ShamikaSatterthwaite - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at Queens University of Charlottwe
Real User
Top 20
Beneficial single dashboard, seamless navigation, and helpful responsive support
Pros and Cons
  • "Asana's most valuable aspect is its ability to consolidate all tasks and projects onto a single board, allowing for seamless navigation through timelines from start to finish. Additionally, it enables the inclusion of key stakeholders and provides a private communication channel for discreet discussions. The organizational component of Asana is particularly beneficial, including its coding features."
  • "It would be beneficial if Asana had a predecessor feature that automatically adjusts all subsequent dates when changes are made to a timeline. For example, if I assign a designer four hours for one task and two days for another, and the completion of a task takes longer than anticipated, it would be convenient if updating one date could prompt the adjustment of all other relevant dates. Essentially, this feature would streamline the process and eliminate the need for manual adjustments."

What is our primary use case?

We utilize Asana as a tool for our project managers, enabling them to create intake forms, develop timelines, and monitor progress. Additionally, we can easily share files by integrating with platforms such as Dropbox, Microsoft, and Outlook. We have various options to connect our internal system which this system facilitated communication between both platforms.

What is most valuable?

Asana's most valuable aspect is its ability to consolidate all tasks and projects onto a single board, allowing for seamless navigation through timelines from start to finish. Additionally, it enables the inclusion of key stakeholders and provides a private communication channel for discreet discussions. The organizational component of Asana is particularly beneficial, including its coding features.

What needs improvement?

It would be beneficial if Asana had a predecessor feature that automatically adjusts all subsequent dates when changes are made to a timeline. For example, if I assign a designer four hours for one task and two days for another, and the completion of a task takes longer than anticipated, it would be convenient if updating one date could prompt the adjustment of all other relevant dates. Essentially, this feature would streamline the process and eliminate the need for manual adjustments.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Asana for approximately five years.

Buyer's Guide
Asana
June 2024
Learn what your peers think about Asana. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2024.
772,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Asana's solution is scalable and user-friendly, especially for key individuals who will be working on the platform frequently, such as designers and web developers. Once shown how to use Asana, it becomes straightforward to manage tasks and collaborate with others. Essentially, Asana's ease of use lies in the ability to explain and demonstrate its features effectively.

How are customer service and support?

I have used the support from the vendor through email. I have had all my questions or issues addressed well. 

I rate the support Asana an eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The setup process for Asana varies depending on the client or company using it. For instance, with an ad agency, the setup may take around five hours as it requires thoughtful consideration of site mapping before determining how to utilize the platform effectively. Conversely, for individual entrepreneurs, the setup process should be straightforward as they are solely responsible for managing their own projects and can easily adapt to the platform.

Within one week the solution can be up and running. However, it takes three months to have the required people trained and for the solution to be operating well.

Previously, the deployment of Asana involved the director and IT personnel. The initial step was to identify the administrators who would have access to the account, followed by key stakeholders, such as IT and business management who set up the necessary configurations. Next, the project manager would begin adding tasks to ensure deadlines were met, and contractors were included as needed. The account management team was responsible for handling the accounts of the main individuals involved in the project.

What other advice do I have?

Conducting a few workshops on how to use Asana can be beneficial in helping individuals understand its functionality. Once the framework is established, the process becomes more manageable, and it's easier to identify and address any bottlenecks or issues that may arise. Overall, once the system is set up and tested, using Asana should be seamless without any significant hurdles.

I rate Asana an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Customer Relationship Manager Coordinator at Yamaha Motor
Real User
A user can create custom templates with any project, but the templates should allow for a default assignee
Pros and Cons
  • "Asana has helped me (as an individual contributor) organize my daily work and given me a way to plan for longer term objectives."
  • "A user should be able to identify an assignee for specific tasks or task types while applying the template, or at a minimum, allow for a default assignee. As it is, the template gets created with the just task dates driven by the project start and end dates inputted by the user. In my current situation, I'm assigning myself to many tasks, so I have to do that manually every time. Even if I eventually start adding other people to assign tasks, there won't be more than a handful to do. However, those few people will have multiple tasks. It would be nice to be able to select those individuals during the setup rather than having to do so manually once the project has been created."

