Asana Review

In a Nutshell

Asana is a powerful project management system that allows team members to stay synchronized with one another in real-time. Asana facilitates goal completion by way of a Work Graph Model complete with timelines, tracking, automation, and simplified workflows. By streamlining work-related matters, Asana allows for big-picture analysis of projects. This eliminates overlaps, and gaps in scheduling, allowing for rapid reassessment, and adjustments. 

Team members can stay up-to-date with real-time project deadlines, with the underlying projects and workloads presented on a graphical user interface with key metrics in place. A wide range of tools is available for enhanced project management such as tickets, messaging, files, and other attachments. Real-time tracking of company goals and important milestones, coupled with secure sharing of information allows for improved work synergy and better project management.  Asana’s wealth of educational tools and resources makes it easy to create project plans, and manage them effectively. Team leaders are also presented with executive summary tips and guidelines on creating a vision statement for achievable objectives.

Within the project management system, team leaders are able to easily and effectively manage individual accounts, with in-depth insights into performance metrics, approaching project deadlines, assignment of tasks, duties, and responsibilities, and overall security controls for team members and groups. As a project manager, Asana puts you in charge of operations and allows you to oversee all aspects of individual and group performance from a bird’s eye view. 

Multiple workflow solutions are presented by Asana, including project planning, work management, productivity issues, task management, goal management, agile management, and project management. All of this is undertaken within a privacy-secured environment, according to the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) of Europe, and the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act).

The Asana product is readily available for premium, business, and enterprise solutions, with a wide range of project templates available. These span over marketing, human resources, design, customer success, information technology, product, sales, operations, engineering, cross-functional, and others. To date, some 100,000+ innovative businesses entrust their project management activities to the Asana work-management solution. 

All projects are safeguarded with multi-factor authentication protocols, security-focused software, secure cloud applications, and full scalability. The Asana platform enjoys near-universal availability 99.9% uptime for enterprise customers. Among others, a full suite of restoring services, daily backups, and regional backups is available to protect, and maintain daily operations.

How does Asana.com meet each of these 5 criteria?

1. Customization Capabilities

Asana.com is geared towards maximum customization of individual projects. Team leaders have complete control over every aspect of a project’s performance. This is facilitated by way of easing mapping of project components, vis-a-vis all the details, tasks, and assignments from one central online workplace. 

It is possible to track work performance from every possible vantage point on the Asana platform. This allows for real-time analysis, insight, and observation of work performance, from an individual and team perspective. As a team leader, you can assess the effectiveness of individual and joint performance across projects.

The streamlined work processes courtesy of forms allows for easy dissemination of work, and details required by team members in order to perform tasks effectively. The visual elements can be fully customized according to preferences, with calendars, times, and assignments of duties to team members. This comprehensive portfolio of tools is what generates a big picture perspective of a project’s performance. 

For example, various tracking metrics and color-coded systems present quick updates on the status of projects. Green typically signals on-track, yellow signals at risk, and red indicates off-track. Likewise, with priority-items colors are used to designate high, medium, and low priority tasks and duties. It is within the purview of the project manager to designate accordingly.

The team objectives can further be customized to indicate which projects fall under the responsibility of specific project managers. The progress meters, due dates, and current status of the projects are instantly available in a quick view format. Maximum customization kicks in with real-time metrics which allow for proactive project management, as opposed to reactive project management. 

As a project manager, you can anticipate potential hurdles well ahead of time, and take corrective action by shifting resources to meet project deadlines and exigencies. This is the true power of the Asana.com project management system. When integrations are factored in, customization increases exponentially.  Everybody’s workload can be managed to ensure optimal performance – thereby ensuring projects are completed on time. 

2. Core Task-Related Features

Asana.com is all about managing the work, projects, and tasks more effectively. To this end, delegation is sacrosanct. With Asana, work is organized into what is known as ‘Shared Projects’. These are either presented on kanban boards, or as lists. They are applicable to various initiatives, programs, and meetings as well. The tasks are divided up into manageable workflows. There are also subtasks – smaller and more manageable components of tasks with greater attention to detail. This makes it much easier to provide instructions, feedback, and additional detail for completing tasks.

All of the core task-related features are customized for improved efficacy. These include clear owners for each task or subtask. This removes ambiguity, and designates a clear team member for each task. Custom fields with drop-down menus, portfolios, or spreadsheets are readily available. Further, tasks can be assigned and organized according to the specific stage in the current workflow. Thanks to custom fields including forms, due dates, due times, starting dates, attachments, dependencies, rules, and other criteria, it is much easier to manage core task-related features. The inclusion of templates is a big plus. And these can be reused on different projects and customized accordingly.

