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Task Management Tools

Task management tools I can remember using over the years as a designer, developer, or product manager; roughly in order; often overlapping; whether voluntarily or otherwise:

  • Teux Deux (and probably other simple tools scattered throughout)
  • Bugzilla
  • Goes to Work
  • Email / Gchat / Slack / text files / bubblegum
  • Jira (for like, one client)
  • GitHub
  • Trello
  • Microsoft’s clone of Trello (Projects?)
  • OneNote
  • Azure DevOps
  • CrBug (Chromium bug tracker)
  • Microsoft To Do
  • Analog
  • Paper notebooks
  • Shortcut, for like, a week
  • Github again
  • Notion

Nothing is perfect. For me the important bits are:

  • The tool is as close as possible to where the work actually happens (tricky when in multiple places)
  • The tool is flexible to organizational needs, but critically enables the team to hide or ignore complexity where it is irrelevant
  • The tool reliably enables async status-sharing, vs serving as a burden / TPS report hellscape
  • I can track the nitty gritty PM details (which are usually too granular for broad consumption) in a way that makes sense to my brain

What’s your list like?