Usually my posts are a burst of sections, but we’re mixing it up this week and I’m driving with one big thought.
I chatted with the Trello Product Team last week and gained some perspective on what’s happening and how we can all best adjust to this “new Trello”.
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I just posted this video on my channel, so if you’re more of a watcher, you can click that and skip the rest of the email.
For my readers, or those stuck scrolling on their phone and can’t watch a video but are dying to know….keep reading.
Trello’s New Direction: Should You Be Worried?
I’ve been getting the same question over and over lately—“Is Trello changing too much?” With new features like Inbox, Planner, and a redesigned card back, it feels like Trello’s in the middle of a big shift. And honestly… it is.
Inbox? I love it. It’s perfect for quickly capturing ideas without worrying where they go yet. Planner? Not really clicking for me—I still rely on due dates and calendar views and using Akiflow. The new card back looks great, but yes, those extra clicks to access automations and Power-Ups can be a pain.
After chatting with the Trello team, the vision is clear:
Trello is leaning hard into being an AI-powered personal to-do list, not a project management tool.
Think about little to dos here and there, like sticky notes you’d leave for yourself but maybe not share with a team. Imagine AI agents in your Trello board or AI helping you figure out exactly what to work on.
The trade-off? Some of the features that make Trello powerful for teams might feel a little harder to reach.
So… should you worry?
Nope. Trello has confirmed there’s no plans to formally deprecate any features for collaboration and teamwork. It’s still the flexible, reliable tool we know. But if you rely on heavy-duty project management workflows, it’s smart to at least be familiar with Jira and see if maybe that’s a better fit for your use case—it’s where Atlassian hopes more advanced users will land, instead of getting frustrated when Trello doesn’t have certain things like granular permissions or robust reporting.
What should you do?
Keep using Trello for what it’s best at—quick capture, flexible organization, personal and team projects that you’re already finding success with.
Try the new Inbox. It’s a game-changer for getting ideas out of your head fast.
When starting a new project, think about if Trello is still the right fit for each project. Sometimes Jira (or another tool) might serve a specific use case better. (I have a whole video all about how to choose between Trello and Jira.)
Stay adaptable. Features may shift, but Trello’s core flexibility is still unmatched.
I’m not going anywhere—and I don’t think you should either. Trello is still one of the best tools for capturing, planning, and organizing life and work in one place, and as with any other tool that I use, I’ll be evolving with the tool as it fits my needs!
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Thanks for reading!! I’ll see ya next week 👋
Trello always fit in this perfect place between to-do list and full-blown project management. It was unique in that way. As they move to a "personal to-do list" all they're doing is moving into a space dominated by a million other products. I already have a personal to-do list. Changing Trello to that is not going to win me over. It's going to push me out, since I used Trello for what I can't do with a to-do list. I need basic, lightweight project management -- personally, and at work -- which is why I use Trello. Jira or other PM tools are overkill for my needs. Trello hit that sweet spot. But it's losing its footing with these changes. The Inbox feature is cool (about the only thing they changed that was good). The Planner feature is meh (I'm sure some people will get benefit out of it, but I didn't even use the built-in calendar functions and my personal calendars won't link to it anyway). The new card backs force insane cognitive overload (FOUR different places to look for what used to be one column of buttons) -- frankly, the worst UI/UX change I think I've ever seen in a product. The new floating bar at the bottom is not only annoying and kinda unclear, but also obscures the board scroll bar. All I see on every corner of the Internet is people complaining about the direction Trello is going in and how they all hate it, yet Atlassian is saying "most of our customers love this" -- why don't I see ANY positive posts from customers, then??? IDK, we'll see how it goes. But if Trello moves into a crippled product that my basic to-do list can already suffice for, I'll stop using it personally. And if it kills the things that allow us to do basic project management at work (we need basic task tracking, not full-fledged gantt charts and planning, etc), then we'll have to look for a different product -- and it won't be Jira.
I'm late to the party, thanks for this uodare If Trello are leaning towards personal to-do the recurring task feature needs work. The card repeater doesn't cut it. Thats the only reason I run another tool alongsude trello. Btw. My client is loving the planner feature.