🚀 New Portfolios layout: reinstate your status update heading / summary

Note: since this post, Asana has actually reinstated the ‘Status Preview’ which can be enabled from the Portfolio’s Customize button. However, the below workaround allows for a scrollable text field to be displayed in the the Portfolio’s list view, instead of the clickable Status Preview field which opens the status update modal.

The recent update to Portfolios is great and I can see where Asana is going with this. But it seems not everyone is loving the change - particularly due to the fact that the status update headings are no longer visible.

But let’s be real; at most, we used to be able to see about 5-8 words, essentially a short line from the status’ heading which was usually truncated, as per the below historical evidence, in the old ‘Status’ column:

However, this was still incredibly useful for reviewing all project statuses at a glance. So if you are looking to get this back, I’d like to share the below simple workaround (until/if Asana provide something better, which you can help by adding your vote here).

  1. In your portfolio, click on the + icon to add a new column:

  2. In the ‘Add field’ modal, select a Text field type and call it ‘High-level summary’ or ‘High-level status’ or ‘Short heading’ or whatever makes sense to you. Also, check the first box below to add this text field to your field library so you can quickly re-use it by adding it to all your other portfolios.

  3. Now you have a text field available to add that status heading you were missing!


    Feel free to move this text column anywhere you want within the portfolio’s list view. In the above example, I’ve placed it on the far right so you can have a really wide column and scroll to the right if you want to read more, but it depends on how many other fields you have in your portfolio.

Now, you and the project owners can either fill out your high-level summary text fields directly in the portfolio’s list view so that the next time the owner posts a status update, they should see the new ‘High-level summary’ text field available in the post editor:

If it’s not available, click on the ‘Show or hide fields’ to enable it for all future posts.

And the great thing is that your high level summary will be captured in all past status update posts, so even when it changes, you can overwrite the high-level summary in the Portfolio’s list view, so that you always have the latest one visible, without losing the past ones.

I understand this workaround will essentially make the status update’s actual heading a bit redundant, but you could set an internal convention in place to either leave it as default (Status update - DD Mmm) or ask everyone to copy>paste their heading into the new high-level summary text field.

:bulb: Bonus tip: if you are all missing the ‘Team’ name and ‘Overdue tasks’ counter which used to appear in the old portfolio layout, simply click on the Customize menu to enable them!

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Hope this helps!

:rocket: See all of my top tips & tricks on my website.

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That’s pretty clever because you can decide what the summary contains, instead of the few first words from the status. I love it. cc @Julien_RENAUD @Roman_hubsana @Arthur_BEGOU @Kelsea_Lopez

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Whaa, cool ideas, thanks @Richard_Sather !

Also, what we’ve recently discovered with @Julien_RENAUD is that it’s quite smooth to open the text frame to read a longer string of information.

chrome-capture-2023-11-11

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Good point @Arthur_BEGOU ! :+1:

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@Richard_Sather this is a decent workaround! My only concern, from a manager level, is if we use this as a quick view of “status” we do not get the history log we we previously did. If we want that history, my team has to update in 2 places. Still really hoping to get status summary view back!!

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Hi @Sarah_Ross , actually the history is retained as long as you post the status update each time the ‘High-level summary’ text field is updated (either within the Portfolio or within the Status update editor). Take note of my bold text in my original post and the paragraph below it.

Note the ‘High-level summary’ text field in the below screenshots:

Status update post from last week

Status update post from this week

Hi @Richard_Sather - is there a way to auto add the “High level summary” to every status? Or does this need to be added as a shown field at an individual project basis?

Hi @Sarah_Ross , not in that sense, but note this:

Hi! Is anyone else getting this when adding the additional fields to the status? It wasn’t happening when I first posted the update, is there a limit to how many I can add/show? Thank you in advance!
image

Hi @anon14210367 , welcome to the forum :wave:

This look like a bug… could you kindly create a post in the Report a Bug category?

Before you do that, perhaps try a hard refresh of your browser (Ctrl+Shift+R) or uninstall and reinstall the Desktop app, in case you use that.

Hi Richard, your solution looks exactly what I was trying to accomplish with my team’s portfolio. However, I’m not seeing how to add other fields to the status update window…I was able to add the field to the portfolio list view. But when I look at the status update for my projects I can only see the Status and Owner fields. Am I missing a step or is this somewhere in the settings? Thanks in advance!

Hi @Caroline_Bailey, note this step, as per my original post above:

In the Status Update editor, you need to select ‘Show or hide fields’ and select your fields from the dropdown menu. Note, these choices will be retained for all future status updates that YOU will create. It will no save these choices for others - each person needs to enable these. And obviously these fields will not show up on past status update posts.

Hope this helps! :slight_smile:

Hi everyone, we’ve been closely listening to your feedback following the recent Portfolio grid refresh, and I’m thrilled to share some exciting news with you! :tada:

We’re introducing a brand-new feature that lets you easily toggle the Status Preview on or off for projects within your Portfolios. This handy new column will provide you with a quick summary of project status updates, allowing you to gain insights at a glance. For more details, see the screenshot below:

We are gradually rolling out this update and will be available to all Business, legacy Enterprise and Advanced, Enterprise and Enterprise+ customers soon!

Thanks to @Richard_Sather for sharing this workaround while we were working on bringing back this option! :star:

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That’s great @Emily_Roman, thanks for the update!

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