The task actions include creating tasks, duplicating tasks, fusing tasks together, deleting tasks, or printing tasks. These are all readily available from the main pane of the project management screen. Team members typically name tasks according to the action that needs to be performed. With Asana’s task management system, you can see all of your available tasks including new, recurring, and upcoming tasks. These can be added, deleted, and have permissions assigned at will. The task templates ensure standardization of tasks for quick setup and duplication thereof. Existing tasks can be converted into templates, and edited as required.

Custom templates can easily be created, with all of the personalized features required by the project manager and team members. There are free templates and premium templates available. The complimentary templates are for onboarding and meeting agendas, and the premium templates are ideally suited to event planning, company objectives, candidate tracking, product launches, and editorial calendars. 

Enhanced collaboration is assured with the Asana templates, since they are created for synergy and goal-attainment for all team members. All task-related elements at Asana are customized according to requirements. Like other popular project management solutions, color plays an integral part in the process. A full selection of workflows can be set up as per team requests. 

The task-related features can take on many forms such as business tasks, internal tasks, product tasks, and company tasks. Within each task and subtask, full personalization is possible. The point of all of these tasks is to make a company’s strategic and tactical objectives easily achievable by everyone involved in the project. Further, team members get to understand how their work plays a part in the big picture. 

With all of the task-related elements at Asana.com, there really is no need to navigate out of the system to seek additional project management assistance elsewhere. It’s an all-encompassing solution to effective project management.  Since every single team uses the services provided by Asana a little differently, slight modifications are required from project to project.

Fortunately, there are a set of rules and structures in place to make it easy to set up tasks according to your specific requirements. For example, a project is an overall coordinated effort with all team members and team management. Within the project, are singular tasks that must be completed by one person at a time. Multiple tasks can be incorporated within a broader project. There are also subtasks which subdivide the individual tasks into more manageable pieces of work. 

The process is presented in an easy-to-understand format at Asana. Even newbies can get started instantly. It begins with the organization as a whole, and then moves on to the different teams collaborating in large groups to achieve objectives. The projects typically encompass 10 tasks apiece, and have stakeholders who are invested in seeing it through to completion. Next, are the individual tasks which require several minutes to several days to complete and they form part of one or more projects. The subtasks the smaller jobs that need to be performed in order to achieve the tasks.

3. Updated to Evolving Needs

Asana understands the importance of staying abreast of the latest technological developments, and the evolving needs of clients. To this end, Asana Project Management solutions include full access to a remote work resources, including essential integrations and live assistance for team members and managers. Work from home options are entirely possible with Asana, courtesy of the integrated system. A shared set of tactical and strategic objectives is provided, with clear priorities, deadlines, and task assignments. Since all of this is made visible on the project management system, it’s easy to stay aligned with regular status updates, and real-time communication. These powerful tools are constantly updated to the evolving needs of companies, teams, and environmental influences. Recently, Asana was introduced for Microsoft Teams, a powerful integration which now encompasses Microsoft’s full suite of productivity tools. This is one of hundreds of integrations readily available to meet the needs of the modern-day work environment.

With respect to remote work collaboration, the following tools and resources are embedded in Asana’s capabilities:

• Meeting Agendas
• Importing CSV Files
• Set Quarterly Milestones
• Centralized Communication
• Creating Intake Request Forms
• Real-Time Project Management
• Integrations with Slack, Zoom, Outlook, Google Drive, Gmail and more. 

Of course, Asana’s remote functionality works just as well for teams working in offices in different cities, or countries around the world, at home, or on the go. It is fully integrated with PC, Mac, and mobile from any location. 

What Kind of Projects is the Asana.com Platform Suitable For: 

Virtual events are routinely hosted, which are ideal for training purposes, from within the Asana Community. Attendees can enjoy webinars, seminars, meet-ups, and other didactic sessions for improving workflow, collaborating more efficiently, and meeting project deadlines. The range of integrations with Asana is extensive, and will be covered in the next section. Ideally, Asana is suited to the following types of projects, teams, and purposes:

• Sales – all aspects of the sales funnel, including management of customer accounts, and onboarding of new clients.
• Marketing – campaigns, creatives, product launches, special events, and content calendars.
• Engineering – sprints and bug reports, product feedback, and priorities.
• Human Resources – candidates and interviewees, onboarding, and company policies et al. 