What is our primary use case?

I work on a marketing team in a position that was created to implement a CRM Communication Program for existing customers. Because this was a new position and I was new to the company, I was tasked with collaborating with several people across multiple teams. In my experience, it's very difficult to get work done effectively without some kind of project or task management tool. After trying out various online solutions, I learned that one of our divisions was already using Asana so I figured I would give it a try.

How has it helped my organization?

Asana has helped me (as an individual contributor) organize my daily work and given me a way to plan for longer term objectives. I initially started using Asana just to manage day-to-day tasks, but as I became more comfortable with the software, I also began to use it as a way to capture campaign ideas so I could eventually convert them to projects and track them. I also started to use the Portfolios feature as a way to report high level statuses of all my work to my manager. Having a portfolio for him serves as an executive dashboard.

What is most valuable?

In addition to the Portfolios feature benefits, I find the ability to create custom project templates very useful. Creating projects can be time consuming, especially if they are complex (e.g., many tasks, multiple dependencies, multiple sections, etc.). Even copying a project to reuse it (which is common in a lot of other solutions) can create more work by duplicating unnecessary information. Instead, Asana allows a user to use any project as a template that can be selected when creating a new project. So, I have created base projects for various types of projects with only the tasks that would be completed and then use those as templates.

What needs improvement?

While having custom templates is a big benefit, I see a lot of opportunities for improvement in Asana's execution of the concept. A user should be able to identify an assignee for specific tasks or task types while applying the template, or at a minimum, allow for a default assignee. As it is, the template gets created with the just task dates driven by the project start and end dates inputted by the user. In my current situation, I'm assigning myself to many tasks, so I have to do that manually every time. Even if I eventually start adding other people to assign tasks, there won't be more than a handful to do. However, those few people will have multiple tasks. It would be nice to be able to select those individuals during the setup rather than having to do so manually once the project has been created.

For how long have I used the solution?

Nine months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not experienced any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not had any interaction with a support team as of yet.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used Jira at a different company to manage a different kind of team.

How was the initial setup?

We're not using any custom features that would require setup from the vendor.

What about the implementation team?

Use of vendor services was not required.

What was our ROI?

I have not calculated an ROI tied to using this software.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Asana has two different types of structures: company vs workspace. Company is really best if all the users you plan to assign work to are all internal (have the same corporate domain in their user ID email address). Once one person signs up (even for a free account) with a corporate email address, Asana will automatically relate that person to that company, if it already exists. If you plan to use it for external collaboration as well as internal, then creating a workspace is a better approach.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Before deciding on Asana, I tried Trello, monday.com, and ClickUp.

What other advice do I have?

It would be nice in the future to add the ability to customize the colors of the interface and add company branding.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Asana
June 2024
Learn what your peers think about Asana. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2024.
772,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Partner & Customer Success Operations Team Lead at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Real User
Top 20
Helpful customization, efficient team allocation, and high visibility
Pros and Cons
  • "Asana, despite its compact size, proves to be incredibly valuable. When initiating a project, it offers the ability to generate a personalized form for clients. In this particular context, my clients include the customer success team and solution architects. This feature allows me to provide them with a convenient means to submit their requests, resembling a ticketing system geared towards internal operations. Moreover, it enables efficient allocation within my team. For instance, if a question pertains to customer success, I can assign it to the CSOps manager and the team. Similarly, if it relates to a specific channel, it can be allocated accordingly."
  • "The documentation could be enhanced by incorporating more visually informative videos that demonstrate how to accomplish specific tasks. While Asana's community support is valuable for answering questions, finding precise answers often requires sifting through multiple posts. Having concise and explanatory videos would greatly improve the user experience. When searching on platforms like Google, there are many individuals sharing their approaches to using Asana. However, the information provided is often not directly applicable to one's specific needs. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have comprehensive video tutorials that address common user queries. This would provide a more efficient and intuitive way of accessing information, especially when it comes to learning how to navigate and utilize Asana's features effectively."

What is our primary use case?

