The Problem With Using Trello’s Team & Project Views — and how to Solve it
Trello is an incredibly useful tool for project managers because it makes it super easy to track workflow and stay organized. Once you’ve discovered the workflow set-up that best matches your needs, it’s super easy to keep on top of your work. While using Trello is generally a seamless process, there are a few exceptions.
As a project manager, how do you keep track of both teams and individual projects?
Two essential views
Trello allows you to track team and individual tasks and projects with two handy yet different workflow views:
1. Project view:
The project view lets you monitor progress on a specific deliverable. Here you can ensure a project is on schedule, that work is advancing in the right order, and that no tasks or teammates are blocked. Project boards are crucial for delegating tasks, ironing out creases in the workflow, removing potential roadblocks, and overseeing a smooth delivery of all items.
2. Team view:
Team view, on the other hand, is a board from which you can see what each team member is working on at any given time. It’s a resource allocation board that gives managers a bird’s eye view of their team. This view is crucial for ensuring that everyone is on the right track, that no tasks slip through the cracks, and that priorities are in order.
The problem with using two views
Although both views are essential, using them may pose a problem that isn’t entirely obvious: It’s hard to use both views without a lot of manual maintenance. You will have to constantly duplicate information and enter data twice between the project and team boards. Both boards have to be continuously updated to keep their information in sync. For example, if someone changes a due date in the project board and it isn’t manually updated in your team board, your team’s workflow will be out of whack. All this data entry is time-costly, and what project manager has the time?
You may be thinking, “Why would I even bother using both views? Wouldn’t one be enough?” Not exactly. Since multiple people from various departments and teams typically work together on projects, it can be difficult to scan the project board for your specific team. So how do we create a system where we can use both without wasting time by entering the same information twice?
You can use the features available to create practically any system that works for you. Thinking outside the box and applying some creativity to your workflow could end up saving you hours in unnecessary board maintenance.
Let’s take a look at a couple of ways you can do that.
1. Use labels
One way is to keep track of your team using labels, instead of using a separate team board.
How to do it:
- Create a label like ‘marketing team,’ and choose a color for it.
- Apply the label to each card that’s assigned to one of your team members.
- Once you have that sorted, you’ll be able to filter the project board by the ‘marketing team’ label. This immediately lets you see all the cards and info associated with your team.
The one setback with this technique is that if you use multiple project boards, you’d have to check each one separately.
2. Sync your boards
Another option is to simply sync your team and project view boards using Unito. Syncing your boards essentially means connecting them: every bit of information on each board (such as tasks, statuses, deadlines, comments, and labels) will be automatically transferred between each board. This eliminates the need for you to do it manually yourself.
How to do it:
- Sign up, using your Trello login info.
- Do you already have a team view and a project view board? If yes, simply sync the 2 boards.
- If not, you have 2 options:
- Have a project board, and want to make a team board? You can pull out the information relevant to your team from that project board and sync it to a team board. To do this you will need to do a multi-sync, where you will sync only those tasks that are assigned to your team members.
- Have a team board, and want to make a project board? You will need to pull out tasks relevant to the project from the team board and then sync them to the project board. In this case, you will sync only those tasks that have a specific label for that project.
- Alternatively, if you already have multiple team or multiple project boards, you can create a “mother” project or team board from all of these. In other words, you can sync certain tasks from each board into a separate team or project board. For example, if your design team is working on five different projects, you can sync their tasks (from all five of these projects) to one design team board.
- If you need help with any of these options, get in touch! We’d be happy to guide you.
3. Some other cool options
- Filter by team member: If you want to keep tabs on your team without creating a team board, you can also filter by team member (similar to filtering by label).
- Subscribe to relevant cards: Trello allows you to subscribe to individual cards, which means you can sign yourself up to receive notifications on tasks assigned to your team members. Simply click ‘watch’ or ‘subscribe’ from the actions menu inside the card.
