tre llo dojo

Trello DojoWield Trello to slay waste and effortlessly manage any project orprocess

Daniel RootThis book is for sale at http://leanpub.com/trellodojo

This version was published on 2014-05-30

This is a Leanpub book. Leanpub empowers authors and publishers with the Lean Publishing process. LeanPublishing is the act of publishing an in-progress ebook using lightweight tools and many iterations to getreader feedback, pivot until you have the right book and build traction once you do.

2013 - 2014 Daniel Root

Tweet This Book!Please help Daniel Root by spreading the word about this book on Twitter!The suggested tweet for this book is:I just entered Trello Dojo! http://leanpub.com/trellodojoThe suggested hashtag for this book is #trellodojo.Find out what other people are saying about the book by clicking on this link to search for this hashtag onTwitter:https://twitter.com/search?q=#trellodojo

Contents

About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Word to the Pirates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Say Hello to Trello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Nothing New Under the Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Almost Anything Could Use a Good List or Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3A Lot of Value for Not a Lot of Effort (or Money!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Define Your Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Zero to Trello in 60 Seconds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Signing up: 0-10 Seconds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5First board: 11-12 Seconds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5First card: 13-20 Seconds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5First list: 20-25 Seconds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Second Board: 25-45 Seconds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Checklists: 45-50 Seconds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Labels: 50-60 Seconds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Floor It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Trello in Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7More About Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7About the Sidebar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7More About Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8More About Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Trello Gold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Business Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Become a Trello Ninja . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Be Aware of your Surroundings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Know your Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Focus on Your Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Wield Your Weapons Wisely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Dont Spare Your Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

CONTENTS

Less is More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Take out the Trash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Reach for the Clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Slash Your Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Improve Your Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Wait, Wait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Quit Pushing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Time is Relative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Due Dates Arent For Everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Email into Trello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Put up a Good Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16If This, Then Trello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Go Trellomatic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Pay Some Attention to the Man Behind The Curtain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Hire a Nerd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Take it to The Big Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Its Trellos all the Way Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Using Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Visualizing Trello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Calendar View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Trello Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Ganttify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Dojo Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

The Templates Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Trello In The Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Solo Trello:Personal Task List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Trello Weekly: A 7 Day Planner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Debt-free Trello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Trello Domestico: Family Status Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Jell-O Trello: Keep a Grocery List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Recipe Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Gobbleo Trello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Trellomotive: A Car Maintenance Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Trello Nio - Name Your Baby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Trello Acapulco: Vacation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28The Next Big Trello Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Trello Goes To School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Duo Trello: A Group Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Trello No-Doze: Study Better . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Plan Your School Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30PTA, Meet PTB (Parent Trello Board) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

CONTENTS

Trello In The Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Land a Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Trello Head Hunting: Job Candidate Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Hello Trello: New Employee Onboarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Quatro Trello: Small Team Status Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Trello Dinero: Sales Pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Shifty Trello: Shift Log Checklists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Blogo Trello: Organize a Blog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Trellofy Software Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Scrum with Trello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35One Man Shops and Small Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Focus on Deliverables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37App Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Resource Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Poor Mans Helpdesk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Trello For Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Evaluate Investment Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Apt Trello: Manage Rental Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Buy a house . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Sell your house . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Build a house . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Trello vs Trello: Trello in the Law Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Client Matters Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Legislative Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

A Big Visible Trello Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Pick a Spot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Select a Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Add a Web Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Browse to Something Cool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Roll-your-own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Exit, Trello Dojo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Appendix : All of The Templates in One Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

About This BookTrello Dojo introduces the reader to an amazing online productivity tool, Trello. After introducing you to thesite, this book offers tips on using Trello in real world scenarios both in the office and at home. Finally, itoffers templates that users can copy in seconds to instantly apply Trello in over a dozen scenarios.Trello Dojo is a Leanpub book. This means it may be a little different from other books you may have read.It is a work in progress. By design, this book is updated periodically to accommodate service changes andreader feedback - making it the book you the reader want to read. Unlike your college textbooks, updates arealways free, so you dont have to buy a new one each year. Youll get an email notifying you of new releases,and Ill try to have about one per month. Here are some of the things to look forward to in new releases:

Raspberry Pi Big Screen - Use a cheap $50 computer to run a big visible Trello board in your office. More templates - I would like to have at least 50 useful templates, and am about half way there. More IFTTT and Zapier recipes - Automate everything! Expanded Dojoboard - More ways to visualize boards, as well as quick entry for creating new listsand cards from bullet lists and emails.

Your Tips and Templates - If you have ideas for templates, tips, or suggestions for this book, please leavefeedback at (https://leanpub.com/trellodojo/feedback)

Trello Dojo is not an official publication of Fog Creek Software, or in anyway authorized, supported, orendorsed by them. They do have some brilliant products in addition to Trello, so you should check them out.

Word to the Pirates

Leanpub books are DRM free. This means you can take your book and read it on any device you own withouthard to use copy protections. However, it is copyrighted and should not be distributed to other individuals.Copying to your iPad, home computer, and work computer is fine. Sending a free copy to all of your coworkersisnt cool. The copy police wont storm your door if you do, but an army of very productive ninjas just mightmaroon your ship.

http://leanpub.comhttp://fogcreek.comhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exads7KV-Y0

Say Hello to TrelloAs a professional nerd, occasionally Ill run into a website, utility, or service that has potential to help theday-to-day lives of people not only the IT field, but in about any line of work. Or, perhaps even people inno line of work. Trello is just that sort of service. Their website describes it: In one glance, Trello tells youwhats being worked on, whos working on what, and where something is in a process. Being free to start,easy to use, and constantly updated, giving Trello a try in your next project or process is a no brainer. Youhave almost no risk, and a lot to gain.This book will help you get started, and show you exactly how to apply Trello in common day-to-dayscenarios. If youve never heard of Trello before, this book will tell you why you should check it out, andhelp you get started using it. If youre one of the 1.5 million users already using Trello, you will learn how tomake the most of the service, and perhaps find some ideas for new ways to put it to work for you. After anintroduction to the service and some pro tips, well dive into real-world examples of boards that you can usetoday. As an added bonus, youll be able to copy board templates developed for this book and use them onyour own in a matter of seconds.

Nothing New Under the Sun

Kanban with Post-It Notes

Trello has its roots in a system of project man-agement called Kanban, first developed by Toyotain the 1940s. Kanban literally means card board,and originally was implemented with cards placedin slots on a board hung on a Toyota factory wall.Each card represented a particular task to be doneand went in rows representing the overall process.Employees would move cards to their row, and asthey did the status of the assembly line would bereflected in the board. An empty slot meant somebody else had work to do to fill the slot with a new card.With the simple action of moving paper on a board, a whole car factory was run and management could seethe current status of the line at any given moment. Since then, the system has developed into a number ofsimilar and related techniques, especially used by software and hardware development teams. At its simplest,Kanban is implemented today using a whiteboard with Post-It notes. Rows are drawn on the board, and aPost It scribbled with some task moves from row to row as work gets done. Then there are a variety of sitesand systems for implementing Kanban and its variants electronically. If you look at the monitors hanging inyour favorite fast-food establishment, you may even recognize your gut bomb order moving through rows asit progresses toward your hands.Believe it or not, there are people who geek out on this stuff way more than me, but heres the takeaway:Kanban is relatively old, Japanese, and has run everything from car factories to fast food joints. Trello takesthis concept and makes it something anybody can use for just about any project or process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban

Say Hello to Trello 3

Almost Anything Could Use a Good List or Three

It turns out there are tons of processes that could benefit from a good Kanban-like board.When you first createa board in Trello, it has three lists: ToDo, Doing, Done. To each list, you add cards that represent tasks. As thetask progresses, you move it to a different list. So, a default board is great for honey-do-lists, planning parties,or just keeping up with your work day or some project. But Trello also lets you rename and add new liststo a board. For example, a Sales Pipeline board may have lists like Lead, Introduction, Proposal, Negotiation,Deal. You would add new prospects to the Lead list, then as they progress, move them through the lists. Thisis handy enough for one person, but when you involve more than one, its almost a necessity. Trello also letsyou join people to cards, so that people can see whats being worked on, and whos working on what.Cards may also be prioritized by simply moving them up and down in the lists. Things on top are moreimportant than things on the bottom. You may also color-code cards to communicate some status: greencards can mean good, red cards can mean bad. You may also add comments, links, checklists, and picturesto cards to communicate even more. And here is the secret sauce: changes one user makes in a Trello boardare instantly reflected in any other users browsers. So, a broker in Brazil can move a card to Deal, and atrucker in Texas can see it move on his iPad.

