🔎 My vision on Asana as a skill

[Bastien_Siebman]

My vision is that in the upcoming years, we will see 3 things happening with Asana.

Asana will really start to be considered as a skill someone needs to master and train. Companies using Asana will include that skill on their job posts. The best employees at using Asana will climb the ladder more quickly or get recognition from their peers based on their effectiveness.

Individuals looking for a job and who used Asana in the past will better consider potential employer already using Asana. They will resist going back to a company relying on email for their work.

A company successfully using Asana will look for clients and partners also using Asana because they know those companies could be trusted to be efficient.

For those 3 scenarios, I believe some kind of label or certification would make sense. A way to show:

1. as a candidate that you have a good level of Asana
2. as a company that you master Asana and your work environment shows clarity all the way
3. to partners and clients that you don’t drop the ball easily thanks to the tools you use.

Would that make sense that someone creates those certifications/labels? Is this Asana’s role?

Version française

[Bastien_Siebman]

@ambforumleader what do you think?

[Paul_Grobler]

I agree with @Bastien_Siebman. I think it would be first price If Asana could give the certification.

[Andrea_Mayer]

Definitely agree with the points you mentioned @Bastien_Siebman

It is true that more and more companies already mention this in their job posts that it is definitely a bonus for new applicants if somebody is using it already.

I mean currently in the Asana Academy when you complete courses you get a certificate for the ambassador course but the others are marked just as completed course.

So alone developing that further and having certificates such as you mentioned would definitely help.

[Rashad_Issa]

You bring some very good points @Bastien_Siebman
That is a good vision to have. Indeed, Asana has joined the list of important tools and skills saught for jobs which employers look for and candidates promote.

Certifiction of Skills, yes. Certification for coporates using Asana, not totally sure about that.

[Mark_Kottman]

I hope @Bastien_Siebman is correct however I’ve not seen this happening yet. It might be my geographic area or the industry I’m in, but I have my Asana Ambassador status on my resume and I’ve had to explain Asana every time I interview. At least I’m spreading the word about Asana!

If anyone is looking at expanding Asana certifications, Autodesk has a very robust certification program for their software, Autodesk Certification: | Autodesk
A similar approach for Asana would mean expanding the existing Ambassador and Certified Pro levels. I would applaud such a move.

[EmSA_Team]

My vision for Asana is that it will be so easy to use that you won’t need special skills to master it. You can hold a mouse and type on a keyboard? You can do Asana.

[Andre_Lung]

Totally agree with “Asana as a skill” or more precisely “Being able to use Asana to accomplish things in our context”.
The Asana fundamentals are easy to master, but getting to grips with the specialities of your own team can be quite a hustle. I know this, since I am running an E-Learning company, which is heavily relying on Asana as Projectmanagement-, Communications- and Planning-Platform.

@Bastien_Siebman’s vision is great, however we take another shot to achieve this. We see Asana as something very specific to our use case and we do not expect new hires to come fully prepared. Our whole onboarding is performed within Asana as an Asana-project, which is managed by the new hire and coached by his or her mentor. This provides us with the certainty that at the end of his/her onboarding project every new person is able to use Asana, understands its concepts and is able to execute our processes without any help. We also sprinkle quite some company- and process knowledge into this onboarding and feedback so far is overwhelming.

We plan on doing something similar with clients and partners, but haven’t succeeded so far (something important on our roadmap). I hooked into this task to share our approach and find others who act similar. If anyone feels the need to compare approaches, I am quite for any discussion

From a learning point of view, I find it quite hard to create a general certification. Anything useful would be at least 30% global fundamentals and 70% how your company is handling them. If someone with an Asana-certification would knock on our door… I’d still need to put them through the onboarding. Any other opinions on this are highly appreciated!

[Rupert]

I think that the true skill is not so much HOW to use Asana, but WHEN to use it. The answer is : for everything !

I use Asana for note taking, meeting minutes, project management, portfolio management, software user acceptance test reports, etc. etc.
I refuse email bug reports, and only accept conversations on such reports through Asana.

The real skill is to know how to use Asana in each situation : this comes through experience, and sharing our stories.

[Bastien_Siebman]

@Mark_Kottman

I’ve had to explain Asana every time I interview. At least I’m spreading the word about Asana!

I am not saying Asana will be knows by everyone but rather saying that a company using Asana will look for candidates knowing the tool (and the other way around). Keep evangelising!

@EmSA_Team

My vision for Asana is that it will be so easy to use that you won’t need special skills to master it. You can hold a mouse and type on a keyboard? You can do Asana.

I have the opposite view. Even if it is easy to use, how many people don’t know how to use My Tasks and Inbox properly? 99%

@Andre_Lung

From a learning point of view, I find it quite hard to create a general certification. Anything useful would be at least 30% global fundamentals and 70% how your company is handling them.

I agree.

@Rupert

The real skill is to know how to use Asana in each situation : this comes through experience, and sharing our stories.

Amen.

