within an organization

:hammer: F16. Archive a task

  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W16.1: move to a specific project dedicated to archived tasks
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W16.2: move tasks in a dedicated section of the project
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W16.3: move tasks as subtask of an archive task

:hammer: F17. Make a project public

:hammer: F18. Get a full CSV untruncated export

  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W18.1: split data into several projects and export them
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W18.2: use the API to export the data in CSV format

:hammer: F19. Use Asana as a wiki

  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W19.1: create a comment-only project with tasks
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W19.2: use the Project Brief to create a rich content page
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W19.3: use Asana2Go to export task list as “articles”
  • :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W19.4: create a comment-only project with Notes view

Which feature or workaround did I miss?

72 Likes

Great tips and workarounds! Thanks for sharing @Bastien_Siebman :star:

1 Like

Great post!
@Bastien_Siebman , Can I translate this and repost to Japanese community?
( I’ll put link to original post, of course)

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Of course @Kenichi :kissing_heart:

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Great idea @Kenichi!!! Wohooo :jp: :tada: Thanks @Bastien_Siebman

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Thanks @Bastien_Siebman !
I made a repost here;

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Hi You missed
Unique Short Ids for tasks

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Thanks I already have plan to add it, hopefully today!

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I added the suggestion by @Jes_Obertyukh. I could not go through the 130 messages, and picked up what I could as a workaround! cc @Kenichi

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Thanks @Bastien_Siebman , I’ll update the translated-to-Japanese version.

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Great list, thanks! I suggest that printing timelines is a much needed and wanted feature. It was promised and then apparently dropped from the development plan

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If you have a workaround, I can add to the list :stuck_out_tongue:

These are all genius, Bastien!
Thanks for sharing!

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Hey, as somebody looking at Asana for a few years now and not coming over due to missing features I need, really appreciate the post.

I’d like to give a shout out to some sort of Backlinks or Reciprocal References. There are a few fragmented posts I’ve found, but not a consolidated one picking up most of the support. My man pain point here is Asana already has outstanding @mentioning - you can referen to just about anything, not just a task, and all in a few keystrokes thanks to the great UX with the @ key. But, there is no reference picked up in the item you just “@mentoined”! A host of other tools in this space are running this this feature and have become very popular. I can’t really figure out why Asana would not want to get this in the pipeline to keep up. But apparently from what I’ve seen they don’t want to as the few posts about this are years old with no response form Asana official staff in an age.

Thanks again for the post and I hope that was useful add-on commentary (by they way I got here via your newsletter today - nice work with it!)

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Thanks a lot, and thanks for the suggestion about backlinking. Is there a workaround available?

I added :leftwards_arrow_with_hook: W9.3 and created :hammer:F10
cc @Kenichi

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@Bastien_Siebman @Russ_Friedson
I’d like to recommend use Instagantt to print timelines (and share to people not to use Asana) .

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Thanks I have added :hammer:F11 and :leftwards_arrow_with_hook:W11.1 and :leftwards_arrow_with_hook:W11.2.

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I also added F12. Guests should not see custom fields from projects they don’t have access to after a discussion with @Julien_RENAUD.

1 Like