A Lot of Value for Not a Lot of Effort (or Money!)

In the end, what makes Trello appealing is that you get a lot of value, for not much effort. Its dead simple tocreate and move cards. And just like those Toyota employees in the 40s, that simple action provides tons ofbenefit: You can communicate, prioritize, and stay focused as a free side-effect of just moving some cards ona board. But there are also some less-obvious side effects where Trello can begin to help improve a process.Lets revisit that Sales Pipeline. Say there are only a few cards left in the Lead list. That tells you ormanagement something important: you need more leads. Watching lists over time, you most likely will noticethat not every lead goes all the way through to the Deal list. By finding where cards stop, you see wherethere is room for improvement. If they stop in Negotiation, maybe pricing needs to be re-evaluated, but ifthey stick in Introduction, it may be time to polish the sales pitch. Again, just by moving cards in a board, youget valuable insight into your sales process that, if handled well, can result in more closed deals. Hopefully,the concept is settling in: just by moving a few cards around in this totally free site, you can build a prettyuseful tool, and develop deep insight into a process.

Define Your Terms

If you wish to converse with me, define your terms Voltaire

To appease the 18th century French Philosophers, and to make this guide a little easier to understand, hereare some words well be throwing around:

Board In Trello, you make boards, which are just a web page where you manage a particular processor project.

Say Hello to Trello 4

List Boards in Trello are made up of lanes called lists. Usually, each lane represents a stage in someprocess.

Card Lists contain multiple items called cards. Cards represent an item in a process, individual task,or whatever else you want them to represent.

Archive - Trello steers you toward not deleting anything. Instead, you archive cards or lists. They thendisappear, but you can bring them back if you need.

Sidebar - The menu to the far right of a board where all the settings and various actions are. Member - A person who can see or modify a board. Members profile photos show up in the boardsidebar.

Organization Boards may be associated with an company or other group entity, or just with yourself.Organizations are a way to group boards and members. For example, you may have an organizationfor your company, school, or PTA.

Zero to Trello in 60 SecondsEnough talk about what Trello is. Hopefully by now your curiosity is piqued enough to go take it for a spin.Honestly, the Trello team has made the site so intuitive you can probably get by just going to the site andplaying for a bit. If you need a little more motivation, here is step-by-step how to get started with your firstboard. Yes, I tested, and it can be done in 60 seconds. If you have already used Trello, you may want to skipthis chapter.

Signing up: 0-10 Seconds

Signing up for Trello is super easy: Just go to http://trello.com and click the big green Sign Up - Its Freebutton. If you have a Google account, then click Sign up with Google Account. Otherwise, enter your name,email, and password. .

First board: 11-12 Seconds

When you register, your first board gets added for you! Click Welcome Board. This board has cards tellingyou how to get started with Trello.

First card: 13-20 Seconds

Click Add a Card on any of the lists in the welcome board. Type in a card title, and click Add.Congratulations- your first card. You should have a few seconds left. Click the card and look around ateverything you can do with it! Enter a description and comment.

First list: 20-25 Seconds

Click Add a List to the right. Type in the list name and click Save. For kicks, drag the card you created toyour new list. Youve got the basics. Now lets put the petal to the metal and create a board.

Second Board: 25-45 Seconds

In the top right, click the + button and then New Board. Enter a name for your board and click Create.Add a card or two, and a list or two.

Zero to Trello in 60 Seconds 6

Checklists: 45-50 Seconds

Open a card and click Add Checklist. Enter a name and click Add. Next, enter an item and click Add.Finally, check the box next to an item.

Labels: 50-60 Seconds

Click Edit Labels and pick your favorite color. Notice the card gets the color code added to it. Now click EditLabels again and then Change Label Titles. Enter some descriptions for the labels.

Floor It

So, in 60 seconds youve done a lot and should be up to speed on the basics. Go check out the Welcome Boardcards again and play around!

Trello in DepthYouve added some cards, lists, and boards, and now its time to get a little deeper into what you can do withTrello. At this point, if you are new to Trello, it may be a good idea to go explore a bit and read the TrelloGuide, which is available by clicking your name and then Help from the Profile Menu on any Trello page.The Trello team has done an excellent job documenting their service, and this book is not intended to replacethat guide. That said, lets explore some of the features in-depth to learn our way around a little bit more!

More About Boards

Boards are where you spend most of your time in Trello. They organize lists and cards, and allow you tosearch and share cards.The sidebar menu contains options for customizing your boards behavior, look and feel, and security. Totoggle it, you simply click Show sidebar.

About the Sidebar

The Filter menu item lets you filter cards by label, due date, or member. You can, for example, show onlymy blue cards by using the filter menu.Archived Items shows you items that have been removed from the board. You may also restore archiveditems from here.Stickers lets you put little stickers on cards that you can use as visual indications of information on thecard. For example, a thumbs-up can show somebody they did a good job, or the clock can show that its atime-sensitive matter. Gold users can unlock additional stickers.Trello has also introduced several Power Ups which add functionality to boards when switched on.

Calendars - adds a button that allows you to view cards on a calendar by due date. This is a terrificway to visualize time-sensitive tasks or plan events.

Card Aging - allows you to visualize cards that havent changed in a while - either by fading them out,or yellowing like an old pirate map.

Voting - once a core feature, voting has been made a power up so that it can be turned off and on perboard.

The Settings menu contains basic options for your board. The name, description can be changed here. Youmay also change the organization a board belongs to, and permissions governing who can see, edit, andadminister the board. Well discuss permissions in depth a bit later.Labels allows you to edit the color-coded labels you put on cards. For example, in one board, red may meanBad, while in another it may mean Needs Attention. You can simply set the label as you see fit for yourboard.

Trello in Depth 8

Subscribe allows you to get email notifications as important things happen on your board.Copy board allows you to duplicate boards. This turns out to be extremely handy. By using this feature, youcan have template boards for common projects or processes and re-use them over and over. In fact, well dojust that in the second half of this book.Share, Print, and Export is fairly self-explanatory: this gives you the address to your board, as well as theability to print it or export the data to JSON for import into other systems.Finally, Close Board archives the entire board. It wont be displayed on your Trello home page, but likearchived cards, you can always re-open closed boards. Leave Board removes you from all cards, but leavesthe board available for other people to use.Beneath the menu is a recent activities stream showing all recent activity on the board.

More About Cards

I mentioned in the introduction that Kanban cards are often implemented using Post-it notes on a whiteboard.That approach definitely wins for ease-of-use, but think of Trello cards as Post-it notes on steroids. Take alook at the side of a card to discover just what all you can do with one.You can label cards with color-coded labels that mean something specific to your board. For example, ona sales pipeline board, you may have color codes for the likelihood of actually landing a gig. In a softwareproject, you may decide Red means bug and Blue means a card is waiting on somebody. In addition, you canadd stickers or cover pictures to cards to visually enhance them.Trello cards may be assigned to people. Well discuss this more in the sharing section.Upload attachments to a card. This is especially handy for adding screenshots of an error, or screen mockupsto a card. To upload an attachment, just click Upload or if you use Chrome, drag a file to the Upload button.Subscribe to get notified when a card changes. Trello is smart enough to not notify you when youre the onemaking a change to a card.Vote cards up and down. If you have several people on a board, this can help you prioritize items. People canvote cards up, and the total number of votes is displayed on the card. Following a recent update, this may beenabled or disabled for a board in the Power Ups menu.Add a checklist to a card. Some tasks can benefit from a simple checklist, and these are a great way of keepingup with tasks-within-a-task.Set a due date. As you approach the date, it will turn yellow. On the date, it will turn red. If youve turned onthe Calendar view power-up, then this due date can also be shown in a calendar.Copy cards to duplicate them. This is handy if you find yourself always creating the same type of card.Archivemoves cards off the board, but you can get them back by clickingArchived Items in the board menu.