Asana is highly beneficial for extended projects that require a strategic approach. It allows us to dissect these projects into numerous tasks and effectively prioritize them based on their deadlines. Moreover, Asana facilitates seamless collaboration across various departments, emphasizing the significance of time management and strategic thinking. Additionally, it aids in allocating resources within my team, ensuring efficient execution of the pertinent project.

What is most valuable?

Asana, despite its compact size, proves to be incredibly valuable. When initiating a project, it offers the ability to generate a personalized form for clients. In this particular context, my clients include the customer success team and solution architects. This feature allows me to provide them with a convenient means to submit their requests, resembling a ticketing system geared towards internal operations. Moreover, it enables efficient allocation within my team. For instance, if a question pertains to customer success, I can assign it to the CSOps manager and the team. Similarly, if it relates to a specific channel, it can be allocated accordingly.

Additionally, Asana allows for allocation across different projects, providing excellent visibility for customers who submit tickets. They can view timelines and prioritize projects, promoting transparency. The system revolves around offering visibility, prioritization of tasks, and effective delegation within the team. Despite its simplicity, it encompasses the creation of project forms with various rules. These rules determine assignments based on request type and submitter, as well as priority levels set by team leaders. Overall, Asana's functionality in this regard is highly advantageous.

What needs improvement?

The documentation could be enhanced by incorporating more visually informative videos that demonstrate how to accomplish specific tasks. While Asana's community support is valuable for answering questions, finding precise answers often requires sifting through multiple posts. Having concise and explanatory videos would greatly improve the user experience. When searching on platforms like Google, there are many individuals sharing their approaches to using Asana. However, the information provided is often not directly applicable to one's specific needs. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have comprehensive video tutorials that address common user queries. This would provide a more efficient and intuitive way of accessing information, especially when it comes to learning how to navigate and utilize Asana's features effectively.

Asana offers a variety of view formats that provide different levels of visibility. These include board view, list view, timeline view, and dependency view. For a single project, you can explore multiple views depending on your objectives. If you're working on a long-term project, you may prefer the timeline view to track your progress and have a macro-level overview of where you stand. On the other hand, for more granular tasks, the board view can be helpful in monitoring the progress and visualizing how things are advancing. The choice of view is not merely a feature selection but rather a decision based on the visibility it offers for your specific needs.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Asana within the last 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

I rate the stability of Asana an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have a few hundred people using this solution in my organization.

I rate the scalability of Asana a seven out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

I did not contact the vendor's support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I did not use other solutions similar to Asana.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I did not evaluate other solutions before Asana. It was always deployed in my company when I started working.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Asana to others.

I rate Asana an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Victor Estival - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer Product Marketing Manager at Parity Technologies
Real User
Top 10
A highly stable solution that can be used for project management and task management
Pros and Cons
  • "Asana has a wonderful user experience that is very easy to interact with and has tons of integrations with other products and tools."
  • "It's difficult to have short-term collaborations with external users because the operations team owns the final licenses, and I work for marketing."

What is our primary use case?

We use Asana for project management and task management.

What is most valuable?

Asana has a wonderful user experience that is very easy to interact with and has tons of integrations with other products and tools.

What needs improvement?

Asana should provide the ability to have read-only users. Sometimes, I need to collaborate with people external to my organization, and I would love to invite them to my Asana board and assign tasks to them. Sometimes, these are short collaborations. I work in marketing, and sometimes I work with agencies.

I would love to do project management on my side, which would be way easier. It's difficult to have short-term collaborations with external users because the operations team owns the final licenses, and I work for marketing.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Asana for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Asana is a highly stable solution.

I rate Asana ten out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Around 250 to 300 users are using the solution in our organization.

I rate Asana ten out of ten for scalability.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have previously used different tools like monday.com and Productive.

What other advice do I have?

I am using the latest version of Asana. I was not involved with the solution's setup, but I was involved in onboarding the users, which was very easy.

I have contacted Asana's technical support with questions on how to do advanced things. Asana provides you with extensive documentation and documentation on the API so you can develop your custom integrations.

The more people use Asana, the easier it is to collaborate, and you will reduce a lot of messaging, email back and forth, and all those not-very-smart things that take a lot of time. Anyone who is considering using Asana should maximize their potential. Asana has many features like approvals, workflows, and automation, and it's best to spend some time learning them.