[Anthony_Tamalonis]

This reminds me of the Learning Badges that National Instruments has. In addition to their official certification badges which require passing an exam and re-certifying every few years, they added free learning badges that indicate what someone knows.
Overview: Badges - National Instruments
Learning badges: Badges - National Instruments - 按应用领域探索学习路径
Application Development Badge detail: Badges - National Instruments

Some of the badges require other badges to complete, and even correspond to the formal certifications. You can use the badges to build your way up to being ready to take an exam. I can’t speak to how useful these badges are when it comes to the hiring process, but it feels like at a glance they could be useful. Seeing “LabView” on someone’s resume doesn’t really tell me much. Seeing their NI Education profile would quickly tell me about which version of LabView they know, what aspects of the tool they know (development, testing, etc). There’s even a badge for DQMH which is a framework created by an independent company that has become widely adopted by the community, potentially similar to Flowsana or other plugins/extensions. DQMH is free, so maybe there’s less of a conflict of interest there, but the idea is there for community-inspired badges.

Applying that to Asana, there’s a big difference between a backend Super Admin connecting Asana to SSO, an automation wiz building rules, and a big picture thinker using nested portfolios and goals to track high level objectives. It’s hard for me to say if Asana badges would hold any value, but even if employers and clients don’t see it, I usually find there’s value to continued education like what I’d get taking a quiz for an Asana Rules badge; there’s always something new to learn or something old to be reminded of.

[anon66483533]

Is there any Asana certification available to get from Asana platform?

[Bastien_Siebman]

I believe the only one is the program to become a Service or Solutions partner. But I don’t really consider it a certification, it does not really test your Asana level of expertise… @Marie any insights to share?

[Marie]

@anon66483533 it depends on what you mean by certifications and what you’re looking for. If you’re a consultant focused on Asana, the Service or Solutions partner certification would a good option. If you’re leading the Asana charge in your company I would recommend our Asana Ambassador program. And if you’re looking to test your Asana knowledge, you could take a look at our Academy (although we don’t offer yet a certification program in the Academy).

I hope this helps!

[anon66483533]

Thank you Maria for your reply!
I am an Asana leader in my company and I am a part of the Asana Ambassador Program too.
I was looking for the Asana knowledge-based certification but if you don’t have that may I know more details about the Service or Solutions partner certification.

[Marie]

Hi @anon66483533,

I’m not sure if the Partner program would suit you, but you can learn more about it here → Asana Partnerships Program • Asana

[anon66483533]

Hello Marie,
Thank you for the Link.

So under my profile, it is showing that I completed the course and got few certificates. My question is, will i get the certificates for all the completed course and if yes, then when as you can see I completed few courses last week and i am still waiting for the certificates. Please find attached screenshot for your reference.

[Jerrica]

Would you be willing to share and example of your onboarding? My company is trying to get to this point with asana and onboarding.

[Andre_Lung]

Yeah of course! Right now it’s in German, but I am happy to translate/explain. These are the first tasks within the project:

On our colleagues first day, we assign only the first section (first day) to him or her. This helps in minimizing distraction and confusion. The tasks are all pretty easy, I’ll try to summarize:

1. Onboarding- Moderation @Name (1. Tag) << Lies dies bevor das Onboarding startet [1]
This task is for the mentor and includes todos to customize the project to the specific role of our new colleague
2. Asana kennenlernen [1]
A statement that asana is our single point trouth and a quick link to the asana help (self study if needed)
3. Registrierungen abschließen [0.5]
Please complete your platform registrations (google, 1password, …)
4. Teamkalender nutzen und das Unternehmen gezeigt bekommen [1.5]
Please invite your boss to a presentation about our company. This one introduces a new concept, because beginning from here, there’s always a task AND extended information on how to complete the task (wiki, video introductions, … ). This is special, because if you do know this stuff already, you can simply complete the task. If not, you can get all the information you need. We receive a lot of good feedback for this self-paced approach
5. Informationen und Dateien finden [0.5]
Which channels we use for communication, processes, file storage, …
PLUS: a quick knowledge check, if the concept is understood (3 examples to sort) → the hire needs to simply comment the answer, so that the mentor can check
6. Review der Kommunikationsnormen [1]
How we communicate and how we work
PLUS: Active feedback on what’s your opinion on this
7. Dateien einbinden [1]
Introduction to our file-shares and-services
PLUS: connect your shares
8. Wie uns Asana bei der Arbeit hilft [1.5]
Link to a self made e-learning on our asana specifics (time booking, project logic, common style agreements)

Starting with the second day, the person gets assigned the whole project with two very straight duties:

1. this is your first project, plan your due dates, plan your completion, follow the processes explained within this project (status, budget, …)
2. you’ll get access to our other projects, once you successfully complete this project

=> this is a huge deal, because after completing the onboarding, our new colleague has at least seen everything which will happen in actuals projects. The whole project currently has ~50 tasks and we are very happy with the results. I can honestly say, that after completing this project, people know ~60% of our common work culture and our project work processes.

Obviously, all tasks received a lot of love regarding their text and general tone. We try to deliver a consistent experience starting from our first recruiting contact.

Great side fact: it feels like the mentor is there 100% of the time, because asana is the tool we use dozen times a day (short response time). But in fact, the amount of actual work for the mentor is very little, because it’s all pre-made.

Hope this helps! Feel free to contact me, I am always happy to get other opinions and views on this. Maybe I can also help in avoiding some common stumbling blocks.

[Sophia_Abraham]

Hi , How do i get to this page?, where it shows all the completed certificates