More About Lists

Lists are how cards are organized in Trello. Typically each list represents a stage in some process. Each listhas a few options that can be handy.

Trello in Depth 9

Add Card adds a new card to the list Copy Listmakes a duplicate copy of a list. Handy if you have a standardtemplate of a list you want to duplicateMove Listmoves a list to another board Subscribe notifies you whenchanges are made to cards in a list Move All Cards moves all cards to another list. Archive All Cards putsall cards in the list in the archive. You can get them back by clicking Archived Items in the board menu.Archive List puts the entire list in the archive.

Organizations

Organizations let you group related boards and share permissions. Example organizations are AcmeWidgets,Inc. and Harper Valley PTA. You may create a sales pipeline board in your Acme Widgets, Inc Organization,and a PTA Meeting Agenda for your Harper Valley organization. In addition to boards, each organization hasmembers. You can invite members to an organization and then as boards are created, they may be privateinvite only, shared with all members, or public to users outside the organization.Each organization has a landing page, typically http://trello.com/yourorgname that conveniently lists allboards and members of the organization. This is great if you have lots of boards in your organization, butwant to point users to one place to see them.Paid Trello plans add some additional features for organizations. Paid plans allow admins to access andmanageprivate boards, better control members and permissions, as well as a few other features.

Search

When it comes to organizing content, a good search covers a multitude of sins, and Trello has a terrific search.You may start out with the best of intentions, building a system to neatly organize some project. However,inevitably as things grow and time wears on, even the most well-intentioned organization scheme can makeit difficult to find what you are looking for. By knowing a few search tricks, you can quickly find only thecards that are relevant to you.You may search across all boards using the search box in the top left, or filter the current board using Filterin the board menu on the right. In either place you may enter keywords to search by, or one of the following:

@username to search for cards assigned to a user. For example @joe will show only Joes cards. #label to search for cards with a certain label. For example @joe #red shows all Joes cards labeled red. is:open or is:archived to search open or archived cards. Continuing with our example, @joe #redis:archived returns Joes archived cards with a red label.

Its easy to overlook such a simple feature, but search really is a powerful tool. For example, you imagineyoure a project manager who wants to see any tasks that are waiting: a simple search for #waiting is:openwill present you with that in seconds (assuming people label their cards with a waiting label, of course).

Trello in Depth 10

Sharing

If it were just a tool for handling your own lists, Trello would be cool enough. But one of the things thatreally makes Trello unique is real-time collaboration. If more than one person have a board open, changesone person makes are instan visible to the other people. There are three basic levels of visibility:Private boards only visible to the person who created it, and people that person invites to view or edit theboard. Organization visible boards are viewable to all members of the organization. However, only peoplethat are invited can edit the board. Public boards are viewable by any internet user. However, only peoplethat are invited can edit the board.Additional settings found under board settings menu govern who can comment and invite others.

Notifications

Notifications allow you to get notified of various events within your boards. You are notified with a red bellicon in the top right when you are added to a card, a card you are on is modified, somebody mentions youin a comment, or when a card you are on has a due date and becomes due. You may also subscribe to boardsand cards to get notified about any change within them. Clicking the notification bell will give you a list ofthe notifications you have not read yet. Clicking a notification will jump you to the card or itemNotifications can also be emailed to you either immediately or via an occasional summary. Its important tonote that any notifications you read will not be emailed. At first, this can be a little confusing: you may notget an email notification when you expect. But its also smart feature in that it cuts down email clutter andonly notifies you of things that you arent already aware of.

Trello Gold

One problem Trello had early on was users wanting to pay for the service. Being free, users worried that theservice wouldnt stick around in the long run. It would stink to invest time and energy into keeping dozensof boards, only to have the company fold. Trello also has a $5 per month (or $45 per year) Gold plan thatadds stickers, backgrounds, larger attachments, as well as bragging rights.

Business Class

Trello is free, and the creators have stated that everything free today will remain free. So theres no need toworry that a board you create today will cost you tomorrow. However, organizations may choose to upgradeto business class for $50 a month, or $500 for a yearly plan.This brings you extra control over permissions and sharing, as well as the ability to download all of yourboards at once. These features are well suited to organizations that need to manage who can see and editboard content with a little more flexibility than the free tier allows.

Become a Trello NinjaOnce youve mastered the basics of adding boards, lists, and cards, there are tons of tricks that, once mastered,will make your Trello boards really sing. Going from Zero to Trello took only 60 seconds. Mastering the toolmay take a bit longer, but youd be surprised how quickly you can go from novice to Trello Ninja.

Be Aware of your Surroundings

Its common knowledge among anybody who has watched any martial arts movie that step one in becominga ninja is to be aware of your surroundings. The Trello team- and Fog Creek as a whole- has a knack forattention to detail and user experience. If you use Trello for a while, youll constantly find little gems thatmake working with the service that much easier. Your first step in becoming a Trello Ninja is to visit theResources Board by going to http://trello.com/fogcreek and clicking Resources Board. The Tips list will giveyou some good pointers, such as:

Try the Keyboard Shortcuts Scroll horizontally by clicking-and-dragging on the board background. If you use Google Chrome, drag files to the Upload button on a card for super-simple file uploads. Use shortcuts when typing a card title: #LabelName to add a label to a card, and @username to assignit to a user.

One Shortcut To Rule Them All? is the only shortcut you need to remember. Press that while on a board to get a cheatsheet forall other shortcuts. Go to it enough and youll learn the others in no time.

In addition, its a good idea to watch the Trello Development board. This will keep you up to date on newfeatures which come quite often, and bugs and bug fixes. You can get to it from the little i icon in the upperleft of any Trello page. By watching those two boards, you will know not only power-user tips that you canuse today, but also what new cool features are coming soon. You are now aware of your Trello surroundings,grasshopper. Next, you will hone your skills and become a black belt Trello Ninja.

Know your Enemy

Your enemy in this case is waste. Every day, we waste time, effort, money, and resources. It is inescapable,but Trello can help you reduce waste in a project or process. The next step is to build boards that reflect theproject or process you are trying to build. This is easy in the sense that you can add lists and labels and changethem with next to no effort. However, it also can be challenging, because it is often difficult to know exactlywhat a process should look like. Building a board is simple. Knowing what to build is harder. Ultimately, this

Become a Trello Ninja 12

is a matter of experience and really understanding the process you are designing. That said there are a fewweapons that can be good to have in your Trello Ninja arsenal. The sections below detail ways you can slaywaste and get the most out of Trello.

Focus on Your Goals

While the purpose of many cards is to represent some task or event, this need not always be the case. Havingcards that represent goals for your project, team, or process can be a great motivator. A personal task list maybenefit from a few high-level goal cards such as Read 12 books before summer or Actually take a vacationthis year. Similarly, a sales funnel may have cards where team members can discuss lead sources or even aleaderboard for top sales person.

Wield Your Weapons Wisely

Another great use for cards beyond simple tasks is instruction cards. I often add instruction cards to eachlist, and maybe even an about list with instructions on it. This helps newcomers understand a list, as youllnotice if you spend some time on the Welcome Board. All of the templates included in this book also use suchcards. But there is another more subtle benefit to adding these cards. By doing so, you are forced to thinkthrough the process itself. You may start adding these cards and realize you have an extra step, or could do aparticular thing easier. If so, go ahead and rework the board. Which leads us to:

Dont Spare Your Change

Dont be afraid to change a board. Add and archive lists, rename them, and generally be aggressive inreworking things in ways that make sense. A key concept in Kanban is Kaizen or continuous improvement.There are formal approaches to this concept, but key to them all is willingness to measure success and changeas needed. The Trello team themselves adopt this practice not only does the software change and improveweekly; they have occasionally changed how the Resource and Development boards are organized as theproduct grows.