We were forced to take two hours of our time to learn how to use Asana, and it's a life savior. You can see people using Asana like any other tool, and then you have advanced users who utilize all the potential and boost productivity. You can really tell the people who are proficient with Asana in terms of productivity.

Overall, I rate Asana ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
Isidro Sada - PeerSpot reviewer
Asana Lead Manager at Izei Consulting Group
Real User
Easy to set up and create rules with helpful technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "I like how easy it is to use the rules within Asana."
  • "In Asana, there's no way to add a custom date field."

What is our primary use case?

There are two main things I use it for. The first one is lead management and opportunity processing, internally in my organization, project management, and task creation. The second thing I use most is support inside the community of Asana. I'm an ambassador of the Asana community. I also use Asana for this type of support.

How has it helped my organization?

Before Asana, we didn't have a tool to control our leads or our opportunities. It was just by memory. If we were talking with a client, we were just thinking about calling that lead or that client in a day. With Asana, I have my leads more organized. I know when to call. I can go back and see what I said on the last call, or what I emailed the last time we contacted them. It's an easier way to keep up with my prospects and my opportunities.

What is most valuable?

The best feature is how easily you can create rules. You can do it just via point and click. I like how easy it is to use the rules within Asana.

The initial setup was simple. 

Asana has a site available where you can check the status and see if it's working or in the middle of downtime still (when downtime happens).

Technical support has been excellent. 

What needs improvement?

One of the main things I've been wishing for is an ID, a short ID, just like Jira. That is another tool that I used before. It has an ID for every task in Asana. So it's a short way to know what task are you writing your things on, and it's easier to control your activities. 

In Asana, there's no way to add a custom date field. That's another thing. 

Both of those functionalities I'm wishing for, or I'm hoping for in the short term.

Occasionally, Asana does go down.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for less than a year - 11 months or ten months, probably.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Since we've had Asana, we have been down twice for two to three hours each time. Asana provides a website to know the status of Asana in general. It's an easy way to check if Asana is down or not. We know that every tool has these types of failures. We wish we don't have any more failures, however, we may continue to have them. That said, Asana is excellent in how they provide the status of Asana in general.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The ability to scale depends on the implementation within your organization. However, the scalability is there to do it on your own. You can have a thousand employees using Asana. I don't see any problems scaling up using Asana.

Right now, we have about 50 people on the solution. We use it quite extensively.

How are customer service and support?

When we need support, we have a VIP support channel as we are an Asana partner. We have Asana support directly with the Asana support team. We are extremely satisfied with the help we get. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Besides Asana, we work with Salesforce, Twilio, and Slack. I've used Jira in the past as well. 

We did not previously use a project management solution at this company.

How was the initial setup?

I was involved in the initial implementation. It was straightforward. The difficult part of this type of implementation is how you structure your teams and projects within Asana, however, how you use Asana to do this is intuitive. We didn't have any problem with how to accommodate or establish those things. I'd rate the simplicity of the implementation at a four out of five.

The deployment didn't take more than two weeks. 

The maintenance is easy. It's very smooth. We do not require a maintenance team, however, we do have team leaders that will do occasional maintenance. 

What about the implementation team?

We handled the implementation in-house.

What was our ROI?

I don't have exact ROI numbers, however, we've seen time investment hours and we know that each hour counts as money. We've seen some return on investment, in time, in productivity. Those two KPIs have seen marked improvements.

What other advice do I have?

We are Asana partners.

I use the most recent version and I use it every day.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. It's a great way to organize your daily work within your organization. It doesn't matter your team or the department you're working in. It's very flexible. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Donee Damore - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Director Of Project Management at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Real User
Project management dashboard use to manage creative projects and update stakeholders
Pros and Cons
  • "Asana allows you to create your own project with sub sections with subtasks that can be assigned. The feature I really love is that you can tag people to notify them that there has been progress on a project as well as add attachments."
  • "In some instances, there were subtasks where more than one person needed to review it, but I could only assign it to one person. I would have to create a subtask under a subtask and then assign it to other people. This could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

I have used Asana while working at an e-commerce agency while working on creative projects and creating content like ads for Amazon or Walmart Connect. We used Asana to keep individuals within the agency updated on projects, even if they do not work within the creative team. 

