Pros and Cons of Asana
[Scott] There are many project management tools which are vying for your attention, and near the top of that list is Asana.
Now, Asana is an excellent project management tool, but sometimes I feel that some other features are lacking.
On top of that, it can get really pricey when you start to add more and more team members.
So in today's video, I wanna introduce you to Backlog, a tool which has many more features and the price is better as well.
So let's dive in.
Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.
Today we're taking a look at Backlog, and here we are within the dashboard.
Tour of the Backlog Dashboard
Now, one of the things that I like about Backlog is just how clean the look is, yet it gives us some fantastic functionality.
Here I'm taking a look at my dashboard, and it breaks it down by my projects here on the left.
You can see I'm a member of three different projects at this point in time.
On the right-hand side, we have recent updates, so I can always be in the know when it comes to these projects.
I can see that Melissa has been updating a number of issues here within a few different projects, in particular the marketing project here.
Yes, even if I hover over some of this information, I get some further detailed information to the left.
Down below, I've got my issues, so these are the things that I'm currently assigned to as well.
Again, a nice, quick snapshot of what's going on today and where I should be putting my attention.
But let's stick with navigation because what I really love about Backlog is this menu bar here at the top.
For example, if I click on projects, not only does it give me this expanded view and remember I can access this almost anywhere, but I don't have to just dive into the projects themselves.
I can go immediately to a certain area or a certain view such as a board view or a Gantt chart view.
Viewing Issues & Tasks in Backlog
I can add an issue or just view those issues myself.
Let's start by clicking on those issues.
Here we are now within this marketing project, and I can see these are the two issues that I'm assigned at this given time.
Again, I can dive right into my day and start my work.
But I can filter this information in so many different ways.
If I wanna see all of the issues at once, I can do so here and I can quickly and easily filter this information by a variety of different tools.
This is where I find things like Asana and Trello are really lacking when it comes to reporting and filtering out all of this information.
I can even quickly adjust my view options for what I'm seeing here in terms of the results per page and the different columns that are being displayed to me.
This view down below actually reminds me a little bit of monday.com, which I am actually a fan of.
It gives me lots of nice visuals here.
I can sort by a variety of different ways when things were created, if I wanna sort by priority or who it's assigned to, and I can even save these filters as well.
Sharing Reports & Filters in Backlog
In fact, one of the features that is so simple but I think is so powerful is that not only can I save this as a filter, I can save a customized filter here on this screen, but I can share it quickly and easily with a short URL.
If I wanna share this with someone else in my team, I can do so by just texting them this link or adding it to an email or putting it in some other document.
I can do so here as well.
Again, we go much further than just the view that we are looking at.
Board & Gantt Chart Views in Backlog
Here in Backlog on the left-hand side, you can see we can also view this information in a more traditional Kanban style here of a board.
Here, I'm just looking at Katrina and the things that she's assigned to here.
Maybe for a second here, this actually needs to go back.
We need to go back and do a little bit more work there, so I'm gonna drag that over here.
I always have this Assign to Myself button available on almost every screen, which is great.
I don't have to remember a quick key.
I don’t need to come here to a dropdown menu.
I can quickly see what's going on here and say, you know what, I'm actually done that campaign brief.
I'm gonna move it over here to in review.
But we also have a Gantt chart view which is available to us.
It’s built right in.
No, this is not an extension.
No, it is not an add-on.
You have the Gantt chart built right in, and we can still filter it by some of these categories and some of these options up above.
Creating Issues & Tasks in Backlog
But let's back up just one step, because I wanna show you how easy it is to create a new issue or new tasks from scratch.
Here we are back on the dashboard page, and I already showed you how to access projects up here.
But even if I'm looking at my project list down below, let's say, I wanna add an issue here under support.
I love that I don't have to click on support to get into it first.
I can just add an issue to it right away.
Here we are, perhaps I'm reporting a new task and I'm just gonna say, "Email team about the virtual conference that is coming up."
I can add as much detail here within the description area, including mentioning others as I want.
But down below, this is where I think Backlog is really stretching its muscle.
For example, I can quickly and easily assign it to myself.
I don't have to go find myself here in the dropdown menu.
I can select from a variety of different priorities if I want.
But these two fields in particular, milestone and version, I think are most helpful where you can customize these selections.
For example, if I'm a part of a development team, maybe I wanna track the different versions where this task is assigned to.
I'm gonna say 2.7.3.
I can quickly and easily add more versions or add more milestones if I want.
I can also add customized categories as well.
I'm gonna quickly slap on a due date to this issue.
I can attach a file, and then this last one I find is very helpful as well.
I can notify someone else on my team as well.
I don't have to assign them.
Create Reference Material with Wikis
Remember, I'm not assigning them to this task, but I'm just letting them know what's happening here as I create this issue.
Another great feature of Backlog is the ability to create reference material without having to create a dummy issue or a task which really isn't meaningful.
How often have you been in Asana or Trello and you've had to just create something that wasn't really a task, but it just had reference material?
Or you had to set up some type of extension that reached out to Google Docs or some other cloud-based service.
Well, within each project, you have your own Wiki page.
This is essentially a place where you can create as much reference material as you need to.
For example, here, if I'm a part of a marketing team, you can see here on the right-hand side, there's a Wiki here called Design Guidelines where it's actually telling me the proper font type and the proper colors that we use for our particular brand.
Here's a Requirements Template.
You can see the different project names, the goals, and the key metrics.
So everyone on your team can have access to this, and they can find it in an easy-to-use location.
It’s not gonna be messed up or it's not gonna cloud out other issues, which are not real issues when you're trying to add this information within your projects.
Backlog vs Asana Pricing
Last but not least, let's talk a little bit about pricing.
I think Asana's pricing is fairly competitive when we're looking at other tools such as Trello or monday.com.
Here you can see their premium plan starts at $11 per month, but that is per user.
In fact, that $11 is if you choose to go with their annual plan.
If you bump up to business, you're going to $25 a month, and that is per user.
I know there's a lot of people who are very tentative because, who's a new user?
Can I afford to add a new team member?
Depending on the size of your operation, sometimes this can get very expensive.
Alternatively, let's take a look at Backlog's pricing.
Now, they both have a free option, and that may be enough for you at least to get started out.
But if you want a little more users and a few more projects, you're gonna need to upgrade to their starter plan, which starts at $35 a month.
You may think that that's more expensive, but let's look at the fine print.
That $35 a month includes 30 users.
So even if you have a team of 10, you're paying as little as $3.50 per user.
If you jump up to their standard plan at a hundred dollars a month, that's unlimited users.
So you're capped out.
You don't have to stop at just 10 members of your team or whatever your budget can handle, a hundred dollars a month with unlimited users.
So if you're frustrated with tools such as Asana or Trello, I encourage you to give Backlog a try.
You can find out more by clicking the link in the description below.
Thank you so much for watching today's video.
Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.
In fact, it's very simple.