Less is More

Its tempting to build a dozen lists and use all the labels and use every feature on every card. Dont. Your goalis to do the least amount of effort that works, but no less. If you find an unused list or card, archive it! If itmakes sense on your board, consider enabling the Card Aging PowerUp. This will fade cards that haventchanged in a while, helping you focus on the things that actually matter.Similarly, if you find a list has too many cards in it, it may be time to purge it. In his blog post celebrating500,000 users, Joel states that Trello is intentionally designed to be uncomfortable once a list contains toomanycards. As he describes it, each card represents inventory. Inventory that is wasting time, effort, and quite

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2012/07/09.html


possibly money. If this happens, get rid of inventory. Focus on paring down the list, either by re-evaluatingpriorities and deleting cards, or by shifting resources to the problem list. In the software world, this may meandevelopers stop working on features to address critical bugs.If youre like me, your Trello account will fill up with test boards and boards that seemed like a good ideaat one point, but rarely get used. Periodically close any boards that dont bring you value. It may even be agood idea to set up a recurring reminder to clean up occasionally. In larger organizations, consider assigningperson(s) the task of making sure only boards of value are kept open.Trello is designed to make this sort of aggressive cleanup easy. Archived lists and cards can easily be un-archived, and closed boards easily re-opened. You really have very little to lose by archiving anything that isnot of value to you, and will end up with a more usable Trello experience.

Take out the Trash

Deleting lots of cards one at a time can be time consuming if you go to each card and click Menu -> Archive.Heres how to quickly delete lots of cards from a list. Create a list called Trash and move the cards over toit. Then, archive all cards in the list (List Menu -> Archive All Cards in this List). Alternatively, this is anarea where remembering a keyboard shortcut can save you some time- just use the mouse or arrow keys tohighlight the card and press c to archive the card.

Reach for the Clouds

Trello integrates with cloud-based storage providers Dropbox and Google Drive. These are handy tools intheir own right. Using these tools to attach files to cards is fast, and means that if you change a file, the cardscopy is always up-to-date.

Slash Your Links

When sharing a board, occasionally youll want to let uses have a memorable link that they can type in theirbrowser. Unfortunately, Trellos links include identifiers that can be rather cryptic. To combat this, simply usea URL shortening service, such as TinyUrl. You can even specify a custom link. So for example:https://trello.com/board/template-sales-pipeline/4feb87b674d053790206ffa1Becomes:http://tinyurl.com/TrelloSalesEven in emails or web pages (where, presumably users wont have to type in the url), including a friendlyURL can help users remember your board later.

Improve Your Outlook

This reader-submitted tip is great for those who live by Microsoft Outlook. Add Trello right to your OutlookShortcut section, so that its right at your fingertips. To do this:


In Outlook, click Shortcuts In your browser, browse to Trello.com and then to your favorite board Click-and-hold the Trello icon in the address bar and drag it to the word Shortcuts group in Outlook.

This last step took a few minutes to figure out for me - the trick it that youmust drag the link to the shortcutsgroup heading. Anywhere else in Outlook will not work.

Wait, Wait

The default Trello board has three lists To Do, Doing, Done. Adding a Waiting list or label to this or manyother boards can be handy for many processes. Tasks that are Waiting cant be completed until some otheritem is done. This serves two somewhat related purposes. First, it makes it easier to see what work is beingheld up and why. Periodically, this work can be revisited and dealt with. Second, it separates the tasks fromthose that can be done immediately. Because it is clear the task will be picked back up later, users can focuson more pressing items.To implement this, simply add a Waiting list, or edit the labels for the board to make one called Waiting. Ifa card cant be worked on for some reason, then drag it to Waiting or flag it and add a note explaining why.Now, periodically review all Waiting cards and do whats needed to unstick them. Several of the templatesin the next chapters have an example of this in action.

Quit Pushing

There are two basic approaches to process management. The method most people are familiar with is push,in which tasks are assigned to people typically a manager assigns tasks to an employee. Trello can do thisjust fine, but arguably there is a better way. Pull systems allow users to pull cards to work on. You may bethinking this is a good way to never get any work done, and in some environments maybe so. But it can beway more efficient. Imagine a scenario where a manager is responsible for assigning tasks to 5 employees.Often, she will struggle just to keep up with the pace and make sure everybodys plate is full, and it takes timeto decide what task goes to which person, keep up with schedules, and generally keep things running. Whatif employees just drew cards from the top of a list instead? The managers job then becomes making sure thatthe list is prioritized, that everybody is contributing to the team, and that people have what they need to dotheir work.The examples above center on task management, but can apply to other processes as well. In Toyotas Kanbansystem, the sale of a car is ultimately what triggers more cars to be produced. Only set amounts of vehiclesare allowed to be in inventory, since producing too many of a given type can result in wasted resources.Done well, pull systems are self-leveling. For example, in a development project, if a Testing list starts toget long, employees may pull from it instead of new features to balance out the board. Once balanced,they resume working on other tasks. Rules can even be established that enforce this self-leveling. Considerimplementing one or more of the following rules in a team to try an efficient pull system:

If you need something to work on assign yourself a task from the ToDo list.


No more than 10 items can exist in the Testing list. Once ten items exist, developers should finish theircurrent task, but pull their next task from the Testing list.

If a task gets flagged red, it moves to the top of the list and must be handled first. Every week, we meet for 30 minutes to prioritize the Feature Requests list.

Trello cannot enforce these rules for you, but by working out a few simple guidelines, teams can adapt to apull system and become more efficient. The software development template in the second half of this bookuses a pull strategy.

Time is Relative

Trello offers a Calendar View power-up (Menu -> Power Ups -> Calendar View) that lets you view anycards with due dates on a calendar. This can be extremely useful way to visualize a board with lots of timesensitive cards. If the built in calendar is too limited, its worth checking out Calendar for Trello. In additionto showing you a calendar view of all of your boards, this service gives you an ICS link for all boards, whichyou can then import into Google Calendar (Other -> Add by URL). This means you can show Trello Boardsnext to other Google Calendars! If you just want to add one or two boards to your Google Calendar, yourebetter off using the iCalendar Link built into Trello.

Due Dates Arent For Everything

We can all agree that it is important to get things done on time. Setting due dates for cards is a good way todo this, and as a plus, you can see due dates on a calendar. However, they may also make you get less donethan if you left them off. My advice: set due dates for the big things, and leave them off for individual tasks.Let me explain. Imagine a Todo list with ten task cards. You meticulously spend 5 minutes assigning each onea due date you think is acceptable. As often or not, the due dates will be wrong. The further out they are, themore likely some unaccounted for variable throws them off. Unless you are particularly disciplined, if youfinish some quicker you may be tempted to wait until the next one comes due to work on it. However, withno due dates, or with one due date for the overall project, you begin to think in terms of effort remaining.In this case, the number of cards in the list become a measure of effort remaining. Instead of thinking I donthave to do X until Monday, you think I have 10 things left on this project thats due Friday.This approach is taken further in project management approaches like Scrum, and we discuss further in thechapter Trellofy Software Development.

Email into Trello

Each Trello Board comes with a special email address that you can use to create new cards in your board.Simply go to Email-to-Board Settings on your board and grab the email address. You may also set where newemails will get placed. This provides a simple way to push new cards into your boards. The subject becomesthe title, the body becomes the description. In addition, attachments are added to the card, and you may use

https://trellocalendar-francois2metz.dotcloud.com


labels with hashtags in the subject (ie #labelname, #labelcolor, #labelnumber). You may also assign membersusing @ in the subject: @userone, @usertwo, etc.Obviously, this can be used in helpdesk type scenarios where users email into a helpdesk board tocreate tickets for employees to process. Have your mail administrator set up an email forward so [email protected] forwards to [email protected]. This way, you donthave to give out the real board email address, and users get a more friendly address.A less obvious use, though, is for cases where you have some application or system that you would liketo integrate with Trello. For example, a sales contact form on your website could easily send to this emailaddress, automating input into your sales funnel. An order form could send emails to this address for anorder fulfillment process. Without needing to worry about APIs and OAuth tokens, developers can easilypush content into Trello using standard email functionality found in most content management systems andprogramming languages already.

