The Future of Trello

[#1]

I recently wrote a post about the Future of Trello and wanted to share and discuss some of the thinking behind the direction we are evolving the product over the next year.

Let's start with the hierarchy in Trello.  Currently, it might look something like this:

Teams > Boards > Cards

At the top, we have Teams in Trello.  Teams hold Boards.  Boards hold cards.

(We are likely going to rename Teams to Workspaces at some point because we think it better describes what Teams function is inside Trello).

This year one of the biggest changes we are making to Trello is that we are adding Views to each of these pieces in Trello.

Most people who have used the Calendar Power-Up or the Map Power-Up will be familiar with the concept of Board views and switching between them will become easier.  We will roll out new views here as well (like Timeline, Dashboard, etc).

Going up to the Team level (or Workspace level), we will add those same views but allowing you to see across ALL your boards in the Team.  See your entire Team's calendar.  See the Timeline for all your projects.  Customize the view to see only a subset of boards.  This will be the very first time we introduce the ability to see multiple boards at once.

Going down to the Card level, we will add new views to cards.  You are already familiar with separator cards (add a title "---" to a card) or image cards which show the image on the entire front of the card.  But we will also add Board cards (use a card to link to another board) or Mirrored cards (take a card from a different board and make it appear somewhere else), and possibly even more card types (think of Jira cards, or Confluence cards, Checklist cards, or video cards for example).

Adding Views across these three levels of Trello's hierarchy is going to transform the way people use Trello - and will obviously create more opportunities for our customers and the ecosystem that builds on top of Trello to discover new ways to solve problems.

What are you most excited about?   What new things would you like to see? 

[Dave Liao]

@Michael Pryor - I'm excited that you're excited! 👍

Anything that reduces the need for users (like me!) to construct a mental model around using tools like Trello is appreciated.

Whatever hierarchy Trello ends up adopting, double down on the concept on the landing page? It feels a bit ephermal/"borderless", and there's opportunity to optimize the "Boards" and "Home" sections.

p.s. Renaming Teams to Workspaces aligns neatly with Bitbucket Cloud. Hope that happens.

[Michael Pryor]

100%. This is super confusing today and we want to fix this. You are exactly right. 

[Wm_ Auckerman]

Just wondering: Will any of these changes apply to free/Gold accounts, or is it only for Business class accounts?

[Michael Pryor]

The majority will be Business Class features for now. 

[Nezih Bilgin]

We absolutely need the ability to give specific board permission to a power-up. When I set up one of them, I don't want to give my all data.

[Bruna Junckes Sant Anna]

when will it be release? i like trello as a business class user, but i am really frustrated with the manage project and reports, we need a way urgent to manage the full project, we need to have at least this mapping topics:

- Company

-- Project

--- Stages

---- Tasks

 ----- SubTasks

its been really hard to integrate all that without one mapping view

you guys said that will be implemented, but not when will it be, and we need to know, because like me are others users thinking about leaving the trello because of those features..

i am trying to find a way of see if another software of you guys could make all the trello, management and report at one place, but as a feedback, i cant figure it out what is the diference between some of them and why not having one product that includes everything? from managing, reports, mapping, sharing, talk.. all in one?

[Bruna Junckes Sant Anna]

any reply about my last comment?

[Michael Pryor]

Doesn’t your mapping map to 

Team —>
 Board —>
   List —>
     Card —>
       Checklist item

Maybe you could currently use the Team table view to see cards across boards. Or tools like Screenful or Blue Cats Reports. 

[Bruna Junckes Sant Anna]

But i still need more sub itens, like checklist sub itens...

And also about teams, i just cant use my payed account with multiple teams, do i need to pay for every time i am into?

About the implements you guys announced, any dates for business members?

[Michael Pryor]

I’m sorry we won’t be adding checklist sub items. 

Subscription is at the team level so if you make multiple teams then you have to pay multiple times. You could use Collections within a team to group boards. 

I would say February timeframe. 

[Bruna Junckes Sant Anna]

didnt know Collections exists, will try that..

about timeframe, thanks for the estimative, will it be released at once or some are going to be add at november, december... 

[Michael Pryor]

Some people will get access sooner. For example team table view is available to all Business Class customers now I believe. 

[Tuukka Järvinen]

... we will add those same views but allowing you to see across ALL your boards in the Team.  See your entire Team's calendar.  See the Timeline for all your projects.  Customize the view to see only a subset of boards... 

