Tasks
A new way of capturing next steps and to-do's within projects. With ‘at-a-glance’ functionality, it allows users to quickly communicate what needs to be done, reducing the need for complex checklists and forms. Understanding that not every job follows the same steps, and may only last for several hours, our tool accommodates the inherent variability of work across company sizes and industry.
Platform
Web / Mobile
Role
Product Designer /
Researcher
Delivery Time
Two Cycles, 6 Weeks Total
The previous solution wasn't living up to expectations…
Prior to building Tasks, we launched our Checklists feature back in 2020-2021 with the goal of enabling our customers to better capture next steps within their projects. Over the evolution of that feature and following additional releases like Templates and Questions, we started to capture a somewhat unexpected segment of the market: customers who needed repeatable lists that served as a tool for Quality Assurance and accountability, especially across franchises.
Over time, we started to receive feedback that Checklists were becoming too clunky and slow when it came to capturing ad-hoc project details and next steps, but customers didn't have a better alternative so they made-do, either using Checklists or the good ol' notepad.
So to get a clearer picture, I pinpointed a couple key use cases.
This is a real example of Checklists made by users on Pro plans (left) and those made by Premium plans (right).
According to the research, Pro plan participants are more inclined to use Checklists for their assorted tasks and punch-lists, leading to unnecessary complexity for lists created individually and often. In contrast, Premium plan users are more likely to take advantage of Templates to build a form ready to be utilized multiple times across various projects.
We decided to specifically target the Pro user workflow in an effort to minimize the lift required for simple tasks.
And worked to identify and explore core attributes we were looking for.
The earliest exploration of a solution incorporated future nice-to-haves like attachments and assignments. To accommodate this extra functionality, the initial thinking was to either or embed that information within one of our existing navigation tabs. Ultimately, we decided to move forward with an ultra-simplified version for an MVP.
The most informative stage of the final design was the Figma/Whimsical hybrid, which helped me to visualize the interactions before moving into high-fidelity prototypes.
Some specific learnings from this stage:
• It wasn't fully known whether putting Tasks in the sidebar on web would give us enough real estate for real utility moving forward, but this relatively-to-scale mockup gave the team confidence to move forward with that plan.
• On mobile, the plan was always to surface Tasks at the highest level possible within the swipe-up modal, but it was an experiment to put interactive items there where the other tabs were simply lists. Again, this gave us the confidence to move forward.
Fun fact
I was sitting at the vet while I sketched out the earliest version of what would eventually become Tasks.
Tasks on mobile - MVP
Based on the above exploration and through working with stakeholders and the development team, below is the first iteration of Project Tasks.
Kudos to our developers for helping get this across the finish line!
Create new tasks from the Project Screen
Following the input we received about Checklists, we focused on enabling fast and easy task creation that doesn't require navigating multiple screens or tabs.
We placed Tasks right at the forefront, making them the initial element a user encounters upon opening a project. This placement not only ensures immediate access but also keeps users in the context of the project for quick reference.
Create new tasks directly from a photo
This was an important requirement for us with an MVP, enabling users to create tasks contextually and associating next steps with a particular asset.
Tasks on web - MVP
Consistent with mobile, keeping Tasks displayed prominently was a top priority.
After discussing different placement options, keeping it pinned to the right sidebar along with the other 'widgets' felt like the best bet. The implication being, regardless of which tab a user was on, they'd still have easy access to the Tasks for CRUD.
The immediate impact - 33% conversion
After three weeks of development, we launched our MVP of Tasks on both mobile and web applications.
• Within the first week, a total of ~3,600 tasks had been created by ~1,200 unique companies.
• Unexpectedly (but in a good way!), Tasks had a trial-conversion rate of 33%, almost on par with Checklists and on par with the core value prop of the company.
• At the date of this writing, over 30,000 tasks have been created.
Interesting tidbit
Product Marketing was running behind and Tasks launched with zero onboarding, indicating users were discovering Tasks organically or via directly interacting with our S3 departments. On the flip side, we also discovered during user interviews users didn't know they could create new tasks from photos.
Tasks V2: Incorporating feedback and enhancements
Following the MVP launch, we collected feedback from both internal and external stakeholders. These insights led to another cycle of refinements, focusing on usability enhancements and the introduction two new features: a show/hide completed tasks toggle and the ability to rearrange tasks. Other enhancements included:
• Creating new tasks on enter
• Improved hover states to aid with rearranging
• Making the input directly editable without forcing users to click a pencil icon
• Deleting tasks if they don't contain text
• Creating tasks chronologically from the bottom vs. the top
Stay turned for more details…
Learnings: Turning feature overhead into opportunity
This is probably one of my favorite projects.
Not because it's an enormously complex feature. It's not, and there are many other capable to-do list apps out there. But because we were able to identify a specific target audience and build something quickly that met their needs while providing even more value to our business.
It's also a great lesson - sometimes less is more. Over the years, the team was able to pack a ton of functionality in Checklists which ultimately proved to be less than ideal for a large segment of users who just wanted to get in, get something done or jot something down, and get out.
A few specific areas of improvement that I uncovered during this process:
• Feedback and usability validation is best gathered sooner rather than later.
• Internal testing is totally valid for initial A/B testing, and other departments love seeing what Product is up to.