Put up a Good Front

Web-based form builders such as JotForm are an excellent way to provide a user friendly interface for youboard. You can choose from thousands of templates or easily create a form from scratch in minutes. Oncecreated, simply edit the notification to send to your Trello boards email address. JotForm gives you a linkto share your form online, as well as several options for embedding the form on your website. Well use thisin the Poor Mans Helpdesk and Sales Pipeline sections in later chapters, but the possibilities are endless.You can use JotForm to take payments, order forms, purchase orders, contact forms, and more, then flow therequests through your Trello process.If you have an existing website, most platforms allow you to fairly easily write forms that send email to aparticular address. If you have a platform like WordPress, SharePoint, or Umbraco, its fairly easy to create aweb-based form that sends an email into Trello to create a card. If youre not sure how to accomplish this, aska web developer to help you - its a fairly simple task that should only take a few hours of development time.

If This, Then Trello

The amazing online automation service If This, Then That can be used in conjunction with the email featureto automate card creation based on other services. For example, new items in a news feed can trigger newcards for review. You may also create a recipe to automatically create cards at a certain interval (every week,month, year, etc), or from text messages and several dozen other triggers. Below are a few recipies for usingthis awesome free service to automate creating cards or respond to actions in your boards.

Send Text Messages to Your Trello Boards

Recipe Linkhttp://jotform.comhttp://ifttt.comhttps://ifttt.com/recipes/141299-send-text-messages-to-a-trello-board-trellodojo


This is great for those times you dont want to load up the app just to jot a quick task down. Once this recipeis set up, simply text to your IFTTT phone number with a hashtag and IFTTT will email your board to createthe card for you. For example, you might set it up so that you can text #grocery Milk to add milk to yourgrocery list.

Create Trello Cards on a Schedule

Recipe LinkWant a card reminding you to do a weekly review every Friday? Have a monthly office task that keeps gettingforgotten? Use the schedule trigger to email to your board daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.

Monitor Real Estate in Your Area to Trellofy your Home Search

Recipe LinkHouse hunting service Trulia has a great hidden feature: It lets you create RSS feeds of any search that youcan then add to a feed reader, or in this case Trello. Simply build the rss feed you want over at the Trulia RSStool, then use the RSS trigger and Email action to send houses that match over to your house hunting Trelloboard. By using a Trello board, you can then take notes, compare favorites, and archive ones that you knowarent for you.

Review Job Leads in Your Area

Recipe LinkSimilar to hunting for a house, looking for a job is something that a Trello board with a little IFTTT glue canreally help streamline. Simply use CareerBuilders RSS generator to generate an RSS feed, then use the recipelink above to email into a job board. This process is explained in depth in the Land a Job section later on.

Get a Phone Notification Whenever Somebody Comments on a Particular Card

Recipe LinkSending cards into Trello using IFTTT is handy, but you can also do the reverse. By creating recipes based onthe emails Trello sends when you have subscribed to something. For example, I have subscribed to the TrelloDojo eBook card found on the Trello Resource board. This way, I know if somebody has a tip or suggestionfor me there, without having to manually check it. To take things a step further, when a item lands in myinbox matching the search from:trello.com commented on the card Trello Dojo ebook, I send a Boxcar pushnotification to my phone so I see it right away. I could just as easily send myself a text message, record it inEvernote, or blink a light.To find more recipes to integrate to Trello using IFTTT.com, simply search for #TrelloDojo

https://ifttt.com/recipes/140377-create-a-trello-card-for-a-weekly-review-every-friday-trellodojohttps://ifttt.com/recipes/141602-create-trello-cards-for-new-trulia-search-results-trellodojohttps://ifttt.com/recipes/152257-send-new-career-builder-jobs-to-my-job-hunting-trello-board-trellodojohttps://ifttt.com/recipes/151128-get-a-push-notification-for-subscribed-trello-cards-trellodojohttps://ifttt.com/recipes/search?q=%23trellodojo&ac=false


Go Trellomatic

For more advanced integrations than what is available via IFTTT.com, Zapier.com provides some veryinteresting ways to glue Trello into your other online services. By filling out a simple wizard in Zapier, youcan post to Twitter when a new card is added to a list. Or, when an email comes to a certain address, youcan create a new card or board. With over 209 different integrations, there are thousands of ways you canautomate your Trello board. Their website currently lists 127 pages of Trello-related automations. Here aresome more ways you could use this service:

When a new Harvest project is created, create a Trello board for it When a new card is added, create an event in Google Calendar When a document is placed in Dropbox, create a card linking to it in Trello If you put a card in a certain list, create a new board for it (See Its Trellos all the Way Down) Create a Trello Card from a text message

Pay Some Attention to the Man Behind The Curtain

It was the day of a big demo. People had never before seen a machine that let you punch a few buttons andget real money from your bank account. One of the first US prototypes of a machine that would someday beat every bank, mall, and convenience store sat in a parking lot in California. It was surrounded by people insuits eager to see the new machine in action, and possibly invest in this new idea. It was having a bad day.A bug rendered it unusable for the demo. Ever the innovator, the company decided to place a tech inside themachine to push out money at the appropriate time. The demonstrator would push a few buttons and the techwould shove a crisp twenty through the slot. It wasnt a good long-term solution, but it got the job done thatday.I heard this story from somebody who worked on the project, and though they may have been prone toembellishment, Im inclined to believe them. True or not, the point is sometimes its just better to find a low-techmanual solution. Yet another way to integrate existing applications with Trello is simply to pay somebodya little bit to add, archive, or move cards. After exploring Zapier and IFTTT this may seem a little low-tech.However, its often easier and cheaper to get somebody to do a fewmenial tasks than it is to build an elaborateautomated process. This may be as simple as assigning work to admin or temp staff. For example, you maypay your college-bound nephew 10$ an hour to create a task card for each row in a spreadsheet. If it takeshim 10 hours, then it costs you 100$ which is likely less than youd pay having a developer write some utilityto do the work.If you dont have any college-bound nephews, there is still hope. Sites like Fiverr.com and AmazonMechanical Turk let you get virtual assistants who can do this sort of work relatively cheaply. If youhave longer running data entry needs, a part-time virtual assistant from companies such as eaHelp.comcan provide staff to do these sorts of tasks.

http://zapier.comhttp://fiverr.comhttps://requester.mturk.com/http://eaHelp.com


The trick with any of these approaches is to be very clear in what you want done. Imagine the spreadsheetexample above, except that you get one spreadsheet every week that needs to be entered. Simply write downthe steps you would like taken with the sheet, something like this:

I will forward you an spreadsheet we get in email from Acme, Inc. For each row in the spreadsheet, do the following: Create a card in the Acme Inc project board in Trello, in the Product Backlog list Use the Title column for the card title. If the spreadsheet rows Requested By field is Jane Doe, flag the Trello card blue If the spreadsheet rows Department field is IT, assign the Trello card to Sue, otherwise assign it toJake

When all rows have been entered, send me an email letting me know

You may find that the process changes and refines over time. Once you get a working people process, youcan consider if its worth the effort and cost of developing something using the Trello API.

Hire a Nerd

IFTTT, Zapier, and paying your nephew are all great ways to work with Trello, but sometimes you need to pullout the big guns. Trello provides an excellent API that can be used to do just about anything you can imaginegetting information in and out of your Trello boards. You can create cards, boards, lists, and organizations.You can assign cards to people, and even have your app notified when cards move, boards are added, and soon. Really, the sky is the limit.A developer will need to be familiar with OAuth and RESTful services, but assuming they are, working withthe Trello API is fairly straight-forward. Libraries are available to help developers work with Trello fromtheir favorite language. Most modern languages, such as Java, .NET, PHP, and JavaScript will work just fineand have examples of interacting with Trello.