Asana is suitable for SMBs and Enterprise level organizations alike. Popular companies using Asana’s project management solutions include: HubSpot, The Michael J. Fox Foundation, LA Rams, Bobbi Brown, PGA of America, WIX, Christian Dior, L’Oreal UK and Ireland, and many others.  [https://asana.com/customers]

4. Popular 3rd Party Integrations

Asana is functional with a full suite of apps and integrations. These include: Microsoft Teams, Adobe Creative Cloud, Jira Cloud, Asana for Salesforce, Tableau, Slack, Clockwise, Microsoft Office 365, Google Calendar, Gmail, Chrome Extension, Power BI, Zapier, Outlook, ServiceNow, tray.io, JotForm, Salesforce, Asana Android and iOS mobile Apps, Google Drive, Looker, Vimeo, Canva, Figma, Instagantt, Claris Connect, Flowsana, Lucidchart, OneDrive, Wistia, InVision, Whismiscal, Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Power Platform, YouTube, Everhour, Loom, OneLogin, and dozens of others.

5. Ease of Use

Asana is designed to make project management easier. That’s what it’s all about. It was created with user-friendliness in mind and on top of that, it’s also really flexible. There are several benefits to selecting Asana over other project management solutions, including the following:

• Asana has many more applications than merely listing tasks
• It’s easy to plan, lead, organize and control workflow with Asana
• Asana is capable of processing and managing any number of workflows
• Every single team member on a project can tailor Asana to their workflow
• You can move work forward and assess once work has been completed too
• Asana is a one-stop system for all work-related activity, with easy-to-update solutions

– G2 has rated Asana. 4.3/5 from 7301+ reviews.

– Gartner has rated Asana 4.4/5 from 940 reviews. 

– Trust Radius has scored Asana 8.4/10 from 1436 vetted reviews and ratings.

– Asana has a 4.5/5 rating on PC Mag as an Editor’s Choice top-notch collaboration tool.

With all the fanfare Asana has generated over the years, it is self-evident that it is highly regarded among users. The litmus test of Asana’s functionality is its utility value and project management capabilities. It scores high marks across the board. 

Plans & Pricing

Competitive pricing options are available on a range of Asana plans. Given the features and functions that are available, the plans are certainly affordable. There are 3 standard plans, including The Basic Plan, the Premium Plan, and the Business Plan.

The Basic Plan – $0, with the ability to manage multiple tasks and personal to-do-activities. These include unlimited tasks, projects, messages, activity log file storage (100 MB per file), collaboration with up to 15 team members, list view projects, board view projects on the calendar views, due dates with assignees, project overviews, project briefs, iOS and Android, time tracking with integrations, and 100+ complimentary integrations with apps.

The Premium Plan – $10.99 per user per month which is billed annually. The monthly bill is $13.49. This plan includes a timeline, unlimited dashboards, reporting across unlimited projects, advanced search functionality, custom fields, unlimited free guests, forms, rules, milestones, administrative consoles, private teams and projects.

The Business Plan – this is billed at $24.99 annually per user per month, or $30.49 billed monthly. The premium plan includes portfolios, goals, workload, custom rules builder, forms branching and customization, approvals, proofing, lock custom fields, and advanced integrations with various programs such as Adobe Creative Cloud, and Salesforce.

The Asana Enterprise Plan – this plan requires organisations to contact the company directly for support, services, and pricing.

Naturally, whatever plan you select must be tailored to your specific needs and requirements. The number of users can affect the plan price, so it is worthwhile mapping out requirements well ahead of time.

Customer Service & Support

Asana support is available to clients across multiple channels. These include Asana Help, the Asana Forum, the Asana Academy, and the Asana Guide. Additional support is available through the sales team via online contact form, and the FAQ section. Full social media connectivity is available on Twitter, LinkedIn commenced, Facebook, and YouTube. Support is available in many different languages, including: German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, and Japanese. The email address is: support@asana.com or advisors@asana.com. Support representatives endeavor to respond to client questions and complaints as quickly and professionally as possible.

Pros & Cons

Bottom Line

Project management software slots into a highly competitive market. There are plenty of big players in this small pool, allowing for lots of rivalries. This is good news for consumers. As far as Asana goes, there are many benefits in store for you, including full collaboration, complete project management (on PC, mobile, or mac) in the office, or remotely. You can track and monitor project management progress for individual tasks, subclass, and multiple projects. It is a little on the costly side for businesses that are just starting out, but it is powerful enough to ensure the completion of important tasks across a wide range of applications. You can integrate many apps with this project management software at your leisure. It is easy-to-use and highly effective as a team management tool. You can take a bird’s eye view of major projects, and it scores top marks for workflow management. The business plans guarantee 99.9% uptime, which is great for keeping projects up and running, irrespective of where team members are in the world. There isn’t any notable learning curve to worry about. Asana is color-coded for ease of use, and it’s intuitive.