When I worked at Claire's stores as a digital project manager for their internal digital creative team, we used Asana for different departments to log requests for creative projects. We also used it to manage the projects within the digital team. 

What is most valuable?

Asana allows you to create your own project with sub sections with subtasks that can be assigned. The feature I really love is that you can tag people to notify them that there has been progress on a project as well as add attachments. It is a central depository for everything. It is also really useful that you can add people outside your organization to projects you are working on. 

What needs improvement?

The use of Asana can be restricted if it is not set it up the right way. In some instances, there were subtasks where more than one person needed to review it, but I could only assign it to one person. I would have to create a subtask under a subtask and then assign it to other people. This could be improved. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for a year and a half. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used Basecamp and JIRA prior to Asana coming out. JIRA is used more for software developers or backend development projects.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex because the onboarding is not done correctly. This is due to the fact that we are short staffed and did not have time to be trained. Once we had spent more time using the solution, it was easier to use and understand.  

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This solution is reasonably priced. 

What other advice do I have?

I would highly recommend Asana as I think it's a great tool. It is really easy to use once you are trained on it. It really helped me effectively manage projects and improve productivity and efficiency. It has a lot of options from an integration perspective with other platforms.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
User Happiness Manager at a recruiting/HR firm with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
The user interface has a lot of information and is difficult to understand, though the colors and widgets provided are beautiful
Pros and Cons
  • "The only thing I love about the product is that it is beautiful."
  • "The product must reduce the information on the interface."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for tasks and other things like getting requests resolved.

What is most valuable?

The only thing I love about the product is that it is beautiful. The application itself is fine. I love the widgets, colors and everything. The user interface is just fine.

What needs improvement?

The user interface is so busy. It took me quite some time to understand how to navigate my way around the product. The application itself is busy. There’s so much information on it. When we log in to Asana, we have so many icons, and it is difficult to understand how to find things. The user interface is not easily accessible. The product must reduce the information on the interface. The solution has more color and fewer applications.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for eight months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution’s stability a five out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the product’s scalability a five out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

I had to contact support because the application is always busy. When we assign a request, it takes time to get feedback. It takes time even to get information about the request we raised because there are so many applications and so many icons we have to click.

How was the initial setup?

If customers buy the product for their company, they will need a lot of training to understand how it works. The product needs to improve this.

What other advice do I have?

I'm willing to work. However, if I don't get my requests, it means there's nothing I'm doing. The solution is suited for companies with less number of employees. For bigger companies that have around 50 employees, it won’t work because we will have to create many teams, and everything is on that interface. 

We will have to understand how to navigate. The product is suitable for someone who is used to applications and can easily understand how the features work. The product is difficult for customer support or salespeople who are not into programming. Overall, I rate the product a five out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Nabin Poudel - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Curl Labs
Real User
Top 5
Versatile project management solution used for software development to assign tasks and track projects
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup is straightforward. It was just a few clicks to get started and to integrate Asana into our existing business system. It took 15 days to fully implement our projects using Asana."
  • "We have not used Asana on our private server. We have been using the cloud solution. We need an on premise solution for government agencies."

What is our primary use case?

We are a software company and we have many different software projects with 10 to 15 developers working on each project. We use to Asana to manage each project, for team collaboration and to assign tasks to the team. Basically, we use Asana for project management and collaboration.

What needs improvement?

We have not used Asana on our private server. We have only been using the cloud solution. We need an on premise solution for government agencies. This would be an improvement if this was possible.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for six years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable solution. So far we have faced not any problem with the system slowing down or lagging. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have 150 full-time employees in our organization and for our use case, Asana is sufficient. We don't know if we can handle over 500 or 1000 users at the same time. We have not tried yet.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It was just a few clicks to get started and to integrate Asana into our existing business system. It took 15 days to fully implement our projects using Asana.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We have a monthly subscription.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Asana Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2024
Product Categories
Project Management Software
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Asana Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.