Should I use IFTTT, Zapier, Hire Data-Entry staff, or Hirea Developer

Use IFTTT for simple integrations that use the channels that are listed on the IFTTT website Use Zapier for a enterprise level service, or when IFTTT doesnt do what you need Hire a data-entry staff if there are more complex rules about what you want integrated, orIFTTT and Zapier dont do what you need.

Hire a Developer if you have complex rules about how the integration should work, or ifyou need to integrate with systems not supported by the other options. If you already haveIT staff, you might ask them (nicely, with food) to write something for you.

https://trello.com/docs/


Take it to The Big Screen

No systemwill work if nobody uses it. By displaying Trello boards on a large screen in a placewhere everybodycan see it, you communicate the process to the entire team, andmotivate teammembers to update the board(s)frequently. This need not be complicated- an old computer with Trello loaded in the browser and parked in aconvenient place may be plenty. You will find instructions for building just such a board in the chapter titledA Big Visible Trello Board.

Its Trellos all the Way Down

Once youve discovered just how useful Trello can be, youll start thinking of all sorts of uses for it. This mayeven become a problem. I recently sat in a restaurant, waiting for my food, and wishing there was a Trelloboard where I could watch my order status. Once you or your organization has amassed a few dozen boards,though, it may prove difficult to keep up with them all. But therein lays yet another great use for Trello!Simply create a high-level status board, where each card links to another Trello board. For example, you mayhave a status board with lists for each project your company is working on. Each card, in turn, links to a fullTrello board where the day-to-day details of that project are run.That said, dont forget the Less is More rule above. Just because you can have a board for every project,doesnt mean you should! At my company, we sometimes rely on a single card with a checklist in our statusboard, and only create a sub board if the project warrants it.

Using Templates

By setting up a model board, and using the Copy Board feature, you can build templates that can be reusedby yourself and others. This is really a killer feature of Trello. Once youve developed a process that works, ittakes seconds to duplicate it and re-use it elsewhere.

Visualizing TrelloA common question when I introduce Trello to project managers is how do I print a report? Sometimes,I think were addicted to Gantt charts and pretty status reports that rarely reflect reality. But, sometimes itis nice to take a Trello board and render it some other way. Maybe you need a quick chart for an email orpresentation, or want to see whats up for the next month. Thanks to a budding ecosystem being built uparound Trello, these things are all possible

Calendar View

Trello boards can be displayed as calendars. Simply set the due date on a few cards, then enable the CalendarPower-Up (Menu -> Power-Ups -> Calendar). In the top-right, youll see a link for calendar view, which showsyour cards in a nice monthly or weekly calendar. You may also enable iCalendar (View Details -> Enable),which you can subscribe to from most modern calendar apps, including iPhone and Android Phones.To view a board in Google Calendar, grab the iCalendar link (Menu -> Power Ups -> Calendar -> Enable ->View Details -> Enable -> right click iCalendar Feed). Then in Google Calendar, Click Add from URL andpaste in the feed. Your Trello Cards will then appear next to other calendar items. Android phones shouldsync with your accountand show calendars subscribed to in this manner as well.To view a board in iPhone calendar, the easiest method Ive found is to send myself the link in an email.Clicking the link on the iPhone prompts you to subscribe.Unfortunately, you wont be able to write to the Trello board from Google Calendar, iPhone or AndroidCalendar apps. For that, you must use the Trello app.

Trello Printer

Trello Printer does one thing, and does it beautifully. It lets you print 3x5 cards of your cards. This is a greatway to make cards for study or estimation purposes.

Ganttify

Ganttify shows your boards in a friendly Gantt chart that should make MS Project users feel right at home.The service is free and doesnt even require a login - just authorize it to use your Trello account and choosethe board you want to Ganttify. Cards will be shown as tasks, and checklist items as sub-tasks. This wont letyou do deeply nested dependency chains, but for simple projects or people used to this style, it is a nice wayto visualize a board.

http://yobriefca.se/trello-printer/http://www.gantt-chart.com

Visualizing Trello 22

Dojo Board

I am working on Dojo Board, a site to render charts and plain-text versions of Trello boards. I use this tocopy board information into emails, or to just see charts summarized in different ways. A new big screenview is available, which will render you boards suitable for display on a large screen TV. This is describedfurther in the chapter A Big Visible Trello Board.

https://dojoboard.azurewebsites.net

The Templates BeginEach of the following chapters include links to templates that you can use to quickly get started using Trellofor a particular purpose. Using the templates is easy. Simply go to the template board and sign in. Then clickMenu and Copy Board. Fill out the form, and voil! You have a copy of the board that you can use andmodify however you see fit.Each template is designed to be a starting point only. Customize them as you see fit. Also, be sure to gothrough each of the chapters, even if you dont think they apply to you. If youre not a lawyer, you still mayfind some templates that work for your organization in that chapter. If you have suggestions or changes thathave worked in your organization, Id love to hear about them. Simply post to the feedback form for thisbook.

https://leanpub.com/trellodojo/feedback

Trello In The HomeAs the previous chapters have shown, Trello is a versatile tool that can find a fit in all sorts of projects, fromyour honey-do list to meal planning. The templates below will show you several ways you can use the servicein your home.

Solo Trello:Personal Task List

GTD-style Personal Task BoardDavid Allens Getting Things Done is a great reference for those interesting in personal productivity. Heoutlines practical guidelines for organizing and working, without going overboard. My wife will attest that Iam not the worlds best at being organized or getting things done. Despite that, I have used much of GTD tobring some semblance of order to my life.The Personal Task Board template will provide you with a good starting point for a GTD-style personal taskboard. In this template, Ive set up lists for the most common GTD concepts. An Inbox provides a place todrop items as they come in. If you get interrupted on the phone or in person, or an idea pops in your head,simply add stuff here and forget about it. Then, regularly review inbox items and either Do, Delegate, or Deferthem. If you decide to do them next, put them in a Next Actions list. Here, you may choose to have separatelists for different contexts such as work or home. Delegated tasks get moved to Waiting for follow up later.Deferred tasks get moved to Someday/Maybe, to jog your memory later. GTD aficionados will likely havesome modifications to this system, but thats the beauty of Trello: with a few clicks you can make it your owncustom-fit process!

Customizing Your Personal Task Board

Naive Optimist GTD-style Personal Task Board One such custom GTD approach is explained by RyanCarson on the Naive Optimist blog. His approach is similar to the board outlined above, but adds in a BigPicture list and some labels to help identify what broad categories for various tasks.

Trello Weekly: A 7 Day Planner

Weekly Planner TemplateAnother alternative to the GTD-style approach above is a simple weekly planner. This can be a useful way tokeep up with your week and plan for each day. Even though Trello has a calendar view, you may not wantto go to the trouble of assigning due dates to all of your tasks. With this approach, simply move cards to the

https://trello.com/board/template-personal-task-board/4feb807b9cb64bf640ece9a3https://trello.com/b/eIikPeuT/template-personal-task-board-2https://trello.com/b/dWrt1bpL/template-weekly-planner

Trello In The Home 25

appropriate day, and if items slip, move them forward or reschedule. At the end of the week, look over all youaccomplished and plan for the next week!This approach can also be useful for small businesses who work on a weekly schedule and school groups.

Debt-free Trello

Financial Life Plan TemplateTwo of my favorite personal finance books of all time are Financial Peace and Total MoneyMakeover by DaveRamsey. These excellent books show step by step how to take control of your finances, get out of debt, andsave for retirement. I was introduced to them in college and they have had a huge impact on how I view mypersonal finances.This template lays out his seven steps with links to information about each one. By using Trello to keep trackof where you stand, you have an instant big-picture view of your financial goals. Daves plan is simple:

Step 1 - Get a budget and save a $1000 emergency fund. Step 2 - Pay off all debt, except for your house. List them smallest to largest and ATTACK! The templateabove includes a checklist where you can get that gratifying feeling of progress as you check them off.

