Gould Standard’s App Spotlight

Written by Tammy Tan

Imagine a world without emails – any smartphone user would agree that this seems impossible. How could we possibly exist without checking our inboxes every 5 minutes? We’ve worked so hard to compartmentalize our lives into carefully labeled folders and archives, that once you take away our perpetually flooded inboxes, we’re left with…chaos! And yet, according to Asana, the humble email is no longer able to keep its stride alongside the speed, complexity, and scope of our modern world.

Founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and ex-engineer Justin Rosenstein, Asana is a web and mobile application that essentially reimagines collaboration and team communication from the ground up by enabling all teams to manage projects online without the use of email (regardless of whether it is on the web, iOS, or Android).

Here’s how it works: each team is given a workspace, which contains projects and specific tasks. Users can then follow specific projects and tasks by adding notes, comments, attachments, and tags, and are notified about any updates in their inboxes.

In an age of information overload, Asana has excelled in simplicity.

The act of creating and tracking tasks is now easy and intuitive. The three-column view keeps everything on the same screen, making for an easy user interface and an efficient workflow. It also links seamlessly with Slack, an intra-business communication medium, iCal and Google Calendar, living up to its motto of effortless integration.

Asana’s ability to combine tasks and conversations that were previously scattered across email threads into one neat package has already resonated with companies such as Lyft, Foursquare, Airbnb, Baggu, and Mission Bicycle.

Yet, as you might notice, many Asana users are young organizations born from the startup culture, and so the Asana revolution may not mesh well with older organizations that run more complex projects. As for me, I’m excited to see how far the startup I’m working with can go #withAsana.