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Why so many PowerUps for the most basic tasks?

Nadja von Massow

This is more of a general question: Why do we have to install so many third-party PowerUps for seemingly basic and simple features?

We've started migrating from ToDoist to Trello for a potentially improved Kanban experience. However, after the first week, we're flabbergasted by the vast number of PowerUps that are required to fulfil the most basic and single-minded operations like deleting cards, bulk actions, finding cards and many more.

In addition, direct integrations and synchronisation (i.e. with Google Calendar), which were a complete breeze to set up and free in ToDoist, require the somewhat awkward creation and manual interlinking of new calendars in GCal - and even then it only works in one direction. Unito charges an arm and a leg for its sync powerups.

There are no (or not many) global powerup options that would allow to cover all boards immediately. Why?

There are a number of other examples which simply surprised us as not being available out-of-the-box, at least for Business-class users; features that are not built in even though they would be basic UX improvements. We're not talking about everything being enabled and appreciate that different users have different requirements. We're talking about built-in options that can be enabled or disabled.

Obviously, all PM tools have their pros and cons, and Trello being extremely popular leads us to the assumption that we're missing a vital point. But so far, we're a little underwhelmed and feel that the Trello business model is just not quite in line with what we would want to buy into.

Happy to get corrected and enlightened.

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Mike - Dreamsuite Consulting

What you've highlighted as Trello's weakness, I consider to be Trello's strength. It seems like there has been an approach by those at Atlassian to make Trello a base platform that enables other things on top. This to me makes Trello a very very flexible and versatile platform, you just have to rethink what it is compared to other tools like ToDoist and Monday.com etc....

This leads onto an important point when it comes to software selection. Don't compare software! Believe me, they are all flawed.

Make sure you understand what you want from it and most importantly why then pick the software that is the best fit with the fewest compromises.

Maybe Trello isn't right for you but have jumped in here complaining about power-ups without mentioning exactly what you are trying to achieve with this change and why

Please feel free to respond with what you are aiming to achieve and I'm sure there are experts both working for Atlassian and working in the Trello community who will be able to help...

Nadja von Massow

Thanks, Mike.

As you can see, I have recognised that all platforms have pros and cons. That goes without saying. We also entirely appreciate that integrations and PowerUps have their place for specialist/specific requirements or anything that would add unnecessary clutter to the average user. That's all beside my point of the original question:

Why do we have to install so many third-party PowerUps for seemingly basic and simple features?

So, not questioning PowerUps in general. Just missing very basic integrations and UX options inside Trello itself. More built-in optional features to make certain single-minded PowerUps obsolete.

Mike - Dreamsuite Consulting

Trello, rightly or wrongly has gone the opposite way to other tools and has very few integrations. There are benefits to that approach too. If you want to give Trello the benefit of doubt and embrace it's approach, you can see just how powerful it can be, even compared to solutions that look on the surface to have a lot more functionality out of the box. If not, leave yourself open to the possibility of another solution that has what you need....

Try taking a look at Jira Work Management

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

Trello was written to be simple to use and do the absolute basics of item lists without any fuss. What you're calling "basic and single-minded operations" are not needed to fulfil what Trello does as its core function, and not everyone needs or wants them.

If you need to use a load of powerups to get it to work the way you want it to, then that suggests to me that you've chosen the wrong tool. You probably want something more like Jira Work Management, as @Mike - Dreamsuite Consulting says.

Nadja von Massow

I wouldn't know what's more simple than deleting a card.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

Most people don't want to delete cards, it's not a simple thing to do. Remember that this is item-tracking software, it's trying to emulate what people do with pin boards and post-it notes on the 'fridge. Completely destroying the information that you were tracking something is not what people want to do.

You can remove cards from view with "archive". It's like a simple waste-bin for the post-it notes. You can fish them out when you realise you still need them, and you can empty the bin when you are sure you really don't need it.

Nadja von Massow

Thanks, I appreciate your response, but it feels to me that you're desperately defending the status quo - which you have the rights to do - and picking at granular examples, rather than addressing the bigger picture of my original question.

I completely accept that some people want to archive. But some want to delete. The archive is not called "bin".

I'm coming from a UX pov. Moving cards in bulk or the option to apply certain features to all boards instead of just one etc. seem too obvious to not be built in. There are many such examples for which I went down the rabbit hole of reading about endless workarounds and single-minded (often premium) PowerUps. It's a shame.

But at the end of the day, it's a fair point to say that it's probably not the right tool for me.

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