Step 3 - Save 3-6 months in your emergency fund. Step 4 - Save 15% of your income in tax-advantaged retirement accounts. Step 5 - Save for your kids college Step 6 - Build wealth and give!

At first, even these simple steps can seem impossible, but thousands of people from all walks of life call in toDaves show every day having achieved various milestones in this plan. In practice, you may find yourselfgoing back and forth in them a few times. Dave himself has. But it is possible with hard work and discipline,and maybe a Trello board or two to provide inspiration along the way. You can read more about Dave Ramseyand his financial guidance in various areas of life at http://www.daveramsey.com

Trello Domestico: Family Status Board

Family Status BoardYou may or may not want to go so far as running your family like an agile development team, but a simplestatus board- with one list per family member- can easily keep track of things like chores, sports schedules,reminders, and who is going to be where when. Since there are apps for iPad, iPhone, and Android, you cansee and update the board anywhere. A family meeting list can hold cards for things your family needs todiscuss.

https://trello.com/b/KgQglHGL/template-financial-life-planhttp://www.amazon.com/Dave-Ramsey/e/B000APQ02W/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&linkCode=ur2&qid=

1396577639&sr=8-2-ent&tag=wwwdanielrooc-20http://www.daveramsey.comhttps://trello.com/board/template-family-status-board/51cbba79bc716fbc46002e0chttp://www.ted.com/talks/bruce_feiler_agile_programming_for_your_family.html


One tip offered by parenting experts on how to coax children into doing some task is to offer them a choice.Do you want to mow or walk the dog? often gets a better response than You are going to mow. Keepingin mind the Quit Pushing tip from chapter 4, one idea that may work for older children is a pull list forthings like mowing the lawn, taking out trash, or walking the dog. Children must do a chore, but can pickfrom the pull list which one they would like to do. My children are too young to use a Trello board, and Imnot so naive as to think a pull list will have them magically begging to to chores, but by giving them somechoice in what chores they do when, we let them have a more active role in helping the family.For calendar items, it may be a toss up whether Google Calendar or Trello is a better offering. Certainly,Google Calendar is a nice, free service and has rich features such as repeating events, and events that spanmultiple dates. However, Trello does offer a calendar view (Menu -> Power Ups -> Calendar -> Enable) basedon cards due dates. Having calendar items next to non-calendar items can actually be really useful. Often,you may have things like field trips or tournaments that you need reminders for even when you are unsureof the date. By putting them in your board, you have a reminder, and once you firm up the date, you simplyset the due date in Trello.If the Trello Calendar feature isnt rich enough for you, or if you are already committed to Google Calendar,theres still hope. Copy the ICS link for your board (Menu -> Power Ups -> Calendar -> Click for details ->iCalendar feed), and paste it into Google Calendar (Other -> Add by URL). If you want a calendar feed for allof your boards, the nifty Calendar for Trello service can be used to get a ICS link for all of them. Your Trelloboards dated cards will then appear in Google Calendar alongside your other events.

Jell-O Trello: Keep a Grocery List

Grocery List TemplateTrello can also be put to use at home keeping up with your groceries . Create a board with lists for pantry,fridge, and grocery. As items are needed, add them to the grocery list. As they get bought, move them topantry or fridge. Once they get used up, simply move them back to the grocery list. You can even color codeor tag items by the store. For example, green are things you need from the farmers market, and red meansa trip to CostCo. Im not saying you have to tape a tablet to your fridge (though if you do, youre prettyawesome). This all may sound over the top at first, but if you get a good system going, youll never forget themilk again!

Scan items into Trello

Hack a Laser Scanner To Add to Cards to Your Grocery BoardHaving your Grocery list accessible on a phone, tablet, or desktop means that you almost always have aneasy way to add stuff to your list. If you want to really geek out your grocery list though, Dan SlimmonsYoutube video outlining how to build a laser scanner into your kitchen is just the thing. His solution lets youscan barcoded items as you throw them away, adding them automatically to a Trello board. Ive been on thelookout for a iPhone app that will let you do similar. While there is no shortage of iPhone barcode scanningapps, Ive yet to find one I feel really makes this easier than typing in items.

https://trellocalendar-francois2metz.dotcloud.com/https://trello.com/board/template-grocery-list/51cbb13c94f7d3ff4a0034e1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_MNOOgFDg4


Recipe Board

Template - Recipe Box RichCooks Recipe BoardBoth of my grandmothers had shoeboxes of recipes in various states of organization. You could tell the goodones by the number of grease spots on them. Fog Creek employee and apparent foodie Rich has taken thatconcept to Trello by organizing his on a board. He cleverly groups them as To Test, Mains,Starters,Sides,and Deserts, and uses labels to tag Bulletproof recipes.

Gobbleo Trello

Thanksgiving Meal TemplateI did a Thanksgiving meal last year, and of course had a Trello board to help me plan out my grocery list andprep times, etc. My dressing was a bit doughy (my description: bread wad), but having a board let me plan outwhat items I could do ahead of time and organize recipes and cook times. Ill be using this one next year. Forlarger groups, assigning friends or family members to various cards can help keep up with who-brings-what.

Trellomotive: A Car Maintenance Schedule

Car Maintenance TemplateAs a teenager, I busted my knuckles keeping a 1972 International Harvester Scout II debatably road-worthy.Needless to say, it did not have computer-controlled fuel injection or an ODBCII port, so it was in some wayseasier to work on than todays vehicles. Its more and more rare to be a true shadetree mechanic. That said,its entirely possible to save a ton of money doing some of your own work, and certainly worth keeping upwith your maintenance even if Shady Joes Chop Shop does your work.To use this template, simply grab your cars manual and fill in checklists for each milestone. Whether youdo the work yourself, or have somebody else, check the boxes as you do the work. You can also add cardsfor unscheduled maintenance, oil changes, etc. By keeping up with the info in Trello, you have an excellentreminder of what works been done on your vehicle.

Trello Nio - Name Your Baby

Name your BabyYes, somebody has really used Trello for this already. Simply set up the board with Boy Names and GirlNames lists and add names. Interested parties may vote names up or use labels to veto names the otherperson suggest that just wont do.

https://trello.com/b/G3syYRAk/template-recipe-boxhttps://trello.com/b/s4d4xa6e/richcooks-recipeshttps://trello.com/b/EHhmzMV8/template-thanksgiving-mealhttps://trello.com/b/hsyajmhd/template-car-maintenancehttps://trello.com/board/template-baby-name/51cbc26ccf8bb11b0b002c36


Trello Acapulco: Vacation

Vacation TemplateIm more than a little bad at remembering things for a trip. I forgot the camera battery chargers on myhoneymoon, and honestly, its just luck I remembered to bring the wife. On my annual fishing trip, Ive beenknown to forget a thing or two. Like a fishing rod. The thing is- I usually do remember what it is I need, justnot at the right time. By creating a board with lists for Before you leave and While youre there, you caneasily capture both those little things you think of at the wrong time. For example, Grab a pillow is one thatgoes in my fishing trips Before you leave list, and Get a souvenir for son will be on the While yourethere list.

The Next Big Trello Card

Idea Incubation TemplateIn addition to keeping a personal task list, or various boards for projects, Ive found it helpful to keep a boardjust for tracking and rating ideas for future projects, blog posts, products, services, etc. This is actually how Ilanded on the idea of doing a Trello book. I can use email, SMS, or Trello on my phone, tablet, or laptop to getideas into the Ideas list. Periodically, I re-arrange that list and pull my favorites to the top. These are the onesthat I think are practical and useful. The top five I move to a Top five list. This is based on a productivity tipfromWarren Buffet, who suggests focusing on your top five projects at any given time. This list can change- Imay move a card back to ideas to make room, or to my Stinkers list if, upon further reflection its not as goodor practical as I once thought. Keeping a Stinkers list is useful as even bad ideas can spur creative thinking orhelp steer away from dead ends. Finally, when its time to take action on an idea, I flesh it out with a nextactions checklist, or copy it to another board for tracking progress.

https://trello.com/board/template-vacation/51cbb5eccbbcdce54f002d51https://trello.com/b/fwsNhFfM/template-idea-incubation

Trello Goes To SchoolA high school algebra professor and football coach at my alma matter had in his desk a paddle with the wordsBoard of Education scrawled in Sharpie on it. While Trello boards may work by slightly different meansthan his Board of Education, they can still help bring order to education. Whether you are just starting youreducation career, working on your PhD, or teaching a class 12th grade English, being organized can reduceyour stress and make you more successful. Trello boards can be useful for students, teachers, administrativestaff, and athletics departments.