This is definitely supergood news if it happens! We control a lot of projects with a small team and it's quite impossible to get a good view about resources at the moment. That could be a solution for the better.

[MARTIN DOWSON]

Pricing Model - I think there needs to be an option for individuals to unlock the features of Business and Gold for individual use only.  I resent paying for what is positioned as 'TEAM' pricing when actually what I wanted was the ability to put a due date on a checklist item...  as a personal productivity tool it's awesome even before it is a team productivity tool.  

So can I upgrade my features but be restricted from sharing access to the board? two different pricing models?

[franco]

We need to be able to have an Exec Level Dashboard (Workspace) that will allow us to mindmap the whole company OKRs (Objective, Key Results) and drill down by Div. ->Dept ->team member from it and drill back up the various branches. 

There should be Dashboards for each Workspace.

Each Dashboard should allow us to report on Key Results (KPIs) toward the defined Ojective.

At each Dashboard Level, with the appropriate Workspace access privileges the manager or if appropriate the workspace team members should be able to generate a Gantt chart with all the relative inter-boards dependencies that are part of a robust project management solutions.

thanks!

[Michael Pryor]

@franco have you looked at https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/align - it does integrate with Trello (and Jira)

[franco]

@micha We are a small startup the pricing is not conducive Jira Align.

Moreover, we want 1 tool to do it all vs. having to juggle more complexity.

There are other solutions that can do it all like Asana, with Gantt charts, etc at a much lower cost and even mind mapping software (like Xmind 8 Pro or mindmeinster+meister tasks) that can do the top-down alignment.

Thanks for making me aware of your offering.

[Katharina Meier]

Hey @Michael Pryor,

the new features sound great! Looking forward using it!

Can you tell us when the new features are available? A rough period would be nice to know. 

I am especially interested in the timeline view. 

I tried the power ups teamgantt, airfocus, elegantt and big Picute. But nothings convinced our case. We want to view our trello tickets (agile Sprint Board) on a timeline with automatic synchronisation, available directly in the trello app, with manual settings. Therefore i want to wait to  your new view options and try that. 

Can you give me a rough period when it will be launched?

Or do you have an other hint which power up or tool would be good to view trello boards on a roadmap/timeline? 

Thankful for any kind of answer. 

Katharina

[Laurent Tan]

@Michael Pryor

Hey im excited about Trello future.

1. Just wonder would there be unlimited file size upload for business class in future, instead of 250mb.

2. Would we be able to change List Colors in the future too?

3. How about giving Trello in-frame note editor? (not evernote which goes out to another browser, with another log in)

Don't lose out to ClickUp! i still love Trello :)

[Michael Pryor]

Hi Laurent,

Thanks for writing. Can you explain more about the use case where you would need to store large files @ Trello? Have you tried using Dropbox/Box/Google Drive/etc?

I’d also love to learn more about the use cases for List colors and what you would use a Note editor for?

[Laurent Tan]

Hi Michael

Quite abit are related to user experiences

1. We used quite abit of videos In our marketing and training department. It will look and feel really professional If the different trainees and users can click and access the video without having to go into another browser tab, and required another log in to google drive, dropbox. And some requires to register an account. (It's all about user experiences)

2. To highlight List Colors especially for certain kanban list like "faulty items", "delay", "bottleneck" will be great

3.  Giving Trello in-frame note editor is more than a user experience, its a practical need. I have been conducting Trello workshops and training in Singapore and it will be really helpful if i can take notes, illustrate and edit within the browser.
In addition it is beneficial as Trello is often used as meeting collaboration.

- A power-up like "Read-Me" within the frame is cool but it's functions are limited.
- Evernote goes into another browser.

- If there's an editor power-up which can allow in-frame view and edit like Miro's preview will be good. However Miro is not really for notes and documentation taking.

- Will be good if Trello can integrate Milanote (a notes taking software) in-frame. Will be even better if Trello has it's own.

Hope i'm not overly asking for the sky :)

Just a Trello enthusiast and hope the best for it :)

[Laurent Tan]

Hi Michael, what happen to the video record and screen record (Loom) functions on Trello cards? I love that feature and it would make the board a great LMS (learning and training development) platform. Please add video functions to trello and it's the way to go!

[Michael Pryor]

Hi @Laurent Tan - we didn’t see enough usage that justified putting it in app (vs command-shift-L if you have loom installed).  If you use Loom (install the Loom software) you shouldn’t really see much of a difference.