Duo Trello: A Group Project

Group Project TemplateWhether for school or work, Trello is perfect for managing a group project. Simply set up the board, addmembers, and start assigning tasks. Keeping inmind that a pull systemmay be a good fit try havingmembersassign themselves tasks, with the rule that everybody should have something in the Doing list. How wellthis works depends on the people on the team. Occasionally somebody will not do their fair share, but evenhere Trello may be a motivator. By having everybodys work visible in one place, you may find that yourslacker team member is shamed into putting forth some effort. At the very least, youll know when hes not,and be able to follow up accordingly. The Group Project Board template outlines how you may work one ofthese.

Trello No-Doze: Study Better

Study Notes TemplateIn college, our art history professor tortured us with tests that forced us to commit volumes of artwork,artists, dates, and facts to memory. Each test was comprised of a slide deck of 30 or so slides, pulled fromseveral chapters on some period in history. For each slide we would get a few minutes to write down thetitle, artist, dates, and why the piece was important. Late nights of caffeine, the soft whir of the projector, andcommiserating students comparing notes fill my memories. (Honestly, this was one of the hardest classes, butalso one of the most rewarding- thanks Dr. Bezaire)Had Trello been around at the time, this may have been a really good way to study. Simply use cards asflash cards, and lists for each stage of memorization. In the Study Notes template we have lists named To BeMemorized, Memorizing, Review, and Mastered. Setting cards up is the hardest part: you have to set up theface and back of each card. This can take a some effort to organize, but then again even the process of creatingthe board helps you learn.

https://trello.com/board/template-group-project/500d9c3768e3c80007380d44https://trello.com/board/template-study-notes/500461f8d6323ff703116f65

Trello Goes To School 30

A Trello Study Group

You may also share your board so that fellow students can copy it to use on their own, or to study as a group.Throw the Trello board up on a projector, bring a few cans of Red Bull, and take turns moving a card to theMemorizing column and quizzing one another. Here, the realtime feature of Trello can be handy - just pullthe board up on your phone, tablet, or laptop to move cards and they will instantly move on the projectortoo. There is one caveat, though: Opening a card on your device wont open it in the other browsers. As yourgroup gets comfortable with a card, move it to the Review Me list, do one last review, and then move it tothe Mastered list. The sense of accomplishment as your To Memorize list grows shorter can then be usedto justify taking the rest of the night off.

Plan Your School Year

Unit Planning Board TemplateTrello isnt just for students, though. Teachers and administrative staff can create boards for lesson planning,goal-setting, and collaboration on various projects and groups within the school.

PTA, Meet PTB (Parent Trello Board)

PTA Board TemplateWhat better way to facilitate parents, teachers, and staff communicating activities and information in yourschool than a realtime bulletin board? One board can serve several purposes. By simply adding cards to agoals list, or comments on activities cards, it can provide a way to communicate goals and initiatives forthe year and update parents about various activities in the school. Enabling Calendar View (Menu -> Settings-> Power Ups -> Calendar View) and setting due dates on cards when applicable lets your board double as acalendar that savvy parents can sync to their phone or other calendar software.This can also be an easy way to manage volunteers for various events. Members of the board can simply addthemselves to a card to volunteer. For standing volunteer programs it may make sense to still coordinateschedules and so on by other means, but you can still publish the schedule by attaching it to a card.Alternatively, you may wish to link to http://www.signupgenius.com or a similar servicThis sort of board may even be useful when its time for accreditation. Your Trello boards can also serve as arecord of activities and progress toward various goals. A look at the activity list (Sidebar -> View All Activity)will give you a timeline of updates, comments, and events on your board. While this probably wont sufficeas a full-on accreditation report, it can certainly go a long way to help jog memories when writing one.

https://trello.com/b/juHSzlrK/template-unit-planninghttps://trello.com/b/CenVOEcR/template-pta-board

Trello In The OfficeWeve covered how Trello can be put to use at home and school, but if theres one area thats ripe for improvingproductivity and communication, its the office. Well cover some specific industries, such as software andreal estate in later chapters, but hopefully the templates and tips in this chapter will help make any office ahappier place.

Land a Job

Find a Job Board TemplateBut first things first. If you dont have a job, or arent happy with the one you have, all the office Trello boardsin the world wont help you. Lets use Trello to land you an awesome job.First, copy the board above (Menu -> Copy Board). The board will walk you through the steps of finding,sifting through, applying for jobs, interviewing, and landing the job of your dreams. Or at least, hopefully,one not of your nightmares. Most of the steps are fairly straight forward. You put job leads in the first list.These are jobs you find online, hear about from friends or family, or the old fashioned way: through classifiedads in the paper.Regularly review this list and throw away any duds. Dont be too picky (my first job was cleaning cages ata vets office), but if there are jobs you know wont work because of location, pay, or skillset, go ahead andarchive them. The jobs that have potential, move to Have Potential. These jobs, you should find out as muchas possible about. Get an application for each, if possible, and fill it out. If you learn things about the companyalong the way, or start to form pros and cons for the job, jot notes in the description.Once you apply to a company, move cards to the Applied list. If you talk to specify people, you may wish tojot down names and numbers on the card. If youre like me, you forget names almost instantly, so this can bea good way to review before the big interview.Hopefully, interviews start rolling in. Move cards to the interview list and set the due date to organize them.Remember, you can view your board as a calendar (Menu -> Settings -> Power Ups -> Calendar View), andeven add the board to your iPhone or Android calendar. After your interview (probably not during!), jot noteson the jobs card in Trello. Again, names are good so you can ask for people by name if you need to follow upor go in for a second interview.If you find yourself in the position of choosing between multiple offers, hopefully the notes you took alongthe way will help you prioritize. Make a decision and congratulations on the new gig!

Trello Head Hunting: Job Candidate Tracking

Job Candidate Tracking Templatehttps://trello.com/b/fDsPBXFt/board-of-templateshttps://trello.com/b/mtaL9qXh/template-job-candidate-tracking

Trello In The Office 32

Perhaps you find yourself on the other side of the equation, looking for the perfect employee to fit aparticular role. Or, perhaps you are HR staff or hiring manager always on the lookout for great talent foryour organization. Getting the right employees can be extremely difficult to say the least.PayPal uses Trello to track their employee hiring process. As Bill Scott, their UI Engineering director explains:

What I really like about using Trello is you can visually see the pipeline. You can assign people onthe team to candidates, subscribe to candidates, or send notifications to each other about an actionthat needs to be taken with the talented people we find. It is really simple to move candidatesthrough the pipeline and keep your information centered around the candidate Source

By focusing on the candidate, and flowing their card through a board where you can log your various inter-actions and even attach resumes and other supporting documents, Trello offers a really simple, inexpensiveonline hiring process that rivals pay solutions.This is another case where a little automation using the boards email address and IFTTT or Zapier can take aboard to the next level. For example, you may have your IT staff forward [email protected] to theboards email address. When people submit their resumes via email, theyll go straight to Trello cards withthe resume attached! IFTTT or Zapier can be used to scrape RSS feeds for potential candidates, or even takein candidates from text message. Using Zapier, it would also be possible to automatically create cards in thenext example - a New Employee Onboarding board.

Hello Trello: New Employee

tre llo dojo

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